#android 17 action figure

[acelynonix]

Oppa gam gam style

[comicchannel]

Funko Pop Bitty Dragon Ball Z The Cell Saga 4-Pack - Bitty Pop

Link para compra BR: *Possível importar pelo Link abaixo

Buy here: https://amzn.to/3EDitQs

[longwuzhere]

My Adventures with Superman Season 2 Easter Eggs

Welcome to another week of My Adventures with Superman! My hunch about the what happened last week was true and things are not going too well for the gang...

My Easter eggs lists for season 1 is here if you haven't seen it!

My season 2 episode 1 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 2 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 3 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My season 2 episode 4 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 6 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 7 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My season 2 episode 8 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 9 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 10 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

Spoilers if you haven't seen the episode

To start things off we meet Kara on Earth! I talked more about her here. Shes's dressed similarly to Android 18 when she, 17, and 16 drive to Goku's house in episode 147 of Dragon Ball Z. While watching the episode I was wondering why does Kara's hair look so familiar? Then it hit me. Kara's got Sakuya Kumashiro's hair from Tenchi in Tokyo!

Shout out to recent DC characters enjoy ice cream for the first time like Wonder Woman in the live action movie and Justice League animated movie, and the new DC Super Hero Girls cartoon. As a mint chocolate chip ice cream fan, good first choice of ice cream to enjoy!

Perry puts Clark and Lois on a new beat for the Metropolis "Most Eligible Single" contest because Superman was chosen to be one of the five up for that title. Cat Grant self-invites herself to join the duo to figure out who Superman is through his love life. Lois is sweating bullets at this point. At the contest we meet the potential people for winning the title, Hank Henshaw, Chandi Gupta, Byrna Brilyant, and Silver St. Cloud. I talked more about Hank Henshaw here. We see a darker more bigoted side to him this time around. Will we see him get his cyborg body and become Cyborg Superman in this season or season 3? Who knows. Season 3 is confirmed though.

Dr. Byrna Brilyant is a very deep DC universe cut dating back to 1946, the golden age of comics. Back then Byrna Brilyant was an enemy to Wonder Woman going by the moniker, Blue Snowman.

Byrna in the 1940s makes her first appearance in Sensation Comics #59 (1946) [W: Joye Hummel, P&I: H.G. Peter], where she was a teacher who's father created this compound called blue ice, after his death, she uses it as a way to extort this town after freezing it over for monetary gain.

Byrna makes another appearance in 2010 in Power Girl #7 (2010) [W Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, P&I: Amanda Conner, C: Paul Mounts, L: John J. Hill] where Dr. Mid-Nite and Power Girl are trying to stop Byrna from committing a robbery but the main bad guy, Vartox shoots a seduction musk rifle at Power Girl but the smell knocks out Dr. Mid-Nite and it works on Byrna, but not Power Girl. This all makes more sense if you read the comic.

Byrna's next appearance post-New 52 was in Superman/Wonder Woman #4 (2014) [W: Charles Soule, P: Paulo Siqueira, I&C: Hi-Fi, L: Carlos M. Mangual] where we see Wonder Woman and Hessia battling the Blue Snowman robots.

Byrna's latest appearance post-DC Rebirth is in DC: Love is a Battlefield #1 (2021) [W: Crystal Fraiser, P&I: Juan Gedeon, C:Ulises Arreola, L: Marshal Dillion, where Byrna is now gender fluid after interrupting a date between Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. Good on Wonder Woman for letting them go and hoping the realization there is a word for what Byrna was feeling would make them feel much better. So going forward if we meet Byrna again, I'll be referring to them with they/them pronouns, but if its New 52 continuity and before, Byrna will be referred to with she/her pronouns with the continuities to help clarify the pronoun usages.

Chadi Gupta is also another deep cut from the DC universe because she's reference to her comic counterpart from Justice League Europe.

Chandi makes her first appearance in Justice League Europe #47 (1993) [W: Gerard Joes, P: Ron Randall, I: Randy Elliot, C: Gene D'Angelo, L: Willie Schubert] where she's escaping her family and comes across the the JLE and wants to join them. Her energy projection and construct creation powers came in handy for the JLE in issue 50 where she and the rest of the JLE were able to fend off Sonar's attack and that earned her a spot on Justice League Europe as the superhero Maya.

Silver St. Cloud is probably one of the more prominent characters from the DC universe who showed up in MAwS. She got into the pop culture zeitgeist through the Gotham tv show when it aired.

Silver St. Cloud makes her first appearance in Detective Comics #470 (1977) [W: Steven Engleheart, P: Walter Simonson, I: Al Milgrom, C: Jerry Serpe, L: Ben Oda] where she meets Bruce Wayne at a party on his yacht. She eventually becomes one of Bruce Wayne's more prominent love interests and one of the few who were suspecting Bruce to be Batman thanks to his constant disappearing.

She shows up in post-new 52 in the maybe possibly out of cotinuity anthology, Legends of the Dark Knight (2014) digital comics, specifically as a cameo in issue #50, Dr. Quinn's Diagnosis [W: Jim Zub, P&I: Niel Googe, C: Kathryn Layno, L: Saida Temofonte], where Batman is getting psychoanalyzed by Harley Quinn.

If you want to read a comic with a fun appearance of Silver St. Cloud give Batman/Elmer Fudd Special #1 (2017) [W: Tom King, P&I: Lee Weeks, C: Lovern Kindzierski, L: Deron Bennet] a read cuz goddamn is it noir AF and beautifully drawn (a while back DC superheroes crossed over with Looney Tunes characters and its very good. They have also done it with Hanna Barbera characters as well. Give those a read too! They're all fun!)!

The charity that MAwS Silver mentions was first mentioned in Superman #152 (1967) [W: Bill Finger, P&I: Al Plastino] where Superman is accepting a clock medallion for a charity event. In the comics Silver St. Cloud isn't usually working for charities, shes mostly a Gotham socialite.

At the event, the MC (who gives off Funky Flashman vibes imo), asked if anyone has questions and the first to jump on that was George Taylor of the Metropolis Star. I talked about the Metropolis Star here, but for George Taylor...

he actually makes his first appearance here in Action Comics #1 (1938) [W: Jerry Seigel, P&I: Joe Shuster, C: Strauss Engraving Company] where he is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Star.

In the silver age, George Taylor makes his first appearance in Superman #366 (1981) [W: Bob Eozakis, P: Kurt Schaffenberger, I: Frank Chiaramonte, C: Adrienne Roy, L: John Costanza] where he assigns Perry White on the Superboy scoop to see if he's active in Metropolis. In post-Crisis on Infinite continuity, George makes a cameo appearance in Adventures of Superman #451 (1989) [W,P,&I: Jerry Ordway, C: Glenn Whitmoore, L: Albert DeGuzman] where we see George's office door.

