#DBS Ending 7

[dragon-ball-meta]

The full "manga" scroll from DBS Ending 7.

[linnaealyn]

Old mod page, abandoned 3/2/24; New mod page @ Godsibb

Finally, after 2 years of work, it is complete. -But still being updated.

There's a Japanese version of the mod now!

今は日本語版のMODがある！

This is a mod for Xenogears using Retroarch's Beetle PSX HW core real-time texture replacement feature. (It requires the Vulkan driver, so make sure your graphics card supports that.) (Duckstation doesn't have a similar option, unfortunately.)

It replaces every single character dialogue portrait, menu portrait, & (almost every) battle portrait (looking at you, Yggdra officer Gear pilots) with high quality, cleaned up artwork, as well as recreated high quality UI while keeping it as close to the original game as possible.

And best thing about it is, if there's anything you don't like about it, like certain aspects of the UI, you can locate and delete that file from the folder. Everything is optional. (if you have any questions as to what's what, drop them into my dms)

Current version: 1.4

現在の日本語版: 1.4

(More screenshots below download info and UI changes.)

Being a real-time texture replacer, it should work with any English version of XG, both base-game and modded/patched. Any fan-translated patch using the US version as a base should display correctly.

There's a separate version for the Japanese version of the game. May need some editing still with other characters' UI ("Ether"/"Spells"/"Arcane"/etc) but for the most part its good to go in terms of battle UI. Let me know if you find any errors.

(I've been using it with the Perfect Works Build mod. Highly recommended!)

(Note!!: If you use PWB mod, don't use its "readjusted portraits" patch when patching your rom, as that patch interferes with this mod's portraits texture replacing.)

(It works on Steam Deck... but don't ask me for details in setting that up in particular, I don't own one 😅)

~~~

Download/ダウンロード

I recommend reading the instructions txt files I included in the DL.

This includes information such as how to set up .cue and .m3u files, swapping discs, renaming the texture folder, Retroarch settings and Beetle PSX HW Core settings to get the mod working, settings suggestions for making a cleaner looking and faster playing XG (YMMV), and settings to fix certain emulation issues Ive come across (freezing on fast-forward, crackling audio during 3D/effects-heavy cutscenes/gameplay, blank screen during Rico flashback, etc).

~~~~~~~~~~

-Changes made to the UI include:

Menu UI:

selection triangle, Walk/Gear icons

menu portraits

▲ ■ ● ✖ button DeathBlow menu icons

ABXY button DeathBlow menu icon- alternate textures

Battle UI and on-foot specific battle UI:

Circular battle palette and tags behind text

Battle palette text, "Combo", "Return", "Enter", "Miss", "EP", & HP/DMG/heal/AP numbers

HP/AP bars

"Time", "fuel", "total damage", AP numbers, "1/2/3 point(s)", "cancel end"

battle portraits

▲ ■ ● ✖ button DeathBlow icons

ABXY button Deathblow icons- alternate textures

Bottom screen mid-DeathBlow ▲ ■ ✖ icons (unfortunately, there's no way to change the other mid-DB quadruple-button icons)

Combo 1-7 and Accept icons

In-Gear specific battle UI:

"fuel" and fuel numbers

"Fuel" (when using boost)

fuel bars (top and left)

All Gear status menus' green text/numbers

Attack level numbers and ∞

Gear menu backgrounds

Gear "power shut down", "camera damaged", "out of fuel", etc, statuses

background UI elements, runes, triple red triangles, Gear lock-on UI (unfortunately, there's no way to change the circular part of this UI)

Misc UI changes:

Red/grey spheres (in the menu and loading screen)

All instances of selection diamonds, both horizontal and vertical

Load/save screen "CARD 1"/"2" text, memory card icon, load/save bar/text

Disc 1 and 2 maps (with alternate color versions; makes the enterable area indicators harder to see though)

