cyevi - Tumblr blog

[cyevi]

I have to thank @serenityhime1 for inspiring me to do this with her many comments, our love for shark teeth is eternal ahsahsh

[cyevi]

art by @eye_blacklabel

[cyevi]

the vast majority of fanworks are bad, and that's fine, actually. they are bad for the same reason that the average number of legs for a human person to have is less than two: statistics. like with all endeavours and especially creative ones, most people who write fanfiction or draw art of their favourite characters are bad at it. if you line up all the crochet projects in the world, most of them will be, well, bad. some are bad because they're the first thing a person ever made, or the second or third or tenth, and this kind of thing takes practice. others are bad because the person who made them is just not very good at it. maybe they just learned how to make granny squares and they're perfectly happy to never expand or improve on that. most people who dance or bake or garden or braid hair are not amazing at it! and you'd never go to your kid's dance recital or eat your friend's homemade carrot cake and expect the same experience as you'd have at a professional ballet performance or award-winning bakery. And that's if we assume there is an objective measure of Good Art, which there isn't! Some art is just "bad" because you don't like it!

I think though that specifically with fanfiction, we sometimes forget that when we read a book or watch a movie, dozens of people have looked at it and given feedback and made changes and done quality control before the final product reaches our shelves or screens, and that's not counting the original writer's learning process and past experience. A published book is not anyone's first crochet project, even if it is their debut novel. But with fanfiction, the barrier to entry is so low (on purpose! this is a good thing!) that we do get to see a lot of wonky granny squares, and on sites like AO3 they're sitting on the same shelf as the hand-made silk lace wedding dress and you can't always tell just by looking at it which is which. The consequence of this is that we encounter fic that we think is unpolished, has bad punctuation, is out of character, and we are tempted to think "well, this is awful! how dare this person put this wonky granny square on the same shelf as the lace wedding dress!" But that's not how fandom is supposed to work! That wonky granny square is somebody who is really excited about this TV show they just watched and they are reaching out into the void to share their excitement with you. To scoff at them for not making a lace wedding dress is really, really rude. Even if they did make a lace wedding dress, maybe it's just really not your style, or you think they should have used a different pattern, and it's still their wedding dress. You don't have to wear the dress and you don't have to read the fic.

We all know that there is some fanfic out there that is incredible. I think it's important to talk about that! But the vast majority of people who post their writing online are just sharing their little hobby projects that they make for fun and I also think it's important to remember that.

[cyevi]

Vegebul drawing requested by @serenityhime1 as a lovely birthday gift for their writer friend! (Based on this chapter in a fanfic called "A Heart Worth Believing In" by OnlyMeAndMyBones, also going by @galexibrain on Tumblr).

[cyevi]

i do unironically think the best artists of our generation are posting to get 20 notes and 3 reblogs btw. that fanfic with like 45 kudos is some of the best stuff ever written. those OCs you carry around have some of the richest backstories and worldbuilding someone has ever seen. please do not think that reaching only a few people when you post means your art isn't worth celebrating.

[cyevi]

Parenting styles in Dragon Ball Z (and Super)

You know, to me, the interesting thing about this scene (and the one where they could to the aforementioned park) isn't the fact that Vegeta keeps his promise.

It's the fact that he uses positive reinforcement to motivate Trunks.

Do you think Vegeta was ever rewarded for landing a good hit? Definitely not. It was expected of him.

As an expert in children's development, I find it fascinating to look at this example of Vegeta parenting Trunks and what it says about his parenting style. I've seen headcanons that go from calling 'Dadgeta' authoritarian to neglectful, but I disagree.

In the following, I will briefly describe the four styles of parenting with focus on the authoritarian and the authoritative styles. I'll also compare them to how DBZ parents appear to raise their children, but mainly focus on Vegeta.

Authoritarian:

This is the old school parenting method where restrictions and punishments go hand in hand. The parents expect the children to obey rules without a clear explanation as to why and corporal punishment is used when the children overstep.

Unsurprisingly, it seems like a lot of people believe this is how Vegeta raises his children (If he is even involved; I'll address this later on.) It was likely how he was raised.

However, the only parent we actually see using this style is Chichi. She's not entirely unreasonable, but we do see her expect things from Gohan without explanations and she has a lot of restrictions set up. This might have something to do with Goku's parenting style, but more on that later.

Piccolo also uses authoritarianism with Gohan, but he isn't trying to parent him, just train him.

What's really interesting is that children raised in a household practicing authoritarianism tend to hold a lot of anger inside. They also have low self-efficacy and high self blame. Remind you of someone?