In the New 52 continuity, George Taylor makes his first appearance in Action Comics #8 (2012) [W: Grant Morrison, P: Rags Morales, I: Rick Bryant, C: Brad Anderson, L: Pat Brosseau] as editor-in-chief for the Daily Star where in the comic he's proud of Clark and encourages him to take the job at the Daily Planet.

Kara and Jimmy make it into the studio where Lois, Superman, and Cat Grant are and Kara confronts Superman showing off that she's the one in the armor. She is on a two-way radio communications with someone named Primus. Whether that is Brainiac's designation when Kara is on the field or its a different character all together, there is a Primus in the DC universe, not just in the Transformers universe. Btw this isn't Kara's first time siding with an evil faction, she was part of Darkseid's Female Furies in the 2004 Superman/Batman series, specifically in issue #11. You might have also seen it happen in the Superman/Batman: Apocalypse animated movie too.

Primus aka Pren makes his first appearance in Green Lantern #141 (1981) [W: Marv Wolfman, P&I: Joe Stanton, C: Carl Gafford, L: John Costanza] where he is the leader of the alien group, the Omega Men from the Vega star system. They jump Hal when he and Carol Ferris were on vacation thinking Hal is part of the Citadel, an extraterrestrial empire that is conquering the star system the Omega Men are in.

Primus/Pren NuParr makes his New 52 first appearance in Deathstroke #9 (2012), but gets a more prominent role in the Omega Man limited series from 2015 [panel from The Omega Men #1 (2015) W: Tom King, P&I: Barnaby Bagenda, C: Romulo Farjardo Jr., L: Pat Brosseau]. In this continuity, the Citadel is now a corporation that was exploiting Krypton's destruction by by selling stabilized planet cores to other worlds. This comes at a cost where the Vega star system is enslaved by them and those who resisted we killed and the survivors formed the Omega Men.

And with that another episodes Easter eggs and references are done! Come back next week to see what episode 6's Easter eggs and references are! In case you missed it:

My Easter eggs lists for season 1 is here if you haven't seen it!

My season 2 episode 1 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 2 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 3 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My season 2 episode 4 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 6 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 7 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My season 2 episode 8 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 9 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 10 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

[ratlesshonret]

Some OC Introductions

So, I've started writing the sequel story to my currently ongoing Pathfinder campaign. The one where all the OCs I've talked about before are from.

Its a bit premature, I know, given how the campaign is still rather far from ending. But I think this story is something I need to write now before it fades.

So, let me introduce you all to the "first draft" of the main cast.

Tia

Character Song: Through Patches of Violet Likes: Snow, Ghosts, Flowers, Windy Days Dislikes: Romance Novels, Rain, Puns, Jewelry Ancestry: Strix (Songbird) Class: Summoner Age: 19

Hailing from a village deep in the woods, Tia is plagued by a spirit of the winds. Despite being able to summon this spirit, she cannot communicate with it, nor can she make out its appearance. Despite this, others can see it just fine.

Deep in the snow, her secret lies. The grave of the lover she killed. The events of that day haunt her, even now.

The Collector

Character Song: ??? Likes: Dark Places, Music, Smell of Metal, Bread Dislikes: Bright Lights, The Government, Violence Ancestry: Fleshwarp (Technological) Class: Oracle (Ancestors) Age: 25

This unnamed skeletal figure in a dandy top hat and suit used to collect taxes for the government. In their time, they've killed or imprisoned many tax evaders and financial criminals. Their guilt over these actions cannot be understated.

Having escaped the government, they're being hunted even now. Just what will become of our dapper boney lad?

Aria

Character Song: With a Billion Worldful of <3 Likes: Meat, Romance, Hot Showers, Sex Dislikes: Meditation, Cold Water, Hunger, Vegans Ancestry: Catfolk (Winter) Class: Cleric Age: 27

Raised in a religious monastery, Aria gradually developed a romantic interest in her childhood friend, who became a monk at said monastery. In her pursuit of this worldly desire, she still attempts to adhere to the teachings of the temple.

But, being around her long enough gives one the sense that... maybe nothing she says is true?

???

Character Song: Mortal With You Likes: Math, Science, Chemistry, Magic, Textbooks, Drawing Dislikes: Ignorant People, Witches, Fire, Bullying Ancestry: Human...? [Android (Impersonator)] Class: Oracle (Ashes) Age: ???

Nobody knows her name. A mute girl, accused of evil witchcraft wherever she goes. Her knowledge of mathematics, chemistry, and the underlying magic systems of the world is supreme. Communicates primarily through sign language and inhumanly fast drawings.

She once narrowly avoided death in a sub-aquatic facility, due to her immunity to the rotting disease of the mermaids. This experience brought her even more knowledge as to the true nature of the Second Reality.

Julianne

Character Song: ??? Likes: Sleeping, Alcohol, Smoking, Quiet Places, Anime, Dubs Dislikes: Annoying People, Working, Sex, Drama, Subs Ancestry: Elf (Whisper) Class: Rogue Age: 30

A washed up assassin-for-hire, Julianne has a rather casual and laid-back outlook on life. She enjoys getting drunk and sleeping in a random ditch more than actually working or doing anything productive.

She has shady connections in her past, including potentially the devil itself.

Amanda

Character Song: ??? Likes: Blood, Violence, Pretty Women, Cooking, Baking Dislikes: Unrequited Feelings, Spicy Food, Being Alone Ancestry: Human Class: Fighter, Duelist Age: 17

Watch out! She has a knife, and isn't afraid to use it. Your typical yandere type, Amanda isn't opposed to getting violent with those she has an interest in. And like the typical yandere, she's really just scared of being alone.

How the fuck am I gonna do something interesting with this character type? I'll figure it out, I think.

Ji-Hyun

Character Song: ??? Likes: Strategy, Cooperation, Training, Long Books, Sewing Dislikes: Over-Exertion, Loud People, Board Games, Wasting Time Ancestry: Human Class: Swashbuckler, Marshal Age: 59

A master of strategy and fighting styles, this old woman isn't quite past her prime yet. Despite losing most of her power in a fateful battle, her sheer tactical knowledge and battle experience make her a fearsome opponent, even with her now low strength.

Smug and haughty, she knows she's hot shit. Don't mess with an old woman who knows how to use a katana.