NESW compass letters (unfortunately, there's no way to change the circular compass texture)

~~~~~

-Screenshots (before & after and alts):

And Japanese version's (日本語版) UI:

⬇!!Spoilers in images further down!!⬇

--

I won't be showing all portraits here; only the ones worth mentioning.

Portraits created for the mod that have no artwork equivalent:

Portraits to match their sprites vs official unedited artwork:

(default on left, alt on right)

Roni/Medena/Erich edited sprite equivalent vs their official PW art

Citan edited unsmiling (dialogue-only) sprite equivalent vs official smiling art)

Krelian(s) edited sprite equivalent vs official art

Portrait alts created for fun:

Both sides of scar-eyed Bart

Two-eyed Bart

Kim lab coat with glasses

Fei-colored Id

Fei-colored Id with Id's yellow eyes

Fei-colored young & older Emeralda

(might add to this list later. have any suggestions? fun ideas? lmk. It doesn't have to be canon-compliant.)

Screenshots of alt portraits in-use:

I'll continue to update this and subsequently reblog it as new versions are released.

With any new updates, just DL and replace/overwrite the old folder.

In-progress tumblr post of the past as a bit of a time capsule for myself 😄

[beansterpie]

K I threw together a translation for the new es21 anniversary chapter! There's probably mistakes and some awkward phrasing because I always end up prioritizing accuracy over flow rip. Hopefully the way I've formatted this isn't a total pain to read. I recommend looking at the page first, and then referring to the translation when you can't read something. I skipped any panels that don't have dialogue/text so just reading the translations might be confusing. Anyway it's under the cut!

(Lol sorry I didn't bother translating character blurbs on the right)

Page 1 Panel 1: Announcer: “Noooooww, there’s barely any time left on the clock! This final play will decide the outcome of the match!!” Panel 2: “One of these teams will command the University American Football World!! Panel 3: Which one will it be!? Panel 4: Two star players who once fought together now face off— Panel 5: in this Final Decisive Match”

Page 2-3 Panel 1: Eyeshield 21 aka: Kobayakawa Sena!! VS. The Commander from Hell: Hiruma Yoichi!! Panel 2: Set, Hut!!!

Cover page (4-5): Their First Collision!! Sena [Eyeshield 21] and Hiruma [the one who named him (literally the ‘parent’ who named him)]—

Page 6 Panel 1: [Some months earlier—] Panel 3: DEVILBAT GHOST!!

Page 7 Panel 1: TRIDENT TACKLE!!!

Page 8-9 Panel 1: The ball was fumbled!! Whichever team manages to claim it will win….!! Panel 2: [An American Football rule you can understand in 1 SECOND] Devilbat: YA—HA— It’s stupidly simple! Carry the ball to the enemy line and score (a touchdown)! DB jr.: You can get around 7 points! Panel 4: Monta: CATCH MAX!!! Panel 5: Suzuna: YA—!!! Panel 6: Announcer: The Kanto representatives for the Japanese National American Football University Championships is the team lead by Eyeshield 21 aka. Kobayakawa Sena— the Enma Fires…..!!!!

Page 10 Panel 1: Sakuraba: You really got revenge on us this year. It’s frustrating but it was our total defeat….! Panel 2: Sena: Though, one-on-one, for the most part I couldn’t really get past you (Shin-san) until the very end… Panel 4: Shin: undecipherable Panel 6: Ootawara: OOOOHHHHH MAKE SURE YOU HIT THEM HARD ENOUGH FOR THE BOTH OF US, KURITA—!! Panel 7: Takami: Finally, you’ve earned the right to challenge the undefeated champions Page 11 Panel 1 & 2: Takami: The championship finals against the team lead by Hiruma, the Saikyodai Wizards— at the Koushien Bowl….!!! Panel 3: Sena: Yes….!!

Page 12 Panel 4: Monta: Mukya! What the hell, we can’t get into the club room! Riku: Looks like we have a few visitors— Panel 5: Crowd: The United States President’s son?? Even SP (I believe this is a tv channel) is here… Page 13 Panel 3: Sena: T-this is way too crazy… Kurita: To clear away people like this…..

Page 14 Panel…2?: Hiruma: Kekekekeke, you’re late fucking Fatty and fucking Shrimps Panel 3: Kurita: HIRUMA! Sena: —san!! Monta: And that guy’s from the American Match, the ultimate boss… wait actually, he’s a NFL player now! Page 15 Panel 1: It’s the President’s Junior, Mr. Don….!! Panel 2: Don: An ordinary person goes to a foreign country to run rampant for their own entertainment. A champion (or king lol) goes to a foreign country to express his respect. Panel 3: Don: In this country, it seems excessive meddling from pros in the affairs of amateurs isn’t appreciated, so I’ll get straight to the heart of the matter. Panel 4: Don: Together we will fight and acquire the throne. I’ve come to welcome/receive one hero. Panel 6: Kurita: ?? Monta: What does that mean? Sena: Isn’t this excessive meddling…..

Page 16 Panel 1: Crack! Panel 2: Sena: ….?? Inside my shoulder pad… Panel 3: Sena: What is this, it’s tiny… A white chip? Monta: Ooh, it’s in our shoulder pads too!! Riku: Since when… Panel 4: Hiruma: It’s called an RFID (radio frequency identification (apparently lol)) chip. When you have this on— Panel 5: Glasses: The current location of each player can be determined and measured by inches. Stats like speed and acceleration, it can analyze all data in real time. Enma Babes (presumably): A SCI-FI MACHINE LIKE THAT EXISTS!? Page 17 Panel 1: Don: There’s nothing Sci-Fi about it. Within the NFL world, all players have been using this for a number of years now. Sena & Monta: REALLY!!? Hiruma: They even have them inside the balls. Since you can measure the rotations that way Devibat: It’s true!! DB jr.: The actual pro sports world sure is turning into something amazing! Panel 2: Riku: So, this data analysis chip… Panel 3: Riku: Why are they in our protective equipment…?? Sena: I mean, there’s only one person in this world who would be devilish enough to quietly do something like that… Panel 4: Glasses: With this hoard of collected data, and by using the help of something like Google Brain, we can rely on machine learning to— Sena: Goo… what? Machine…?? Panel 5: Don: How sad~ Oohh, AI, AI! Civilization has simply taken the human privilege of ‘thinking’, and given it up to machines.

Page 18 Panel 1: Don: Most of all, humanity’s been dulled by favoritism, politics and social correctness. Well, compared to a slow/primitive ruler, it’s (AI) infinitely more reliable. Panel 2: [For our team to reach victory, what kind of player is indispensable? The answer provided by the AI was—] Panel 3: A running back with the speed of light! Or— A phantasmagoric (look it up) quarterback! Panel 5: Glasses: International Player Pass Way Program. In short, there is one slot available for a foreign student trainee as the Japanese representative. Don: Which means that we would be receiving you into our team. Page 19 Panel 1: Kobayakawa Sena, Hiruma Yoichi: between the two of you, only one—

Page 20 Panel 3: (I believe this is some sort of form that Sena filled out about what he wants to pursue after graduation— he says after graduation he wants to become a pro American Football athlete) Panel 4: Hiruma: With my physical abilities, I won’t be able to get into the NFL the usual way. Panel 5: Hiruma: Obviously, I’ll struggle for the top even if it kills me. That’s the thing that makes it fun….! Page 21 Panel 1: Don: When I consulted the man at the top, Panther, about which one to pick— he gave me a truly straightforward answer. Panel 2: Panther: Hm? Well they’re going to have a confrontation directly in the Koshien Bowl, aren’t they? Panel 3: Panther: Sena VS. Hiruma!! We’ll just take whoever wins. Because, isn’t that American Football…!!

Page 22 Panel 1: Sena: …… this contest against Hiruma-san, I’m glad that it’s an American football match. Panel 2: Sena: If it wasn’t, there’s no way I could win against Hiruma-san, you’d bring out your blackmail book and in an instant…. Hiruma: Kekeke, seems like you understand the situation reeeeal well Panel 3: Sena: I mean, whether it’s Don-san’s AI verdict or the pro tryouts— if you put your mind to it, you could use your blackmail book to get whatever you wanted. But, Hiruma-san, when it comes to American football, you’ve always…. you’ve always— Panel 5: Toss~ Panel 6: Hiruma: Well, since I’m going to win against you and become a top pro, I don’t need this thing. Page 23 Panel 5: Sena: But, the one who’ll win is me

Page 24 Sena: I’ll go to defeat you with all my strength. So, Hiruma-san, you also— Hiruma: Kekeke, naturally Page 25 Panel 1: HANSHIN KOSHIEN STADIUM Panel 3: Kurita: Truthfully, I want to root for both of their dreams— For Sena-kun, and for Hiruma. But if I really can’t choose both—

Page 26-27 Panel 1: Kurita: FUNNURABAAA!!!!! Panel 2: Kurita: For the sake of my team, and for Sena-kun’s sake, I’ll defeat Hiruma…..!!! Panel 3: Announcer: Koshien Bowl, the final, decisive match! Against the Saikyodai Wizards, made up of all star members throughout the country— Panel 4: Announcer: Somehow!! The Enma Fires are just slightly in the lead!! Panel 5: Gaou: Fuh… Half of American football is decided by the power of the line. This is the unmatched power of Kurita when he has something to protect….!!!