Indulgent

Here we see nurturing, accepting parents who don't have behavioral expectations of their children. They are responsive to the children's needs and wishes, but do not expect them to be the same toward other people. The parents want to be the child's friend rather than a demanding parent.

Children of indulgent parents tend to grow up without a sense of others' boundaries and generally have less discipline than their peers. They lack impulse control and are often irresponsible.

In DBZ we do see signs of this parenting style, but only limited. It's not commonly used in Asia and therefore, Toriyama didn't add it. In GT it's obvious that both Trunks and Bulla seem have been parenting this way by Bulma. It's also why many doubt that Vegeta has been much involved.

It's also easy to argue that Goku parents this way, although it's up for discussion.

Neglectful

Although many think that the indulgent parenting style have created a generation of undisciplined young people, the neglectful parenting style has actually had a greater effect.

The parents are either more interested in themselves and their own goals than their children's. (Although sometimes it's because the parents struggle with stress or depression) Children of these parents are usually lonely and melancholic, often have very low self esteem and are needy after affection and approval. This leads them to be easily manipulated and they are at a higher risk to end up in abusive relationships.

I think many of the Vegeta antis and those claiming Goku is a bad parent would place the two Saiyans here.

However, Goku is clearly involved in Gohan's upbringing, albeit choosing a more casual approach than Chichi, and returns after being dead for seven years, ready to be involved with Goten (and Gohan if he wants it). The reason that Goku mainly focuses on training isn't just because it's his own interest. It's what he knows for sure how to do.

Most importantly: it was how Goku was raised himself. First by Grandpa Gohan and later from his other father figure, Master Roshi. It isn't just in his blood; it's in his upbringing.

And then there's Vegeta’s parenting style which was my main focus for this post. It got a little out of control, but we have finally arrived at the last parenting style:

Authoritative

This is the most modern parenting style, even though it isn't really new. It's been used for years in well functioning familes. This type of parent is both demanding and nurturing, being present and engaged in their children's lives. They explain things to their children, teach them how to regulate their feelings and therefore expect a mature behavior from them.

Children of authoritative parents tend to be more successful in their adult lives, capable of discipline and well-liked. Because they aren't constantly being restricted, they naturally develope autonomy within set boundaries and learn to respect others, regardless of authority.

So, what does this have to do with Vegeta and Trunks?

As I mentioned in the beginning, in the scene in the Gravity Chamber, Vegeta uses positive reinforcement to motive Trunks. Positive reinforcement has proven to be a healthy way to motivate children (and animals) and is a part of the authoritative style. By using it, Vegeta provides Trunks with rules that foster motivation and discipline in the child. The fact that Vegeta knows about the amusement and can use it as an incentive also shows that he is involved enough to know what may get Trunks to do his best.

But the most important thing we see is that Vegeta upholds his promise, despite hating every second of it. It shows that he respects Trunks' efforts and achievement. By honoring his word, he also teaches Trunks to do the same.

Of course, this is a small scene and we don't know how Vegeta behaves otherwise in regards to Trunks. But it's safe to say that Vegeta does take his son's wishes into account and uses it to encourage him to move beyond his limits.

I admit that I'm not a fan of GT and don't consider it canon, especially because of Toriyama's lack of involvement. So, while I dislike many aspects of DBS, I do think it's the best representation of the characters.

In Super, both Goten and Trunks are well adjusted boys who both have discipline and test the boundaries of their autonomy. They act like boys their age, albeit with incredibly strength, and it goes to show that their parents have raised them well.

Of course, it's also important to remember that both DBZ and DBS (and even GT) are a product of their time and the parenting styles reflect that. DBZ is from the 80's where the authoritarian (Chichi) and indulgent (Goku) styles were the most common. GT is from the 90's where the media started to focus on indulgent and neglectful parents - even though it wasn't a new thing - and it's shown that Trunks, Bulla and Goten have grown up as spoiled and undisciplined. DBS shows that the parents in the show have become authoritative and their children's behavior reflects that.

It's clear that the parents are doing their best and that the fathers have become more involved nowadays than before. This is the case in modern parenting as well.

Anyway, this is the end of my long rant. I think, as both an expert in children's development and as a parent myself, it's interesting to look into the relationships between the characters, especially the father-son interactions which are explored the most. There's no doubt that Toriyama knew the importance of being a father and wanted to portray it, mainly in Goku and Gohan's relationship.

I don't think Toriyama saw Goku nor Vegeta as bad fathers, but he knew that everyone has different strengths, even in parenthood.