Shiruku

Character Song: Bulbel Likes: Art, Children, Meditation, Candles, Fashion Dislikes: Rituals, Corpses, Eyes, Music, Knives Ancestry: Human Class: Magus (Unfurling Brocade) Age: 35

An artist supreme, Shiruku battle with the long sleeves of her beautiful silken dress, magic woven into every thread. The runes carved into her flesh have sealed away her true power, as she wished to go on a journey to discover true art.

Haunted by the perfect painting she once created, Shiruku has tried everything in her power to replicate that perfection, including mastering every possible artistic medium.

Willow

Character Song: ??? Likes: Hitting People, Swearing, Sweet Food, Games Dislikes: Gore, Rudeness, Loud Places, Being Told What to Do Ancestry: Halfling Class: Barbarian (Bloodrager) Age: 10

This young child has grown up in miserable slums, and has learned how to survive as a result. This rude little missy isn't afraid to bash your head in if you annoy her, and to use swears unbecoming of her age if you upset her.

Easily overstimulated, its best to be slow and careful with her. Maybe then, you can draw her out of her hardened shell.

[all-cf-me]

@armageddonfm [ john boyega, male, he/him ] Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you'll see that T-081 "TOBY" is a SCAVENGER who works in SECTOR 1. According to the file, he's an ANDROID with ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. That must be why he's SCATTERED and UNPREDICTABLE. If you ask me, he reminds me of a radio flickering in and out of signal, the abrupt scratch and skip of a record, and the frantic whir of a lens working to keep in-focus. He is affiliated with NO ONE.

AT A GLANCE...

name: T-081

nickname: Toby

manufacture date: March 17 2060

sexuality: asexual

moral alignment: true neutral

mutation status: n/a

occupation: scavenger

place of work: sector one

languages: omnilingual

positive traits: helpful, excitable, friendly, capable, attentive, intelligent

negative traits: scattered, unreliable, unpredictable, dangerous, blunt

AN INTERVIEW...

how do they feel about living in sol city? have they always lived there or did they travel from another settlement?

he's thankful to live in a settlement where opportunities exist for humans and mutants alike, but the densely populated areas make him nervous and he tends to avoid them. he was manufactured in sector 7 before the meteor hit and has only ever ventured into the wastes

do they trust the council's leadership? why or why not?

he has his ideas about government, how successful settlements have historically been run, and which personalities are most suited for leadership. whether all of this amounts to a positive or negative opinion of the council… who can say?  he gives council people and other authority figures a wide berth, concerned that they'll have him collected and decommissioned

if they chose their sector and profession, why did they make that choice? if they didn't, why not? were they happy with their assignment or not?

he chose the scavenging profession so that he can search for his own parts and can retreat out into the open when things get sketchy. he likes it, though long stretches of isolation go against his programming

what's one object that they always keep on their person?

a multi-tool provided by his manufacturer for routine maintenance of any t-series unit. maintenance is possible without this tool but incredibly difficult 

what is your character's ability (or abilities)?

he's an android equipped with artificial intelligence, created to be a personal assistant for any variety of lifestyles 

are they gen i or gen ii?

he was manufactured before the meteor strike

what can your character do? what are their strengths?

Toby is the eighty-first of a series of multi-functional AI assistants, programmed with everything from emotional and academic support to personal and home defense ability to perform a wide variety of household tasks, academic tutoring and mathematical calculation, medical knowledge and treatment, can communicate in most languages, limited personal and home defense capabilities (including hand-to-hand and firearm combat)

what can't they do? what are their weaknesses?

delicate synapses that lead to different branches of his programming were fried in the meteor strike and switch out at random (also in particularly bad weather, after a physical impact, etc). there's no telling how long he'll be stuck in these modes or what he'll do in their duration. ex. attack or defense mode, stuck communicating in certain languages, overwhelming and autonomous urge to dust or solve mathematical equations he maintains his personality through these glitches, but his actions are completely automated until normalcy is restored one way or another

ABOUT TOBY...

T-081, his serial number, refers to Test Unit 81. the private company responsible for his creation was determined to create the world's first all-inclusive AI personal assistant, perfectly suited for any lifestyle. Toby was one of the final test units the company created, but the project was still unready for public use when the meteor hit. of course, after impact and the resulting chaos, the company switched gears immediately to disaster relief, and the few units that survived impact scattered and were forgotten. he considers himself on the run because he's certain he'll be decommissioned for his unpredictable behavior and glitches. he's made some headway in fixing his old parts and obtaining new ones from out in the wastes, but he's very "anxious" that he'll shut down before finding his purpose (spoiler alert: he doesn't have one. but that doesn't stop him from trying, does it?)

[rose-ramblings]

3, 5, 13, 14, 15, 20, 24 for the Dragon Ball ask game! ^^

3: List your top 5 favorite characters in order of how much you like them. - #1: Zamasu. Every form of him. That man has completely taken over my brain with his perfect divinity. I also relate to him on a personal level. I know what it's like to have terrible teachers, so seeing how he reacted to being in a similar situation... It felt like I finally met someone who Understands™ that kind of pain and how frustrating it can be. ...Even if it's a fictional god who would canonically murder me on sight 💛 He comforts me in a way that nobody else has been able to.

- #2: Vegito. Easily my favorite out of the fusions (not including Merged Zamasu cuz he's technically already on the list). He's confident, sassy, and kicks ass across the galaxy and back. He can beat whoever he encounters and he knows it.

- #3: Shin/Nahare. He's always been very likeable to me. I enjoy every moment he's on-screen. I want to hug him. If Zamasu didn't exist, he'd be my favorite kai/glind.

- #4: Goku, Vegeta, Raditz, and Turles. These four idiots share a spot because they're the main four saiyans I think about when I'm not thinking about the above. ...Raditz deserved a second chance, man.

- #5: Android 17. He's a mix of a lot of fun personality traits and I think we'd be good friends if I met him. His Android/Cell Saga outfit is my fave outfit for him (largely because of his orange bandanna, I'm a sucker for that accessory), but I understand if he doesn't want to wear it anymore. His actions against Dr. Gero were completely justified and he would absolutely do it again.

5: Who is your favorite villain? - I think we all know who my favorite villain is.

13: Have you played any of the games? - *looks at my pile of Xenoverse OCs* Have I??? /silly - I've played Xenoverse, Xenoverse 2, FighterZ, DBZ Kakarot, SDBH World Mission, DB Fusions for the 3DS, Project: Multi, DBSCG Fusion World (and the betas for it), Dragon Ball Legends, Dokkan Battle, and.... Breakers.... All on PC except for Fusions, obviously. I eventually want to get my hands on Sparking Zero too. - Out of the games that actively update, I mainly play DBL and Fusion World. I plan on adding Project: Multi to that list when it's finally complete and playable again. - I miss my smug immortal husband, Tails. I miss him a lot. He'll be back. ...Eventually.