Page 28 Panel 1: Announcer: Noooooww, there’s barely any time left on the clock! This final play will decide the outcome of the match!! Panel 2: Announcer: Two star players who once fought together now face off— Panel 3: Announcer: In this Final Decisive Match!! Panel 4: Announcer: Eyeshield 21 aka. Kobayakawa Sena!! Vs. The Commander from Hell, Hiruma Yoichi!! Page 29 Panel 1: Hiruma: KILL! KILL! Panel 2: Suzuna: K.I.L.L…..to kill? What’s it mean? Doburoku: In American football, it’s a sign that’s given by the pitcher. It means to completely kill the strategy that had been agreed upon. To put it simply, it’s a signal to hurriedly reset the strategy of the play. Panel 3: Mizumachi: After seeing our defense formation, looks like they want to change things up! Panel 4: Sena: Hiruma-san’s— that ever-changing adaptability’s strength—

Page 30 Panel 1: Hiruma: Kill— Panel 4: Unsui: NO!! THERE HASN’T BEEN ANY CHANGE IN HIS PLAN!! Page 31 Panel 1: Hiruma (I think): This was just a snap counter from the get go— A signal to start the play after the 4th KILL…!!! Panel 2: Enma player: Shit, even though we know what kind of guy he is! Enma player 2: He’s gonna throw a pass— Enma player 3: No, don’t let Hiruma trick you! He’s not throwing— he’s still holding it!! Panel 3: This is a run….!! Panel 5: Shit, that’s wrong, it’s a pass after all….!!!

Page 32 TOUCHDOOOOWN!!! Page 33 Panel 1: Hiruma: YA— HA—!!! Panel 2: Announcer: The final decisive battle was completely controlled by the sorcerer of the field-- Hiruma Yoichi! (there's actually a word in this line I don't understand lol, but this should be the general gist) Panel 3: Announcer: In a sudden turnabout victory, the Saikyodai Wizards win the championship—

Page 34 Panel 1: Announcer: —No, the remaining time on the clock is 1 second!! Panel 2: Hiruma: !! Taka: That was my bad. Panel 3: Taka: On the ground was Sena-kun with his light speed, and in the air Monta was closing in. I had no choice but to catch the ball one second earlier than planned. Panel 5: Unsui (presumably): — 1 second left. Whether we laugh or cry about it, this will be the final play— Page 35 Panel 1: Sena: These sort of seriously close calls… I dunno if you’d call it deja vu or— Panel 2: Monta: That’s right! This is the kind of cliff’s edge that we’ve run along a bunch of times! Panel 3: Agon: Aaaahhh? Ain’t this match already certain victory— Panel 4: Agon: —If we weren’t up against the tiny trash brigade, that is. Hiruma: Kekeke yo~~~ You also know what’s up huh, fucking dreads. Panel 6: Yamato: That’s right, all of us should know by now well enough that it hurts. Panel 7: Yamato: That there are demon-like men out there whose power explodes during dire straits like this.

Page 36 Panel 1: That there was once a miraculous team called the Devilbats— Panel 2: Hiruma: The last play will be Eyeshield 21! They’ll 100,000,000,000% comes at us with Sena’s run!! Anything else is a ruse, completely ignore it, don’t even think 1mm that it’ll be anything else!! Panel 3: Unsui: There’s only one way to go: Sena’s run. All of us will open a path!! Page 37 Panel 1 & 2: Sena’s Run, Complete Specialized All Star Team!! VS. Anti-Sena formation, Complete Specialized All Star Team!!

Page 38: — DON! Page 39 Panel 1: Announcer: Remaining time: 0 seconds! Panel 2: Announcer: With this last play, it’s game set! Panel 4: Yamabushi: Rodio Drive!! Are they coming with Riku!? Taka: No— Panel 6: Riku: Sena…!!

Page 40 Panel 3: IKKYUU…!! Panel 4: How can he reach it, to go into a cut from such a distance…..

Page 42 Panel 1: Sena: UUOOOOOOOOHH!! Panel 2: Mamori: Sena…! Panel 3: Ikkyuu: That guy’s too damn fast— I already knew that but…..!! Panel 4: Announcer: Sure enough, in the end they went with the light speed running back, Eyeshield 21!!! Page 43 Panel 1: Mizumachi: Uha! I said make way! Panel 3: Chuubou: A path for Sena-senpai….!!!

Page 44-45 Panel 3: Announcer: He’s passed everyone! At this rate it’s a touchdown—!!! Panel 4: Hiruma: Kekeke, dig out your eyeballs and give them a good wash— take another look. It’s not over. Panel 5: Kid: He’ll stand in the way— in the end, the ultimate opponent—

Page 46 Panel 1: AGON!!! Page 47 Panel 2: Shin: Sena’s Devilbat Ghost has been fully realized. Panel 3: Shin: It’s a perfect technique for a runner to get past his opponent. The Optimal Technique/Solution.

Page 48 Panel 2: vvrrrrr (vibration sounds) Panel 3: Glasses: The Optimal Solution for this situation is none other than the Devilbat Ghost. But even then, Agon who possesses inherent superhuman reaction speed will likely stop him. Panel 4: [That is the judgement the machine learning system has made based on the real time analysis from the RFID chip] Page 49 Panel 3: Shin: The essential thing you need to reach new heights, is to surpass your Optimal Technique/Solution™— with Courage™ Panel 5: Sena: That’s right— my road isn’t limited only to the two directions that I can dodge Panel 6: Shin: It relies on his light speed cuts. A third option, much like a trident. In a manner of speaking—

Page 50 Panel 1: DEVILBAT TRIDENT!!! Page 51 Panel 1: Mizumachi: You mean he might not dodge!? Riku: A headlong collision!! There’s no way… Panel 2: Glasses: It’s absolutely impossible, how reckless. There’s no chance of winning. The AI declares that this is at most a feint. In the end, Sena will definitely move to evade him! Panel 3: Hiruma: Kekeke, you’re wrong. It’s a hundred billion years too early to try getting past using that hand. Panel 4: Hiruma: But that’s why you’ll go for it. Isn’t that right, Sena. Panel 5: Agon: Aaahhh~~ Hiruma, I’ve fought with you so many times it makes me sick, so I already know all of that….!!!

Page 52 Panel 1: Hiruma ??: The Human brain hasn’t been able to compete with semiconductors for a long time. I’m sure it’ll aaaalll become like that in the future. Panel 2: Hiruma: When it comes to searching for Optimal Solutions™, no one can compete against Sir AI anymore. But— Panel 3: Shin: Beyond the Optimal Solution™ Panel 4: Beyond even the very summit— you continue to struggle with only courage at your back. Page 53 Panel 1: THAT IS WHAT AN ATHLETE IS Panel 3: ??: I’LL GO PRO AND KILL EVERYONE!! Panel 4: ??: I’LL SURPASS THE TOP!!! Panel 5: ??: That athlete will be—

Page 54-55 Panel 1: Hiruma: ME Panel 2: Sena: ME Panel 3: [He surpasses theory, with his light speed courage—!!]

[kenora-pizza]

Musical musings - TTTE edition

One of the things that got me back into TTTE was the banger soundtrack and character themes. Music has always been a huge part of my life, I have classical training for the piano and an in-depth knowledge of musical theory and harmonic practices for classical music. So here are some of the things I noticed about various character themes and some of the engines' whistles.

Gordon is considered to be the biggest engine out of the main 12, and this could be reflected in his whistle, as it has the greatest interval between the two notes which make it up, that being a minor seventh between C and Bb.

James' whistle (G - C#/Db) is a tritone/Augmented 4th/Diminished 5th. In medieval times, this interval was considered to be a representation of conflict, discord (no, not THAT Discord) instability and danger. You can hear it in pieces like the iconic opening to Camille Saint-Seans' Danse Macabre, and in Hector Berlioz's La damnation de Faust to represent the titular character's arrival in Hell. James, I've noticed, is pretty damn insecure. He clings to his red paint like a lifeline and hides behind a veneer of arrogance and vanity. He can be quite boastful, to the detriment of his relationships with other engines, with him usually being the aggressor in conflicts with them. So I suppose the use of a tritone for his whistle is appropriate.

Percy appears to (mentally) be the youngest of the main 12, and this could be represented by having the highest whistle out of all of them.

Thomas' character theme and Edward's Series 2 theme both feature modulations to the parallel major of the initial key's relative minor, with Thomas' theme starting in F major and ending in D major, and Edward's theme starting in C major and ending in A major. The "relative minor" of a major key is the minor key which shares its key signature (ex. the relative minor of F major is D minor since they share the same key signature of one flat, likewise with C major, A minor and a key signature of no accidentals). The "parallel major" of a minor key is the major key which shares its 1st note (AKA, the tonic). So....like mentor, like mentee. Or like Father, like Son, in terms of musical themes.

Henry's theme is in a quadruple meter (following an 8-measure phrasing pattern, likely 12/8 time), meaning that there are 4 beats to a measure. However, each one of these "beats" consists of a triplet(If you were to count out a measure, it'd be 1-2-3 4-5-6 7-8-9 10-11-12, and you'd conduct it like 4 beats instead of each of the 12 individual notes) And Henry is the number 3 engine. Hmm.......

If I think of any more, I'll post 'em. If anyone even reads this lol

P.S: One of my favourite OSTs is Kingdom Dance from Tangled, and every time I listen it, I think of the twins. Probably because it uses the E Dorian mode (with a dash of E Mixolydian) which is common in Scottish music. Just in case anyone's confused, the "Dorian" mode is an 8-note scale which starts on the second note of a given major scale. (e.g, E is the 2nd note of a D major scale, so its Dorian mode uses the same signature of 2 sharps). The Mixolydian mode is an 8-note scale which starts on the 5th note of a given major scale. (e.g, E is the 5th note of an A major scale and thus, its Mixolydian mode uses the same key signature of 3 sharps).