[cyevi]

Chapters: 12/14 Fandom: Dragon Ball Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Bulma Briefs/Vegeta, Bulma Briefs/Yamcha Characters: Bulma Briefs, Vegeta (Dragon Ball), Yamcha (Dragon Ball), Panchy Briefs, Raditz (Dragon Ball) Additional Tags: Human AU, late 1700s-early 1800s, Smut, Slow Burn, Vegebulocracy CYOA 2021 Summary: Bulma has spent four years traveling the Mediterranean and Europe with her new husband. Although her wanderlust to see the world remains unsatisfied, under the terms of her marriage, she is required to return home and begin her family. Unfortunately, this means dealing once more with her former lover, who never wanted her to leave.

Updated after allllllmost 2 years. Enjoy the smut.

[cyevi]

Knitting

Vegeta and his mother in law

[cyevi]

"Way too reliable narrator" where the narrator provides documentation and proof for how they know every detail in the narrative and an estimate of how confident they are in it.

[cyevi]

Ao3 tags added to each chapter title shook him. He hasn't even read the thing yet.

deserved

[cyevi]

Tasty fan merch!

Preorders are open!! 🎉🎉🎉😏

You can click on the preorder-tap on our carrd to go to our ko-fi page. All profits will go to MSF / Doctors Without Borders.

‼️ Preorders will close on October 22nd ‼️

Our carrd: https://dbcalendar.carrd.co

🔁 Share the news! 🔁

[cyevi]

Hey everyone! I made a "fun" "game" to torture my friends with! Which is weird because surely everyone knows what Goku looks like? Should be pretty simple?

Reviews:

"got i think one question in and went Ah fuck. SHIT"

"what do you mean one of them is actually called gohanks i thought that was a joke"

"THIS IS NOT OKAY"

[cyevi]

What are your favorite explanations for why characters regularly use melee weapons in a setting with firearms?

I've always had a soft spot for Dune's Holtzman shields, purely for the source material's utterly unhinged rationale for why nobody takes advantage of the laser loophole.

For the unfamiliar, a Holtzman shield in Dune is a kind of force field which can be tuned to selectively block or permit the passage of objects based on their velocity. This feature is what allows them to be used for personal defence; by tuning them to permit only very low-velocity objects to pass through, a person can "wear" a Holtzman shield without impeding their own movements or suffocating due to blockage of atmospheric gasses. This in turn is what produces the Dune universe's duelling culture: a bullet – or any solid-projectile weapon – is too fast to pass through a personal Holtzman shield, but the thrust of a dagger is below the velocity threshold where blocking it would render the shield impracticable to wear. So far, so good.

Now we come to the laser loophole. This is a problem with personal force fields as depicted in many works of science fiction, not just Dune, and it goes something like this: because the text explicitly establishes that one can see both into and out of a personal force field, clearly it's permeable to visible light. Why don't attackers just shoot the wearer with a laser? Does the setting somehow have the technology to produce human-portable force field generators, but not human-portable weaponisable lasers? Did it simply never occur to anyone to try?

Some works of fiction address the laser loophole by proposing that the force fields can selectively become impermeable to visible light, and incorporate the implications of that – e.g., perhaps it's possible to immobilise shield-wearers by using a laser to force their shields to constantly run at maximum intensity – into their plots, while others propose that the shields block laser weapons but not other kinds of visible light because it's magic and they're not obliged to explain shit.

Dune takes a different approach.

In Dune (the novel, at least; I haven't seen the most recent film adaptation in its entirety yet), the reason that nobody shoots Holtzman shield wearers with lasers is because doing so causes a nuclear explosion. The locus of the explosion is apparently entirely random, with a roughly even chance of originating within the target's shield generator or within the shooter's weapon. On paper, this is a huge liability and should mean that no sane person would ever wear a Holtzman shield; the text justifies their widespread use in practice by establishing that a. if anyone actually takes advantage of this phenomenon, the Emperor will nuke them from orbit, and b. the noble houses are fucking insane.

(Why lone assassins who are more than happy to blow themselves up for ideological reasons and thus have no reason to care about the resulting political backlash don't take advantage of the effect is, as far as I'm aware, never adequately addressed.)

[cyevi]

[cyevi]

Ann Demeulemeester Spring/Summer 1997

[cyevi]

Thank you @gokustits for the meme gold

This gave me so much brainrot that I sat for seven hours straight to finish this 🤣

Link to the original audio!

[cyevi]

This is some cute shit.

The Body is round!

My Future Trunks but he's a smoll bean pins have arrived :o

They're super cute!

I have some extras, so if you want you can grab one for yourself ^^