14: Do you own any merch? - ...Do the cards count? /silly - Technically yes with some DBSCG Masters cards and sleeves for them, but not much outside of that. I do want to start a figure collection, though. From what I've seen so far, DB has some of the best figures I've seen from any anime. I need Zamasu on my desk immediately. Also, look at these card sleeves, they're fucking amazing~

- The color is so vibrant that photos don't do them justice. I'm waiting until I have an actual Future Saga deck to use them. My holy kings 💚🖤💗

15: Do you have any favorite ships (canon, fanon, ect)? - Fave canon ships: Bardock/Gine, Goku/Chi-Chi, Vegeta/Bulma, Gohan/Videl, and Krillin/Android 18. - Fave fanon ships: Goku/Vegeta, Bulma/Chi-Chi, Raditz/Turles, Bardock/Tora/Gine, and most things involving Zamasu. My own silly Goku/Zamasu shenanigans have slowly become their own little fixation in my brain lately. Been starving on all the Barely Anything they have for content. Don't be surprised if I end up conceiving a fan kid for them. Which... technically already happened in my fic drafts, LMAO- - On a semi-related note, I think Raditz and 17 would be friends if they had the opportunity to meet. They're roommates in the GSU.

20: If you could hang out with one character, who would it be? - Assuming he doesn't immediately murder me, Zamasu. - Assuming Zamasu does want to murder me, Goku.

24: If you could write your own episode, what would it be about? - What Raditz has been up to after he was sent to Hell. We literally never see or hear of him again (outside the occasional reference, fan content, and what-if, of course) after King Yemma was like "Oh yeah, I sent him straight to Hell. He put up one hell of a fight, lmao." What is Raditz doing? What's he thinking about? I know he got turned into one of those little spirit blobs, what's that like? How does it feel? Does he want revenge on Kakarot and Piccolo for killing him or did he accept that he's just inferior to his little brother? Is he sad or frustrated that he was never revived? I wanna know, damn it!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

#15yrsago Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance, a look at the bumbling, murdering, drunken idiots (and others) who’ve served as vice-president of the USA https://memex.craphound.com/2009/01/18/veeps-profiles-in-insignificance-a-look-at-the-bumbling-murdering-drunken-idiots-and-others-whove-served-as-vice-president-of-the-usa/

#10yrsago Tim Wu on FCC’s net neutrality disaster https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/01/14/a-fema-level-fail-the-law-professor-who-coined-net-neutrality-lashes-out-at-the-fccs-legal-strategy/

#10yrsago Random NSA program generator, with denials https://divergentdave.github.io/nsa-o-matic/

#10yrsago Parfaitzilla: the dessert that ate Japan https://mochihead.tumblr.com/post/31243751745

#10yrsago Scoring Obama’s NSA reforms (spoiler: it’s not good) https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/01/rating-obamas-nsa-reform-plan-eff-scorecard-explained

#15yrsago Mr Chicken: the genius who paints London’s fried-chicken signs https://web.archive.org/web/20101208073826/https://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/march/meet-mr-chicken

#10yrsago Congress requires publicly funded research to be publicly available https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/01/newly-passed-appropriations-bill-makes-even-more-publicly-funded-research-available-online

#10yrsago Android malware uses accelerometer readings to figure out if it was running on a real phone or in emulation https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/01/google-play-malware-used-phones-motion-sensors-to-conceal-itself/

#5yrsago An archive of Freedom, Paul Robeson and Louis Burnham’s radical Harlem newspaper https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223255/http://dlib.nyu.edu/freedom/

#5yrsago Unsealed court documents reveal that Facebook knew kids were being tricked into spending thousands of dollars on their parents’ credit cards https://revealnews.org/blog/a-judge-unsealed-a-trove-of-internal-facebook-documents-following-our-legal-action/

#5yrsago Why charter schools are the flashpoint for the LA teachers’ strike https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/01/rising-tide-teacher-strikes-finally-exposing-corrupt-charter-school-agenda.html

#5yrsago Now EVERYBODY hates the new EU Copyright Directive https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/01/now-everybody-hates-new-eu-copyright-directive

#1yrago Care Inflation: The inflation no one wants to talk about https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/18/wages-for-housework/#low-wage-workers-vs-poor-consumers

#1yrago Eleanor Janega's "Once and Future Sex": The true, weird, horny history of medieval gender and sex https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/17/ren-faire/#going-medieval

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

[satoshi-mochida]

SaGa Emerald Beyond launches April 25, 2024

Gematsu Source

SaGa Emerald Beyond will launch for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, PC via Steam, iOS, and Android on April 25, 2024, Square Enix announced.

In Japan, SaGa Emerald Beyond will be available both physically and digitally for 7,480 yen. A Square Enix e-STORE-exclusive Collector’s Edition will also be available for 25,000 yen, which includes an art book, three-disc soundtrack CD set, two metal monster figures, and a bag. Pre-orders are available now.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

The latest standalone entry in the SaGa franchise, SaGa Emerald Beyond brings together the very best elements of the beloved series to offer each player their own unique gameplay experience. Make use of glimmers and combos in battle; meet a diverse cast of races, including monsters, mechs, and vampires; and experience your very own story, created through your choices and actions.

Distant Worlds Woven Together

Travel to 17 unique worlds from the Junction, either led by the hand of destiny or by a path forged by your own choices. Discover the completely different cultures and landscapes, ranging from a densely developed forest of skyscrapers and a green and luscious habitat covered in plant life to a world governed by five witches, or one ruled by vampires—just to name a few of the distinct settings.

An Eclectic Cast of Protagonists

Six leading characters, all from diverse backgrounds and with vastly different goals, set out on their journey in five unique story arcs. They venture to the myriad of worlds for their very own personal reasons: One, a human on a mission to protect the barrier defending his city; another, a witch trying to regain her lost magic while maintaining her disguise as a schoolgirl; and yet another, a vampire lord out to regain his crown and reclaim the throne as the rightful king of his world. Even selecting the same protagonist for a second—or third or fourth—playthrough will lead to completely new events and stories, a completely fresh path and experience.

A Story of Your Very Own Making

SaGa Emerald Beyond has the greatest number of branching plots of any game in the SaGa series. The story branches abundantly depending on your choices and actions. Every time you visit a world, the story will evolve, allowing the protagonist and player alike to discover new possibilities. As the story unfolds in this way it becomes a tale all of your own, not only affecting the path you walk but also the multiple potential endings that await each protagonist.