[themildlyanxiousmage]

People who use custom followers in Skyrim, how do you manage having 6 or 7 following you around? I'm trying it out because I want to do a 100% playthrough with everyone soon, and I feel like I'm an exhausted preschool teacher leading around a class on a really messed up field trip.

-I have to always keep an eye on Lucien because he doesn't have a summoning spell if I lose him.

-Khash is always a mile behind whenever I look back to check on everyone, so I have to wait for her to catch up.

-Caryalind is always trailing behind, though not as far behind as Khash. He's actually not too difficult to deal with.

-Gore is pretty easy to manage because he pops behind me all the time. But he has a habit of knocking into me and throwing off my bow aim. Sometimes he even pops in front of me and gets shot, making me reload because I can't take the guilt of shooting him.

-Indigo is a mixed bag. Sometimes he keeps close, but other times I'll hear Lucien call back to him and find him jogging in the distance with Khash. Sometimes he'll knock into me as he runs ahead of the whole group. He's like the kid who gets easily distracted and overly excited.

-Taliesin can sometimes get stuck across a river, but it's easy to keep his summoning spell equipped since it's a power, not a spell. I just feel really guilty when I use it since he made a point of how much it hurts. Sometimes I'll also realize he's been stuck sneaking for like 10 minutes after we've all gotten up. Luckily he's louder, so I always hear everything he says.

-And Nebarra is the really quiet, easy to manage kid who ends up getting ignored. I'll hear him whispering something and I have to keep running back so I can actually hear his dialogue. I feel bad about it because I was that kid.

I really wish there was a mod for one of those ropes with the plastic rainbow rings so everyone would hold on and not get lost. I would put Nebarra in front so I could actually hear him. I think Taliesin would enjoy being the person in back who loudly tattles whenever anyone lets go. But like not in a "Mx. DB, Gore let go" kind of way. More like in a smug, indirect way.

[megaxard]

ive decided to start transferring over some of my kh text post edits from twitter, circa 2020-2022! the first batch is riku (feat. repliku)

[original thread] [#2, xigbar] [#3, xemnas] [#4, soriku] [#5, leaisa] [#6, roxas] [#7, kh1] [#8, axel/lea] [#9, demyx] [#10, CoM] [#11, DiZ hate] [#12, CoM/coded]

Below: Image IDs

[Start image ID]

1. The Master of Masters: i can see through the eyes of every Goku figurine (No Name)

Riku: This post made me promptly put all my DB figurines (Riku’s Keyblades, Soul Eater and Way to the Dawn) in a drawer and I’m not sure why

The Master of Masters: it’s so dark

2. Yuffie: A person I just met said “yeah I grew up loving the Percy Jackson books” and I accidentally responded “so you’re gay.” He was, in fact, gay.

Riku: “nobody’s ever said it that bluntly before but yeah.”

3. Riku: Remember when you were 15 and you were convinced you were evil and irredeemable and completely insane but it turns out you were just 15 (image of KH1 Riku)

4. KH1 Riku, with Ansem behind him: my gender is male as in Italian for evil

5. with images of Repliku and Chain of Memories Riku overlaid, they look very similar: I remember this one time the neighbor’s cat, Simba, broke into our house to fight our cat, also Simba.

reply: Kin drama

6. Riku: My DNA test results came back positive. I definitely have DNA.

Repliku: quit bragging

7. Repliku: life fucking sucks and has no purpose

Marina and the Diamonds: I’m miss sugar pink, liquor liquor lips, hit me with your sweet love steal me with a kiss,

Repliku: Actually I’m gonna go burn a cop car!!

8. Riku: Don’t ever lose sight of what’s important in life (being gay)

9. DDD Riku, looking at a hologram Sora: (falls in love with someone who was nice to me in my dream)

[End image ID]

[secretsofdbz]

How old is Gohan (or DB fans can't read and Toriyama can't (couldn't) count)

It’s common knowledge people disagree with how old Gohan was during the Cell Games and during the Buu arc. His usual name for those two sections of the story, Teen Gohan and Adult Gohan, don’t seem to make any sense. 

Let’s start counting. (TLDR at the end with a ref chart)

When Gohan is first introduced, Bulma asks his age and he states he is four years old. 

The training period between Raditz’s death and Vegeta and Nappa’s arrival is shortened because the two Saiyans arrive one full month earlier than anticipated (making the training period 11 months long and not a year long). 

Kaio-Sama knew the Saiyans would arrive the next day, but forgot to factor in how long Goku would take to travel back from Snake Way. Oops.

That makes Saiyan invasion Gohan probably five years old. 

Bulma, Gohan and Krillin land on Namek about forty days later (2 days at the Hospital, five days to repair the Namekian ship, one month to travel to Namek and the entire stay is about a week). 

It'll take 5 days to repair

Let's meet in 10 days (repair + learn Namekian + Gohan and Krillin need to be released form the hospital)

It’s been 7 days since we left, we still have 20 days to arrive to Namek.

The forty-ish days are confirmed when Bulma says there are 20 days left until they arrive on Namek, and at the same time, Vegeta arrives to Freeza Planet 79 “18 days after his departure from Earth.” (chapter 246). If Gohan hadn’t turned five during his 11 months of training with Piccolo, now it’s been 12 months so for sure he’s five.

Same chapter, Vegeta arrives to his destination 18 days after leaving Earth.

When everyone is transported back to Earth from Namek about a week later (6 days for Goku to arrive + a little rest time after the Ginyu fight), Gohan is still five years old. 

When they are transported to Earth from Porunga’s last wish and Guru dies, transferring his power to Moori, the Namekian Dragon Balls are inactive, so they need to wait one Namekian year to use them again. A Namekian year is 130 days.

Everyone waits at Capsule Corp. They wait for 130 days (one Namekian year), summon Porunga and make three wishes: bring Krillin’s soul to Earth, resurrect him, and resurrect Yamcha.

(Notice Gohan's hair, as well as Bulma's hair has grown quite a bit in these 130 days)

They wait another 130 days, resurrect Tenshinhan and Chaozu, and the third wish is used to transport the Namekians to a new planet Namek. This means the Namekians stayed 260 days, or about eight months and a half at Capsule Corp.

Then, the panel says “about a year later”, when everyone senses Freeza. If we add that to the 8 months and change from before, we can round it to about 20 months (that’s almost two years!).

How old is Gohan then? He was quite a bit over five years old before, we can safely assume that if he’s not seven years old, he’s really close to it (his hair has also grown!)

Considering Capsule Corp is having a Barbecue and Krillin and Gohan complain about being "hot" (Trunks pops out a fridge with cold drinks), it's safe to assume the Meca Frieza thing happens during the summer.

The next timeskip is “about three years, on May 12th”, but let’s keep some elements in mind from that section. We need to take note of some elements we know from 17yo Trunks and what we see in the Android Saga: 

For the first trip to the past, Trunks comes from “roughly twenty years in the future”.

Trunks will be born “two and a half years from now” (= he's 17 years old). 

The cyborgs/androids appear “in roughly three years, on May 12th.”

We don’t officially know Gohan's birthday from the manga, but we do know it from the Anime as being May 18th (he celebrates it during the 9 days between the announcement on TV and the Cell Games). Due to the “about three years” skip, Gohan is about to turn 10 years old at the start of the Android Saga. 

His stay in the Room of Spirit and Time lasts under a year. Give or take a few weeks to his biological age, during the Cell Games, Gohan’s biological age is almost 11 years old, while his calendar age is 10. Hardly a “teen”!

Now onto the 7 year timeskip. 

This is where things get complex, and we need to state some key elements: the school year starts in April in Japan, and the Tenkaichi Budokai always happens on May 7th, which means the Saiyaman Arc happens during the month between the first day of class and the Tournament. 

However… The manga does not say it’s been seven years. It says “years have passed” and “Gohan turned 16”. 

Here’s the big question: Is Gohan about to celebrate his 17th calendar birthday, or his biological one? Or is he actually about to turn 16 and the panel just anticipates his upcoming birthday?

We don’t know. This means we have no idea how long has passed from this information alone. This is why we need to find other clues.

Thankfully, we took note of some dates and other elements prior, and to solve the mystery, we will use Trunks. 

Trunks is stated to be 8 years old, and Goten is stated to be 7 years old during the tournament. 

Trunks was born “in about two and a half years” after the Meca Frieza situation, and the Androids attacked “in about three years”, making baby Trunks between infant and ten-ish months old by the time the Cell Games rolled around (both main timeline Trunks and Future Trunks have different birthdays actually, but they’re both in the second half of the year so here it does not matter). 

As such, Trunks’ birthday has to be after the Cell Games (he holds his head but can't walk, he grabs but can't talk, making him younger than a year old). This means his birthday has to be after the Tenkaichi Budokai (which is always on May 7th). That means Trunks will be turning nine years old during that calendar year (otherwise the Announcer would say "he's about to turn 8" or something like that).

If you believe Trunks may have been a year old already by the time the Cell Games rolled around, that’s fine! Let’s use Goten then. 

Goten was born after the Cell Games, which is after the Tenkaichi. However, during the Buu Tournament, he is clearly stated to be seven years old. This means the Saiyman and Buu saga cannot be “a little under seven years after the Cell Games (which was at the end of May)”. 

Even if Chichi gave birth to him the day after the Cell Games, it’s not possible for him to be already seven years old on May 7th during the Tenkaichi.

(and in this house we do not doubt the Announcer’s ability to give accurate info)

If we want the boys’ ages to make sense, we need to think they’ll be turning 8 and 9 respectively. 

And the Tenkaichi Budokai is traditionally held every three years so the Buu saga needs to happen “just a little under 9 years” after the Cell Games.

The problem is that if that’s the case, no matter how you add it up, May 7th, “a little under 9 years after the Cell games’, makes Gohan’ calendar age 17 (almost 18 since his birthday is coming up soon), but his biological age is almost 19. This means unless the Saiyaman arc takes place over a year and they train for that long for the tournament, his age doesn’t work. 

Though that does mean “adult Gohan” for Buu Gohan actually works…

There is no way to make both these elements work… unless we question Gohan’s initial age.

He is holding three fingers up, not four!!

Indeed, Toriyama changed his age in the following chapter. His 3 years old situation was corrected in the volumes, but the artwork was NOT corrected. This is how you show 3 and 4 with your fingers in Japan!

If Gohan starts at 3 years old, then everything falls into place just fine.

And this is why many of us say Gohan was 10 when he killed Cell.

TLDR:

Recap chart n°1

Recap chart n°2 with Gohan being 3 when Raditz lands:

[deutsche-bahn]

Kannst du mal dafür sorgen dass der Odenkirchener Bahnhof nicht mehr so ekelerwürgend ist? Bekomm immer Kotzreiz wenn ich durch die Unterführung latsche. Danke dir

Drei Vorschläge: 1) Ich habe genug TKKG gehört um zu wissen dass das jetzt schon der Hinweis darauf ist, dass du am Ende der Geschichte die Person bist die ständig in die Unterführung kübelt. Lass es einfach, Problem gelöst, Odenkirchen sauber. 2) Ich kündige wirklich, besorge mir bei Action nen Mopp und fahre dann nach Odenkirchen. Nicht, um zu wischen, sondern um 24/7 jeden mit einem Mopp anzugreifen der eventuell irgendwas ankotzt- oder pinkelt. 3) Wir verkaufen Odenkirchen an die Schweiz und tun so, als wäre weder die DB noch irgendeine deutsch Behörde hier zuständig.

[ziauhh]

My void Journey

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Hello my Hottie bitches, so you all have been requesting me so much for my void success story so here i am with my Badass success mf hope y'all gonna enjoy ♡

Backstory:

Now i was like you guys before i entered the void i would always be looking at succes stories, keep finding more n more void motivation asking Loa bloggers asks etc until i realised till when i am trying to do all this till when i will depend on others, if i keep making excuses then i am better dying like this so i got my shit together and head off towards the VOID 💩

How i entered the void:

I laid down and relaxed my body

I cleared my mind with a meditation

Then i started to affirm " I AM VOID"

Now within a few minutes i got the floating feeling my whole body got numb i couldn't feel anything and then i felt like something is consuming me like i am going into a black hole i knew i was so close to the void so i kept affirming and within a few seconds I WAS IN VOID so i affirmed for all my desires i used blanket affirmations like " I have all my desires, i have all my desires from my notes app etc" then i relaxed there for a bit and said i am out of void and so i was. But the feeling i got after coming from void was so different because i knew i got all my desires, THEY ARE MINE PERIODT damn and then i fell asleep.

My experience of waking up with my desires:

So my alarm rang at around 7 a.m, so i took my phone to turn it off but then i was like wait is this my phone i checked on the phone and it was fucking IPHONE 13 PRO MAX in Black then realisation hit me and i was like 💀 WTF i manifested my dream life although i wasn't shocked because i shifted to a reality where i always had this but it was still crazy, then i turned on the internet and notification started blowing on my phone 😱 I checked on my insta and scrolled over to see my posts and then another realisation hit me when i saw my own damn pics like it was my db and df LMFAO i was looking so stunning like a fucking Goddess 👀, so i ran up towards my bathroom to see myself in the mirror and i can't believe THIS IS ME THIS GORGEOUS LADY IS MEEEEE : ) then another realisation hit me when i saw my bathroom it was so luxury i can't so i checked up everything in my room after then, my closet which has all my clothes from the pinterest board IMAO and each and every corner of my room was how exactly i wanted it to be, then i again came back to my bed and saw a Good morning message i checked it out and it was from a mf hot guy 😳 he was so hot and handsome and guess what he is my Bestie 😭 ( soon to be boiifriend 🙌) i was literally drooling over him all this time we talked for half an hour and then i heard my mom calling me for breakfast so i went down to have breaky but i was too stunned to speak not only because of the view of the house but also seeing that my parents and my brother looks so much different they all looked like Rich asses dipped in some gold IMAO i thought it was all a dream 😭 like how can i end up having all this but IT'S THE FREAKING REALITY, anyways then i took a nice shower chose a pretty dress from my closet and watched some Netflix ( i am a trendy whore ) then in the eve i went out with my friends for shopping we clicked a lot of pics and hung out it was so fun. It was the best day of my life i have never experienced that before. I never thought that there would be something like void which would change my life completely. Everything is so mesmerizing i can't i am literally gonna cry but i have to say I LOVE MY FREAKING LIFE NOW BECAUSE THIS. IS. WHAT. I. DESERVE 😭💕

What all i manifested:

Waking up in a whole ass mansion

Luxury cars

50k in my bank every 24 hour

Rich ass parents

Desire face & body

Being smart af

All past grades to straight A's

Iphone 13 pro max

Other apple products

Perfumes

Best school life

Everyones crush

A guy bestie ( soon to be boiifriend )

And so much more ........ 🙌

Teaser:

I will share my Video/picture proofs with y'all of all my desires soon don't you worry but idfk when maybe after few days or weeks maybe when i think it's time to share but don't brag on my asks saying when are you sharing it i will but when i want.

PS: Will share my real insta id too @

🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆

Yeah that's the end i hope you liked it sexies 👀💜

Love

XoXo : )

[hexdoodlez]

debunking the 'Goku is a bad dad' allegations

Once again, FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK WHO STILL BELIEVE GOKU IS A BAD DAD FOR SOME REASON 1. Goku died twice to save his son. In the Saiyan saga, when dealing with Raditz and in the Cell saga where Cell was gonna self-destruct to kill everyone and destroy the Earth, but he sacrificed himself. 2. Goku never once forced Gohan to be a fighter. He wanted Gohan to continue his studies and he apologized for making Gohan fight again in the manga. 3. Goku trained Gohan for one year for the Cell Games 4. Again with the senzu bean incident because people keep bringing this back from the dead MULTIPLE TIMES, he had faith in Gohan, knowing he was the only one who can defeat Cell. And when Piccolo talked some sense into Goku, telling him Gohan's not a fighter, he realized he made a mistake, and went to help his son. 5. Goku decided to stay dead for 7 years because everyone was after him, and he didn't want it to happen again, so he stayed dead so his son can focus on his studies and further his education 6. Diving into the DBS territory (even though the series is rough, writing-wise), in the Goku Black arc, he was rightfully furious to hear Goku Black killed his wife and his son.

Bonus: There were nice family moments in both DBZ and DBS where Goku was with his family spending time together and having fun. In my opinion, Goku wasn't a perfect dad, but he's nowhere near a bad one. He was more adapt to getting stronger to fight stronger enemies because that's how he is, but it doesn't mean he doesn't care about his friends and family. I think the whole 'bad father allegations' thing happened was due to the fans being used to TeamFourStar's 'Goku is a bad dad' jokes WHICH IS A FAN BASED PARODY, NOT THE CANONICAL STORY they ended up forgetting Goku's real character as a whole. The same goes for the 'Special Beam Cannon" joke. ONLY THE REAL DBZ FANS KNOW IT'S MAKANKOSAPPO AND IT NEEDED TO BE SAID that myth where Dragon Balls being unable to read or watch the original series is starting to be more true as time goes by. here's the thread debunking the allegations and slander towards the homie Goku.