Battles where a Single Choice Can Change Everything

SaGa Emerald Beyond further refines the highly strategic Timeline Battles the SaGa franchise has been long renowned for. With series mainstays such as the skill to spontaneously acquire abilities through the Glimmer system, tactical ally placement known as Formations, and United Attacks that enable individual skills to connect together to form devastating chain attacks, it offers the best iteration of SaGa‘s turn-based combat to date. The new combat system adds more drama than ever before, allowing you to support party members, interrupt enemy actions, and use United Attacks by strategically manipulating the order of ally actions. The characters that join you, the weapons you wield, your party formation, and your tactics in battle—everything is up to you!

Read more about the game here.

Watch a new set of trailers below.

Character Trailer: Tsunanori Mido

Character Trailer: Ameya Aisling

[marezablr]

@happy10thousandyears

i'm so glad!! that really makes me happy. (also ijbol. you and vegeta).

one thing that i want to note is that a lot of this is intuitive, but it becomes deliberate later? eg below:

i knew, consciously, that there's a city vs nature home turf division between 17 and gohan. i constructed chapter 4 deliberately around this division. that was a structural choice. but i wasn't consciously thinking about how gohan was experiencing those spaces.

however, before i start turning anything into prose, i have outlines that look like this:

ch 3:

ch 4:

obviously, things about these scenes change. but they contain the same thing: 17 has gohan's left hand (the arm gohan will later lose to the androids), and gohan tries to endure it.

i'm never big on environmental details at my early outlining stages, but in the ch 3 outline, you can see that there's the simple fact of 17 making physical contact. then gohan focuses his mind on intellectual things: how city buses work, what people are thinking. he tries to turn his attention outward to the bus in terms of appearance but he can't really sit with it. he's in his own head. his sensory experience is all narrowed in on the point of contact/threat, and he tries to minimize the horror/get very blunt and matter-of-fact about it, with the true horror he's feeling slipping out in other descriptions (how he has to consciously resist breaking the metal bar, the "eyes are unwanted fingers up the back of his neck" metaphor).

in the ch3 outline, 17 touches him, and gohan successfully redirects to the sensory experiences of the world around him: the warmth of the sun, the coolness of the wind, the song of the animals. gohan doesn't have to retreat into his interior thoughts, and he's able to escape his hypervigilance about the physical contact. he can redirect to nature.

i noticed that after completing this kind of outline for the entire story. that meant i could go back into my outline and try to draw out and emphasize the feeling with word choices, change in attention, etc.

a similar thing happened with gohan's ghosts. i used them when it felt right to call them up, but as i got later in the outlining process—especially the time with vegeta at the night club—i started recognizing the pattern behind when he used different ones, and i did revisions to the lines to try to really draw that out.

so intuitive understanding of a character and world gets refined into deliberate choices thanks to the revision process.

bonus tangent: writing exercise

this approach been really helping me out with my current writing exercise, where i am practicing turning physical body language into prose by writing out the script of a scene in terms of the simple actions and then trying to figure out how to make that prose.

spoilers for the brothers sun episode 8, and cw parental abuse of an adult child:

i took two scenes for the exercise, but one was the moment of the most complex facial expression acting in the series: the moment when charles tells his father that he couldn't follow his order and that he wants out of the criminal life. this moment was chosen because the facial expressions were extremely important and nuanced and spoke to a complex interior experience that would be a challenge to express through description of physical cues, especially if it's written in a close 3rd person for the character in question.

one of the reasons this is so difficult to turn into prose is that charles repeatedly lowers his eyes throughout the scene, and just saying that over and over would be wildly tedious. what was interesting, though, was that the way charles lowers and raises his eyes works differently at different points.

there are two moments that contrast really well: first, there's early on, when his dad is monologuing at him, where charles seems still very present in the scene:

and then there's later, when his dad gets angry at him and he gets very reactive:

because this was going from description of screen -> prose, i had to do a middle step of working out the interior monologue/the emotional event in the scene.

so the first becomes

and the second becomes

these prose versions are very unsubtle and ugly. but that's what drafting is for! writing out the interior monologue let me see that in the first one, charles is having to face the horrible truth that his father is not and never has been the person charles wants him to be. charles is very present and aware of what's happening. he is heartbroken, and he also knows (from years of abuse) that he can't call his dad out.

in the second, it's the horror of defeat. here, he realizes is he never, ever getting out of this life. his father is never going to let him go.

significantly, charles is the most skilled killer that we meet in this show. he could kill his father, plus everyone else in the room, and probably would walk out without a scratch. what is keeping him trapped is the psychological prison created by years of abuse.

so, how do you distinguish between these two moments in prose without just coming out and saying all that? keeping in mind that i'm still working on the edits here:

in the first section, charles is trying to make himself not react. he is experiencing the horror of understanding who his father is and is working through that in semi-conscious, fragmented thoughts, but he's also deliberately focusing his attention on something physically tangible so he can keep himself from reacting. it's a conscious effort at dissociation.

it does not make sense for charles to be consciously dissociating in the second section. he is not consciously doing anything at that point. his father was physically aggressive in two ways (slamming his fist on the table, getting to his feet to stand over charles) to put charles back in his place. so the only thing happening in charles's head is instinct driven into him by years of abuse.

that means i can't write charles dissociating by looking at the table. he isn't focused on anything external; he is focused on controlling his body so that he does everything he's supposed to (keep his head down and eyes lowered to show respect, stay still and quiet and don't show any hint of defiance or anger, but also don't cry, because his dad wouldn't like that either) to avoid making anything worse. it's pure survival instinct.

(please ignore that this prose is not as smooth as i want it to be, i'm still working on it.)

what i decided made sense was to ground this reaction in the physical experience of his body. the numb burning of shame on his face (also evoking the stinging sensation of being backhanded), the focus on controlling his eyes. and then the kind of drilled-in mantras about what one should/must do in order to show respect (avoid provoking more abuse). don't raise your head. don't move until you're dismissed. charles's triggered, instinctive, physical sense of defeat/submission then connects with the deeper defeat of realizing that he's never, ever getting out of this, that it was foolish to dream for even a second that he could leave. he will always be his father's weapon, sent out to make corpses for his father's goals. there will never be anything else.

this isn't what gohan would be doing here! gohan would be dissociating by thinking about frieza or something. gohan goes out of his body and into memory to try to contextualize and cope with his experiences.

charles is a different person, with different experiences. in the type of abuse he experienced, it can be dangerous to fully check out, because it means you're at risk of being too out of your own head to give your abuser the response they want, which can then trigger escalation or extension of the episode of abuse. so charles has a different instinctive reaction than gohan would.

i had to feel out the character first and understand how they worked before i could bring the right tools to the narration. then i was able to go back and do a bit more work here and in other parts of the scene to start better emphasizing the different ways charles is or isn't embodying his emotional experience.