https://twitter.com/bestmangapost/status/1778422991057281171

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Examining Goku's Claims About Villains at the End of the Cell Saga

I have never liked Goku's reasoning for staying dead at the end of the Cell games. I still think the reasoning was superficial and hurt Gohan and his family more than necessary. But I want to go over each of the DB and DBZ villains that I can recall and validate Goku's claims because I am curious. This may not be 100% accurate since it has been a while since I watched the series.

Dragonball Villains

Pilaf - He wanted the dragonballs to rule the world. His quest had nothing to do with Goku. Bulma had more to do with the world domination attempt since she was the one actively looking for dragon balls. X

Red Ribbon Army - This army also was not a response to Goku. They were taking over the world and gathering the balls too. Goku kind of fell into the conflict. X

King Piccolo - Pilaf is the moron who released him. Maybe fear of Goku encouraged Pilaf's idea that he needed help to rule the world but I still would not blame King Piccolo on Goku. X

Piccolo Jr. - King Piccolo created Piccolo Jr. as a last-ditch attempt when Goku defeated him. King Piccolo, I believe, launched the egg away from the battle so it's not like Goku had an opportunity to destroy the egg. But let's say Goku is responsible for Piccolo Jr. Y

1/4 is Goku's fault

Dragonball Z Villains

Raditz - He came to Earth looking for his brother. Y

Vegeta & Nappa - They came to Earth because of the dragonballs. They don't seem to care much for Raditz so I am not sure they would visit Earth to seek revenge. X

Frieza - He came to Earth because Goku did not kill him off. So Frieza coming to Earth is 100% Goku's fault. Y

Androids - Dr Gero made the androids as revenge against Goku. Goku defeated the Red Ribbon army as a kid so you can't blame him for not being thorough. But still, the androids were due to Goku. Y

(Extra) Buu - It's a nasty coincidence that the Buu fiasco happened when Goku came back. Goku was the catalyst but ultimately it's not Goku's fault. It's mainly Vegeta's fault. And the Supreme Kai's fault for being so incompetent. X

3/5 is Goku's fault

Total: 4/9 is Goku's fault

So around half of the villains in Dragonball and DBZ are Goku's fault. And that was worth missing 7 years with his family?? What crap.

It's ironic. Goku hardly attracts villains when he is peacefully minding his own business with his family. And most of the villains that came to Earth that Goku was responsible for were due to Goku not finishing the job. Of course, you have outliers like Raditz. But if Goku did not seek out problems and eliminated villains without prejudice, everything would be fine for the most part. I am tired of people justifying Goku goofing off in the otherworld and leaving his family in the dust. These are the same people who defend Goku flying off into the sunset with Uub in peacetime, once again leaving his family hanging.

I love Father!Goku but only up till the Cell saga and dbz fanfiction. The Cell games took my rose-colored glasses off when it came to Goku's fatherhood.

[ngmn2002]

A small study...

Ch 92- Tsukasa's comment on No.3 is... basically a done deal Official/can do whatever ROF/will be taken care of somehow DBS.

Ch 110- I don't think he ever managed to make one. So all that's left is No.1's and me. Then all of the yorishiros will finally be gone.

According to his former calculation in ch 92...

Ok, so we have it like this...

No. 1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7

There are 4 left Tsukasa. Unless you took one for granted. Which one is it? No.3's or No.6's? Based on your speech in there, and later on in ch 110 we can assume you meant No.3's.

So, according to you, we're down to 3 out of 7.

No. 1 No.6 you.

Ok... so... you don't think Mit 2.0 will end up creating a yorishrio? Can her wish be granted with only 6 yorishiros out of the way with one assumed to be basically a done deal just like that? Don't we need the act of actually having it or destroying it later on? What's on your mind for real, Tsukasa?

Going their-her way for a moment.

Kaay... let's repeat.

No. 1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7

We're down to 3. No, 2.

No.1 No.3 No.6 No.7 ... 4

..........

Ok, if we assumed they consider No.6's deal a done one after what they did,

No.1 No.3 No.7 ... 3

... and No.7's done given she'll talk to Nene about it, Mr. yorishiro wants it anyway. And he's working to grant her wish anyway, so he's including himself in the issue.

They are down to 2...

No. 1 No.3.

They are after the 2 in one go right now, aren't they? So, I assume they want No.3 to make a yorishiro then destroy it afterwards, to do that they'll have to take Nene or lure her into doing it, huh?

...

Their calculating method is different from that of Tsukasa's.

The other option is that they simply want Mit 2.0 gone for good instead of making a yorishiro as a way equal to destroying his yorishiro, which is a thing Tsukasa never questioned before. So it feels so less likely to happen. But here it is either way.

So, do we get to the point of the 2 and Tsukasa finally going different ways in the open? Now, with No.3's case?

It can happen with No.1's if things didn't go as planned, too. Same can go for No.7's.

All works the same way, if things shifted from how she wants them to go, she, together with her loyal dog, will interfere any way possible to make sure things are back to how she wants them.

...

What you should always expect of "you and I" at any case.

Still thinking about Tsukasa's take on things and what he has in mind for what's to come for real. This boy... he is a lot.

[gorgeouslypink]

Hey pink!! Sorry for this super long post but I rlly wanted to share emy entire story. So before the void and everything I was pretty decent at manifesting. I used sunliminals and changed my nose, good grades, and some money and luck stuff. Then after struggling with the void my mindset went to shit. Like I would do SATS and affirm 24/7. I even did that 10k challenge thingie and did the 3dolc×roe and failed to get into the void. It was messing with me so bad. Then I came across your blog and your sabatoging post. And I really sat down to think abt it. Honestly I was so preoccupied with the void that I hadn't manifested anything in a while. But back when I did manifest stuff what did I do? I just listened to subliminals and went on with my day. So I used the subliminal you suggested to lucid dream and went to sleep listening to a lucid dream binaural beats video and I woke up in a lucid dream. It was so crazy bc I've never done it before and I had no idea how I knew I was in a lucid dream but I rmbred someone saying something about fingers or hands or something and I looker at my hand and I had 7 fingers lmao (ik, disgusting). Anyways, I closed my eyes and then when I opened my eyes I had woken up. To be honest I was so frustrated but then I read the other success story that was like wait for your dream to stabilize so I did the entire process again and this time I just like tried to control my dream (sooo weird I felt like I was in that one Leonardo DiCaprio movie where the girl is like making the buildings roll over on thenselves) and anyways some time passed and I knew my dream was stable so I did it again and I affirmed for a bit like "I am in the void state. " for 5 minutes then I opened my eyes and I was there. I got a bunch of things including df, db, and my desired voice.

Anyways this is just my theory and I barely did it once but I think that closing your eyes during a lucid dream wakes u up except like when you do this, you're at that super suggestible trance state where you're barely awake yk what I mean? Sorry idrk the word to describe this but anyways so I think that you should close your eyes and affirm for a bit before you open them again because if you open them, you might end up waking up but if you take advantage of the suggestive state then entering the void is easy. Anyways thank you for your blog and I know you're on break so publish then when you can. Thanks gorgeous <3

Hey love! I'm so proud of you and thank you for sharing your full experience and your thoughts 💗

[helloiamadrawer]

hello~

my name is Ace and welcome to my blog!

i mostly just write on this blog for the according fandoms:

1.My Hero Academia

2.Dragon Ball Super/Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

3.The Amazing Digital Circus (it'll probably be headcanons as for now)

Rules:

Please make your age visible in your bio (because some stuff is 18+) you will be blocked if not and determined as a bot

2. no negative comments or anything that is hate related as it will result in to being blocked as well

Masterlists

My Hero Academia

Yuga Aoyama

An Aoyama Fan's Nightmare

DORM CHECK (18+🔥)

The Nightrobe 🔥