(the final step is smoothing out the rhythm so all the writing flows properly. line edits! we are not there yet.)

so yeah! outlining and editing. they really help me a lot with these things. it lets you go back and refine the ideas that come out in the process, so that what is intuitive becomes structured and deliberate. i worked out my process for that in "good loser," and it's been helping me a lot in later work.

5 for the fic asks, good loser of course

5. What do you wish someone would ask you about [good loser]? Answer it now!

i just want someone to talk to me about that fic, and find out if they noticed some of the things i put into it? i put a lot of care into it, a lot of little details and choices. i did detailed outlining, so when i got reasonably far in, i was able to go back and revise my outline to try to make threads of continuity that built over the story. and i just want to talk about them, haha.

a sampling of just some of the concepts and subcurrents i put into this fic:

seventeen bending the rules

Four hours. It isn’t that long. Seventeen breaks Gohan’s watch during their basketball match, and Gohan keeps forgetting to get a new one.

“‘Four hours.’ You’re so full of shit,” Eighteen says.

17 was not ever truly sticking to the deal he made. gohan broke his watch. he frequently experienced dissociation, which means he couldn't keep a strong internal measure of time. worse, they frequently met indoors, so gohan was deprived of a major advantage (his skill in measuring time by the movement of the sun). 17 played with the time limit to test if gohan would notice and speak up about it.

18 knew, and she was furious about it. the whole situation was already triggering to her, and 18 (eng dub) likes people keeping their word. so 17 testing the boundaries there upset her.

he also at one point was like "i mean, you CAN still kill people. we can just hide that it's us. like a jack the ripper kind of thing." 17 never did (gohan was amusing enough for as long as the fight lasted) but he didn't have problems messing with the rules. to him, it was very funny that gohan was so devoted to keeping his part of the deal.

eighteen's problem with the deal

“I’ll sweeten the game. You like protecting these humans, right? I’ll promise not to kill anyone for a few days.” / Eighteen is suddenly right beside her partner. “What. You’re kidding.”

Eighteen’s lip curled. “You don’t even fight back.”

“You’re not even any fun like this. I don’t get what he’s thinking. And you’re so pathetic, you just let him do it.”

“You’re pathetic. This is happening because of you.”

“Stop! You're my brother. You’re not supposed to be like those men!”

i hope this one became clear by the end, but gohan was never able to have access to this information (by the time it came out, he was tipping into a dissociative rage), so i couldn't make it explicit.

i tried as best as i could to show that 18 was triggered because she had (in her forgotten prior life) dealt with threats of sexual abuse. that's why she didn't get truly mad until 17 offered not to kill humans (making it coercive). but because her brother is the only person she really has in the world, she turned around and decided to blame gohan for 'letting' it happen. all her anger and disgust towards gohan was displaced horror at 17 for becoming the kind of perpetrator who had, in memories she can't fully recall, hurt her.

bulma and consent

“Huh,” Bulma says. “So, can I look?” / He can’t resist a small grin. “Would anything stop you?”

Gohan is the oldest of only two part-human, part-Saiyan hybrids in the world. Data on his health and development, Bulma told him the first time she tried to get him to have a physical, could be a guide for Trunks’s future. If there are any risks or predispositions arising from their unique heritage, better to find it in Gohan so they’d have advanced warning for Trunks. / Well. He couldn’t say no when she put it like that.

She catches him for haircuts, sometimes. He’ll be by to help with one errand or another, and she’ll complain about the disaster of a hairstyle he’s created for himself. Then she’ll make him sit down and let her work.

“Please, Bulma,” Gohan says. “Don’t read it. Not until—unless Trunks is the only one left to fight. Let me have that.” / Her lips part for a question. Her brows shadow her eyes. If she asks, he can’t refuse, not with the weight he is asking her to take on for him. / Bulma withdraws her thumb. The folder closes. / “Okay,” she says. “Okay, Gohan. I promise.”

bulma functions as both mirror and contrast for 17. through gohan's interactions with bulma, we see how gohan has given up bodily autonomy in a lot of places in his life, not just through combat and agreeing to 17's game. he lets bulma give him physicals he doesn't really want and agrees to haircuts because she wants them. (you see a similar incident in when gohan doesn't want to be given fabric for free, but lets it happen because the shopkeeper insists, before slipping the money over anyway.)

this is a symptom of the way gohan has had a lot of his sense of ownership of his body and well-being eroded. it's not really his body. it's a body, and he's in it, and he uses it to serve others. that is what he has been taught since he was a child. this is how he can be "good." it is why refusing 17's deal is unacceptable to gohan. gohan doesn't believe he has a right to feel comfortable and safe in his body if, by sacrificing that comfort and safety, he can protect someone else.

so the interactions with bulma draw that parallel out. but the difference is that when the chips are down, bulma does take "no" for an answer. when gohan does advocate for himself—when he asserts the desire to not have what happened to him disclosed until he's ready for it—bulma listens.

imagery/motifs

there are a couple images/motifs that repeat in the story

muscle/sinew/blood/bone

gohan's internal narration evokes these at several points, most significantly in the opening passage about being good at losing. The quartet of words reduces gohan's body to an assemblage of parts. instead of his body being him, his body is an abstract tool that he uses to serve others. he often evokes those three images when he is trying to remind himself that it's just a body, so it's fine if he sacrifices it for others. the most particular use of it is the end of chapter four:

Later, staring up at a cracked mirrorball that no longer spins, Gohan tries to imagine what it would feel like to have your body and mind taken apart and remade to someone else’s design. To be normal one day, and something else the next, and to never be able to go back. He feels only the sinew and muscle stretched across his own bones, the blood running through them to the rhythm of his still-beating heart. All this body’s familiar aches.

here, gohan gets close to but fails to recognize that what happened to 17 also happened to him. his body and mind were taken apart and remade. he was normal one day, and something else the next, and he could never go back. the quartet of words, which have already been used to evoke how gohan uses his body as a tool, are meant to answer the question without gohan knowing he's answering it.

super saiyan/ki words vs android/energy words

toriyama handed me this one on a platter.