PARTNERS 💕 (AOYAMA X READER SERIES)⬇️

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

FINALE

Class 1-A headcanons and such

Class 1A Girls + music they listen to

Class 1A Boys + music they listen to PART 1

Class 1A Boys + music they listen to PART 2

KiriMina

Alternate Ending Chapter 383 KIRIMINA STORY 💕

Revenge at The Sports Festival

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Dragon Ball Super/Super Hero 🐉

Fav DBS/SH Characters NSFW Imagines

Dyspo NSFW alphabet (18+🔥)

Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 Content

Gamma 1

Nsfw headcanons (18+)

Gamma 1 bf headcanons

Gamma 2

X Reader headcanons (sfw and nsfw)

Supreme Kai Pairings (ship headcanons)

Universe 3 x Universe 9

Universe 4 x Universe 7

THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS 🎪

Kinger👑 Tweaking (Part 1) (trigger warning)

Kinger Tweaking (Part 2) (trigger warning)

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Hello, everybody. This is the Oldie Chinese Diaspora Anon™️.

I just want to thank this anon for being so supportive. It’s wonderful to know that what I have written is helpful in the recast conversation. As I’ve said before, there is more than just one way of looking at this issue. It’s morality, sure; but it’s also economics, among other things. And I am really glad that I was able to contribute to this broader conversation.

To this end, I’ve taken this opportunity to list my previous posts. I hope this is helpful to you: (Note: Some of these posts do not have the OCDA™️ identifier. At that time, I didn’t think I would become a regular reader/contributor to this blog. And really, the identifier started as a response to me speaking more directly about the Chinese doll scene. I apologize if any of these came as a surprise to you.)

1. Luo being dragged into court:

2. OOAK vs “copies” in the context of recasts:

3. Where do recasts come from?

4. Volk’s Omakuae:

5. Dream Fairy and DBS dolls:

6. Chinese social media site, RED:

7. More from “the other side”:

8. Chinese version of the TBC:

9. Recycled Plastics?

10. Sweatshop labour, part 1:

11. Sweatshop labour, part 2:

12. Non-resin BJD’s “recycled plastic” scare:

13. PVC as a doll material:

14. Social credit and selling overseas:

15. Representation of disabilities:

16. “Loudest anti-recast voice”:

17. Follow up to previous:

18. Strawman arguments:

19. “Where did they come from?” or resin “recasted” into vinyl:

~Anonymous

Mod: Thank you for your extremely thorough and informative contributions Anon 💜

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Manga ch. 21-26

Phew!  We’re almost done with the Zamasu Saga. 

Last time, we left off with Trunks holding off Goku Black and Zamasu so that Goku and Vegeta could escape in the Time Machine.  This is somewhat similar to what Trunks did to save them in Episode 62 of the DBS anime.  Except they never bothered to explain how Trunks survived against such hopeless odds.  Instead, in Episode 63, he just wakes up in a Resistance Bunker.  No one explains how he got away from Black and Zamasu.  It’s bullshit. 

In the manga version, he gets rescued by the Shin and Gowasu of the “main” timeline.  In Trunks’ timeline, all of the Supreme Kais are dead, but the “main” timeline versions can still travel to this world using their Time Rings.  They can also teleport to any planet they wish, including this reality’s version of the Sacred World of the Kais in Universe 7.  It’s deserted now, but they still know where it is, and it provides refuge for the good guys while they wait for Goku and Vegeta to return. 

But why do they even need to wait for Goku and Vegeta?  They used the Time Machine, so why don’t they just set the return coordinates for a few seconds after they left?  Goku asks this very question, and Bulma tells him that it can’t work that way.  I won’t get into the details because later it turns out Bulma was mistaken about this, but in this scene, she tells them that they have to “sync up” with the other timeline.  Spending one day here means that they have to return one day later in the other timeline as well. 

Tell you what, let’s just jump ahead to the ending, where Emperor Pilaf of all people figures out Bulma’s error.  Presumably Future Bulma, the one who actually invented the time machine, understood this, but Present Bulma is still learning as she goes.

Oh, before I get too far ahead of myself, check out this goofy rendition of Trunks’ sword.  It looks too wide in a lot of scenes, but in this one it’s like Toyotaro is trying to make it looks stupid on purpose.  Aren’t swords easy to draw?  Also, why is Mai wrapping her fingers around the blade like that? 

One more thing, I appreciate Goku Black in this scene declaring that he doesn’t want to destroy the entire planet.  He could wipe out all mortals very efficiently if he just blew up the planets they were standing on, but he wants to keep all the planets in tact.  This was heavily implied in the anime, but they never came out and said so, which always frustrated me. 

Here’s a scene of Black and Zamasu’s hideout, and it works a lot better than it did in the anime, because this scene shows them discussing their plans instead of just sipping tea and congratulating themselves.  Because of Gowasu and Shin’s little rescue earlier, they’re concerned that their plans have been exposed to the gods of the other timelines.  They’re worried that Grand Zeno might even catch wind of this, so their best bet is to leave this Earth and move on to a new base of operations.  But they still want to finish off the remaining Earthlings before they leave. 

See, this is excellent storytelling.  The way the information is presented, we learn additional things about their plan.  They could have wiped out the Earthlings some time ago.  It’s not even hard for them, which is why they’re gonna knock it out in one afternoon before they leave.  But like I mentioned in the last post, they’ve been using this Earth as a training ground to get Goku Black powered up and to practice for the more difficult work of invading the other timelines.

It’s also important to show that they’re actually concerned about something going wrong.  Their Zero Mortals Plan isn’t foolproof.  The only reason they were able to kill all the gods in this reality is because they had the element of surprise on their side, and because of that business where killing a Supreme Kai kills the Destroyer God and deactivates his Angel for free.  But now that Gowasu and Shin are onto them, it’ll be a lot harder to get the drop on the other gods from here on out.  Black and Zamasu are still confident about their plan, but they’re clearly troubled by this development. 

This was something that was sorely lacking in the anime version, where Black and Zamasu were constantly making those smug little grins the entire time.  They never worried about anything until Zamasu nearly got trapped by the Mafuba near the end of the arc.  And if the villain is never inconvenienced, it makes the story kind of dull.  Think about how troubled King Piccolo was when his children were killed, or how frightened he got when he thought Goku’s Kamehameha stance might be a Mafuba.  Or how annoyed Frieza would get when he lost the Dragon Balls.  Anime Zamasu never gives you any of that.

Anyway, their final push to kill the remaining Earthlings forces Trunks’ group to take action.  Gowasu refuses to stand by and wait for Goku and Vegeta.  Instead, he goes alone to appeal to Goku Black’s better nature, except Black has already murdered two other versions of Gowasu, so he has no problem doing it again.  And there’s a scene like this in the anime, but this time Black actually gets to stab him, and Gowasu falls off a building.  It’s pretty cool because:

1) It actually looks like he’s dead, because Black’s attack seriously hurt him, unlike all the times he stabs people in the anime and they’re fine.

2) It gives some karmic payback to Gowasu for failing to recognize the problem with Zamasu before it got this bad. 

Gowasu isn’t a bad person, but he made a very grave mistake, and it’s unsatisfying how he never suffers any direct consquences for it.  I mean, two other versions of Gowasu get murdered, but that’s a little too clean for my tastes.  Those dead Gowasu’s don’t have to live with it.  This Gowasu, who gets stabbed but survives, has something painful to remember this by.   It’s much more satisfying this way. 

So when Gowasu gets hurt, Trunks, Shin, and Mai return to Earth to save him, and not long after that, Goku and Vegeta return to pick up where they left off.  This time, Goku has learned the Mafuba Technique to deal with Zamasu, while Vegeta trained in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to counter Goku Black.

Vegeta’s strategy this time is to fight in the Super Saiyan God form, which is weaker than Blue, so Goku Black doesn’t understand the point.  But as Goku explains, Vegeta has learned to control his powers more precisely, switching from SSG to Blue at the very instant he attacks.  This way he gets the best of both worlds.  Super Saiyan God is easier to maintain and a little more agile, so Vegeta can defend himself in that form, and then he only uses Blue in very small doses, getting all the raw power while minimizing the strain on his body.