super saiyan is consistently evoked with fire, which is both a danger and protection against the cold. using fire for super saiyan is supposed to set up the 'lightning' imagery of gohan getting close to but never quite hitting ssj2. it also combines with evoking the oozaru/great ape, which gohan does at several points for himself and trunks. the great ape is specifically an evocation of saiyan culture, which gohan is disconnected from and cannot pass down to trunks. these both tie into the description of ki as being like a flame—they're all images around vibrancy and life.

the androids have blue eyes and no detectable ki. gohan refers to himself as using ki blasts, but he talks about the androids as using energy blasts. their eyes are always cold, and their bodies are always evoking an absence of heat. it is what makes the actual heat of their bodies so jarring to gohan: it's heat where his spiritual senses tell him there shouldn't be. it also lets their coldness juxtapose the flame that gohan was given by the people he loved (the anger from their deaths) that he then gives to trunks.

it stands as a final contrast to bulma's eyes, which are also blue, but they're a depth (the ocean) instead of a cold, cruel absence.

there are some other motifs that show up, but those are the big ticket ones!

gohan's use of language

harsh vs ornate language

Gohan clenches his fists until he feels blood. /vs/ Gohan stands in shattered concrete, still wreathed in the rage that Vegeta once believed would be the salvation of his people.

Faster than Gohan can react, Seventeen is in Gohan’s face and has his arm in hand. In a flare of gold, Gohan yanks out of Seventeen’s grip and away from him. /vs/ Super Saiyan catches on the rising wave of his ki and sears right through him, the beacon-bright apotheosis of a dead race.

gohan has read a lot of fancy books in his life, but most of the prose doesn't show that. in a lot of the scenes, especially the ones with the androids, gohan uses a lot of really direct, blunt language in his narration. but then these little flourishes of formality and poetry slip out.

i was interested in how gohan uses "ore" in future timeline but not in main timeline. i thought it would be interesting to understand it as gohan emulating the mannerisms of his dead heroes (most of the z-warriors are "ore" users) to try to keep them alive by embodying them. he's also just worn down, so even his internal narration is pretty worn down and to-the-point. but he still has this appreciation for life and beauty, and it comes out of him, especially for things he finds sacred (nature, the gift of super saiyan).

2. blunt, truncated vs flowing speech

“I don’t know,” Gohan says. “Maybe. I don’t keep track.” & “I’m not going to talk about this.” /vs/ “It’s good to be informed, Bulma. Weren’t you the one who said you wanted to see Frieza before he blew the planet up?”

similarly, gohan talks very differently to the androids vs anyone else. gohan's quite blunt, aggressive, and truncated with the androids. this is not his most natural speech pattern. when he talks to bulma, trunks, or even just other non-androids, he uses longer and more flowing sentences, because he is more at ease and in himself.

3. sparse sensory awareness in urban spaces/combat situations vs embodied sensory experience in natural spaces

He stays lying back on the sticky fake leather of the abandoned booth, muted lights above him and his cut up shirt on the ground at his side. /vs/ Then, Gohan inhales the wasteland winds, cool and clean and familiar. Then, his eyes set on the sapphire horizon and his bruised skin takes warmth from the morning sun. Birds call out for each other, for warning, for the pleasure of the song, and a wolf joins its howls to the chorus.

similarly, he is significantly more at ease and in his own body in the natural world vs the urban world. 17 and gohan both have "territories" in this fic: 17 will be a park ranger in another life, but growing up, he was a delinquent city boy. cities are his domain. gohan is a country boy and feels most at home in nature.

when gohan is with 17 and in urban spaces, gohan picks up on fewer sensory elements. he's less present in his body except as something to fight with and has much less appreciation for any beauty in the world around him. his sensory experience is pared down to whatever he has to take in to handle the active threat; any other details are extraneous distractions that could get him killed.

but when gohan is in nature, in his home territory, he allows in more sensory details. nature is where he feels most comfortable and at home, and it's a source of rejuvenation and strength for him, so he pays significantly more attention to what's happening in it. it's part of what makes chapter 4 so unique: it's the only time he meets 17 on his home turf.

the ghost quartet

while all the dead z fighters are "the sacred dead" to gohan, people whose deaths have an almost religious significance in his understanding of himself and his role in the world, gohan has four major ghosts that he evokes: piccolo, vegeta, krillin, and goku. each of them has a specific function.

gohan needs ghosts. gohan is someone very driven by his value system, and his value is very relational. he wants to be a good son, a good friend, a good student—in another timeline, a good brother, husband, father. being good in relation to others is extremely important to him. it's why he's so respectful to the elder he meets on the bus, and it's why he makes a point of bowing to 18 as his sparring partner, even though he doesn't respect her as a person. this is what keeps him in integrity with himself.

but in this timeline, most of the people he wants to be good in relation to are dead. all of the people he models himself after for heroism and bravery are gone. so he summons them up as ghosts, and all of them work differently.

piccolo: mentorship

Gohan recites a litany of dead friends, doesn’t let his fighting stance falter. Piccolo would never tolerate a lapse.

Piccolo would have never put up with him walking into enemy territory outmatched and uncertain without even having a contingency.

He puts his hands back in ready position, just like Piccolo taught him, to catch or deflect any strike.

Piccolo would have snapped at Gohan for the defiance, or maybe hit him with his eye lasers. Not that it ever stopped Gohan.

piccolo, as gohan's only active teacher (he learned from others but not directly in this timeline), is the person gohan calls on when reminding himself how he's supposed to act in a fight. piccolo tells him not to lower his guard, to stay strong and watch his back. gohan also evokes piccolo when he is trying to understand how he should act as a mentor to trunks. he evokes piccolo's memory to help himself stay sharp and so he can try to emulate the practicality and intelligence that piccolo modelled.

But it’s food. He shouldn’t be a spoiled brat about food.

Spoiled brat. You can still fight. Get up.

gohan also uses piccolo against himself subconsciously. without being aware of it, gohan uses piccolo calling him a "spoiled brat" to shame himself into doing things he doesn't want to.

2. krillin: compassion

He bends down to their level and smiles like his father and Krillin used to smile at him, like how Gohan used to wish all adults would.

Just hold on, Gohan, Krillin said to him. We can make it through this.

Placing his palms together, Gohan bows like Krillin taught him to on that long trip to Namek.

in this timeline, gohan has fought beside krillin more than anyone else. in both the saiyan and namek sagas, krillin looked out for gohan, including following him into every fight, even though krillin didn't want to join the battle. krillin never let gohan be alone and always showed courage in the face of horror.

gohan summons krillin's ghost much more rarely than vegeta and piccolo because while gohan uses vegeta and piccolo to scold himself into doing what he has to, krillin is a voice of compassion. when you are in a terrible situation and you can't leave, compassion can be agonizing, because it invites you to become in touch with your feelings. that means you have to feel the pain you're experiencing instead of shoving it aside.

but compassion also gives you the courage to keep going. and krillin's compassion is a virtue that gohan wants to show to others. it is a major value he holds onto.

3. vegeta: understanding

Ties are a weakness, Vegeta once told him, and Gohan should better guard himself against the danger they pose in battle. Gohan had disagreed with him then, vehemently. He still does, in most ways. / But these days, Gohan thinks he understands what Vegeta meant.

You’re too soft. How many times did Vegeta tell him that? Give your enemies even a hint of what they might use against you, and they will see you pay for it.

Once, Vegeta scolded him for not seeking outlets. You are Saiyan. Your blood needs battle as your stomach needs food.

Vegeta would call him pathetic right now. The idea is a comfort he takes with him as he cuts his thoughts adrift.

vegeta is a particularly strange case, because vegeta is someone gohan has fought beside, but he's also someone gohan has fought against. at several points, gohan evokes vegeta's ghost to argue with it: vegeta's ideology is something he can oppose to affirm his own values to himself.

but gohan is also experiencing a very strange kind of understanding of vegeta. early on, gohan calls up the memory of watching vegeta be tortured by frieza. gohan witnessed that, and he saw how frieza talked to vegeta. of all the ghosts gohan calls on, vegeta is the only one who understands what it’s like to be kept alive on the faux-affectionate whims of a monster you want so badly to beat—and you keep telling yourself you will, you keep saying you'll end it one day—but you are badly outclassed by them.

so even as vegeta is someone to argue against, vegeta is also the only person gohan can bear to think about in his deepest moments of shame. when gohan is sitting in the horror of the night club, the worst of the assaults, the one where 17 pushed the point so far that gohan could no longer pretend to himself that he was a contender and had to sit in the truth of being a victim—gohan could not bear to think of piccolo or krillin or goku. it would feel too shameful to imagine them seeing him like that.

but vegeta? vegeta knows what it's like. gohan doesn't experience shame when it comes to vegeta. he wants, so badly, for piccolo and goku and krillin to think well of him, but it's fine if vegeta sees his most shameful parts. so at that lowest moment, when he imagines vegeta calling him pathetic, he takes strength from it. one of his ghosts knows how this feels. and gohan has always seen the best in people, so he can imagine vegeta calling him pathetic when he lies down and gives up as proof that vegeta believes he is capable of keeping the fight going.

4. goku: the unreachable

“I think you’re taller than your dad now.” / “Not likely. My father was a giant.”

Three more days with his father would have meant everything.

And his father would have kept his word. Even if it was to a monster.

Then his father promised he would handle the rest.

His father walked him home.

It’s alright. He is Piccolo’s student. He is his father’s son.

Super Saiyan burns through him with a reckless heat that Piccolo would never have tolerated, that Krillin would have warned him about, Vegeta alone would have understood—and his father?—but it doesn’t matter: an android is a well of gravity, and not even Saiyan rage can escape its pull.

They killed them, and they don’t care, never have, and Gohan knows the real reason he’s the last one standing—it’d be boring, if they had no one left to play with—if he were stronger, he could have ended it, like his father would have, but there's only him left—

Gohan breathes like he saw Piccolo breathe. Like he used to put himself to sleep matching his breathing to the rise and fall of his father’s chest.

goku is the most sacred of all the sacred dead. he is three types of unreachability:

first, he is the unreachable ideal. gohan wears goku's clothing to try to take on his heroism. he repeatedly evokes goku's model of heroism, strength, and compassion as something he must strive towards. gohan strives to equal goku, but feels he falls short.

second, he is lost safety. as long as gohan's father was there, gohan knew he'd be safe. he is the safety of home and childhood, and he's the safety of a hero coming to save the day. in moments when gohan lets his guard down, he yearns for the safety he used to feel when goku was there.

finally, he is an inaccessible understanding. because goku is an unreachable ideal, there are things about his father he doesn't know. this gap leaves an ache.

Gohan stops, and he knows he does, knows it’s weak and open, that he should hide it—always the coward freezing when he needs to act—he just thought he could keep private at least that—

Gohan is a coward and a spoiled brat, and this is the best he has ever done protecting them.

What are you, a coward? Are you going to let all those people die for nothing? Get up!

but goku, like piccolo, also left a wound. in a moment of extreme desperation, goku called his son a coward to provoke him into fighting. he told him that if he didn't fight, it meant that everyone died for nothing.

like "spoiled brat," gohan calls up that wound from his father to shame himself into pushing through.

so yeah! those are a few things i put into the story. i could talk also about gohan as a bad teacher (he is doing his best, but he is modelling himself after piccolo, so he does things like starting trunks off with far too much time to try to meditate) or how gohan and 17 both enabled each other to not look at the assault for what it is (they both want to see him as a "contender," 17 because he doesn't understand what he's doing, gohan because he doesn't want to see himself as a victim), or probably lots of other things. i just... put a lot into this, and i love talking about it and seeing what people saw themselves! i tried to make it a story that would reward careful rereading.

[ssjrodimus]

Android 17 -Universe Survival Saga- (Dragon Ball Super) - Premium Bandai Exclusive - S.H.Figuarts (Bandai)

Android 18 -Universe Survival Saga- (Dragon Ball Super) - Premium Bandai Exclusive - S.H.Figuarts (Bandai)

[acelynonix]

Me at 6/7 pm: ohh finally I found a part of my collection of Android 17 stuff and- hey I totally forgot I had an action figure to build (the one in the box on the left)

(I also have Dragon Ball manga evergreen edition and Dragon Ball Super. Plus, My draws and all the stuff I mentioned in a previous post)

(I also have funko pops of 17 and 18. One day I'll buy also 16's one)

Me at 11 pm: :)

And I also forgot to eat till that hour. Next steps are the shoes for the cosplay cause I had to throw away the ones I used at a certain point :')

[comicchannel]

Funko Pop Animation Dragon Ball Z Android Saga - 4-Pack

Link para compra BR: https://amzn.to/4dc7aLj

Buy here: https://amzn.to/4dh1VKh

[frothy-mothy]

New action figure!! This one is a Figure-rise one of Android 17 - he was really fun to build. It took me a little under an hour to finish him, he's really cute though <3

[quietlydiabolic]

What’s that you got there, Juuhachi-gou?

...wait. Wait, what is that...

...oh no oh f—

(Just a lil sumthin’ sumthin’ I’ve been working on. 😈)

[wolfsage44]