This is similar to something Goku did against Hit in the previous arc, but he only managed to do it once, at the very end of their fight.  Vegeta’s mastered the trick to the point where he can do it repeatedly.  Again, this is way better than the anime, where Vegeta didn’t do anything differently after training in the Chamber.  It was understood that he would be stronger than before, but there was nothing more to it than that.  One fight he lost to Black, and now he’s winning.  I hate to sound like a broken record, but the manga is just styling all over the anime here. 

I’m not even saying this “Switching Between God and Blue” trick is a cool idea.  I seem to remember fans disliking this when these chapters were published.  But the point here is that it is an idea.  It’s something new Vegeta does that he couldn’t do before, and that’s the in-story reason why he’s winning this time.  He doesn’t have to invent a new transformation every time he trains, but he has to come up with something to explain his improvement, and this works.

Meanwhile, Goku actually gets to do the Mafuba, so that’s another win for the manga.  Also, the gag with the talisman works a lot better in this version.  In the anime, Goku forgot the talisman altogether.  Here, he remembered to bring it, but he picked up the wrong piece of paper.  The joke is less about Goku screwing up and more about him looking at the talisman and seeing a coupon for “Club Tight & Scanty”. 

So this leads up to the Zamasu/Goku Black fusion, which works a lot better here, because Vegeta is handily kicking Black’s ass.  Goku may not be able to seal Zamasu away like he planned, but he can definitely keep Zamasu contained long enough for Vegeta to kill Goku Black, and Zamasu won’t be able to carry out his plan alone.  The anime borked that up by having Goku Black still have the upper hand, so they really only fused because Zamasu was rattled about the Mafuba.

So Goku and Vegeta fuse, right?  Well, not right away.  They have the Potara at their disposal, but they don’t want to go through with it.  Goku asks Vegeta, but as soon as Vegeta refuses, Goku’s more relieved than anything else.  Then while Goku fights alone, Vegeta hears Gowasu explain that Merged Zamasu should unfuse within an hour.   See, in the anime he said Potara fusion is permanent only when a Kai is involved.  But in the manga, it’s only permanent when a Supreme Kai is involved, and Zamasu never officially achieved that rank. He’s just a usurper, so his fusion has a time limit too.  That gets Vegeta’s attention, and so does Trunks when he says he wants to join in the fight because he doesn’t want Vegeta getting hurt over this, because his mom really wanted to go back in time and see him again before she died. 

So all of that changes Vegeta’s mind about the fusion, and that’s how we get Vegito in this version.  I like that, because Goku and Vegeta have shown a reluctance to fuse in the past, and it’s a lot cooler to have Vegeta motivated by sentimental reasons than just “The bad guy is really strong, so we just gotta.”  I like fusion, don’t get me wrong, but they need to sell me on it a little first. 

So Vegito starts off by blowing off Zamasu’s right arm, which sets up a nice little homage to Cell getting Final Flashed.  I think this is one of those scenes where fans whine about Toyotaro “tracing”, which is dumb as hell, because it’s clearly a callback.  Of course he’s gonna do stuff like this.  He’s a Dragon Ball fan working on a Dragon Ball comic.  Comic book artists do this all the time.  There’s probably a few thousand different tributes to the cover of Action Comics #1.

Vegito comes apart pretty quickly, and Zamasu works the boys over with Kachin metal blocks and that portals trick Janemba does.  I get the Katchin thing, because Toyotaro probably played Budokai 2 where the Supreme Kai would throw blocks at people, and he wanted to use that move here.  The portals thing... I don’t know.  He definitely needed to do a new power just to show off Merged Zamasu’s on a different level, and this works for that, but it feels a little out of left field.  I’m not sure what he should have used instead though, so I won’t complain too much.

So from the sidelines, Gowasu and Shin watch Goku and Vegeta getting clobbered, and they wish that they could help.  Once, when they were apprentice Supreme Kais like Zamasu, they had healing powers of their own, but they had to give that ability up once they assumed the role of Supreme Kai.  Then Trunks remembers that he was an Assistant Supreme Kai in a manner of speaking.  Back when his own Supreme Kai was training him to fight Babidi and Dabura, there was a ritual Shin did for him, one that he didn’t understand at the time.  As it turns out, that ritual was to give him the powers of an Assistant Kai, which included healing powers.  Trunks just didn’t know about it until now, which is... kind of goofy, but okay. 

So he can heal the others, but it turns out he only has enough power to heal one or the other, so he’ll have to choose.  At first, Trunks goes with Vegeta, but Vegeta refuses.  While he was fused with Goku, he realized that Goku has the power to win this fight, so that’s who he wants Trunks to heal up.

This part isn’t exactly brilliant, but it sure beats what they did in the anime after Vegito came apart, which was just having Trunks chop Zamasu in half using ki from a handful of ordinary civilians.  I mean, if we’re choosing between two different asspulls, I’ll take the asspull that makes a little more sense. 

So Goku gets healed and fights alone, and Vegeta explains how Goku managed to perfect the Super Saiyan Blue form, allowing himself to use Blue for sustained periods of time.  And that works because this is the first time we’ve really gotten to see Goku fight at this level, but if he had this mastered already, why was he so impressed with Vegeta’s deal where he switched between God and Blue?  Because that sounds like a workaround that Goku had already made obsolete.

Goku even manages to use Hakai against Zamasu, but he pulls Mai in the path of the attack so Goku has to back off.  Again, a little goofy, but I can like with it. 

The main thing here is that Goku didn’t get to do much in the first two-thirds of the arc, and that’s by design.  You bring him out at the end so he can show off all his cool powers and everyone talks about how strong he is.  Which means you have to do a lot of scenes where Goku is on the sidelines, or absent altogether.  And this is nothing new.  We’ve seen it in a lot of classic Dragon Ball arcs in the past, but Toei wants to go against that idea and put Goku all over the place.  Well, they got their way in GT and they got their way in the anime version of the Zamasu arc, and both of those things sucked.  This manga Zamasu arc has some problems, but it’s a lot more sound from a structural standpoint. 

Does it make sense for Goku to be able to fight Merged Zamasu alone?  Not really, but he doesn’t have to beat him, he just has to hold out long enough for the fusion to wear off, and it does.  But it’s all weird because it was two Zamasus.

And that’s when Trunks chops them in half.   See, this works so much better because Merged Zamasu was already starting to come apart anyway, so this is just Trunks delivering a final blow instead of inventing some new power from nothing.

But it’s not the end just yet, because each half grows back, and then the Goku Black half gets up from being impaled.  How did he become immortal?

Then both of them regenerate into their Merged Zamasu forms, so now we have two Merged Zamasus.  Vegeta does a Final Flash variation called “Gamma Burst Flash”, and that rips them both apart, but then the pieces grow into even more Zamasus, so we have this Sorcerer’s Apprentice thing going on.

Retreat isn’t an option either, because the Zamasus reveal that they have their own time machine.  Remember that ancient civilization in Universe 12 who invented a time machine?  Well, the Destroyer God from U12 kept it, and Zamasu found it .  So he can use that device to invade the other timelines.  Wait, how would Zamasu know how to operate an alien time machine?  I mean, he’s not stupid, but still.  For all he knows, it’s not even functional anymore, and there’s no tech support in Universe 12 because he killed everyone in it. 

So Goku and Vegeta try to hold off this Zamasu army while the others escape.  They have no idea what good it’ll do, but it’s better than nothing.  I like Vegeta’s like here when Goku asks him if he has a plan. “Go wild until you die.  That’s all.”

I also like how Goku’s only regret is that if he has to go out in a hopeless battle like this, he’d rather do it in Super Saiyan mode.  Luffa would be touched.

But then he remembers his button that he got from Grand Zeno, and things pretty much play out like they did in Episode 67 of the anime.  The entire timeline is erased, and in the manga, we see the Time Ring that represents this timeline vanish along with it.  That kind of bugged me in the anime version, where Gowasu looks at his box of rings one last time at the end of the arc and all the rings are still there. 

On the other hand, should the Time Ring vanish?  Zeno didn’t erase the timeline, just the multiverse it contained.  Is that the same thing?  The history of that reality still exists, right?  Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter, since the Time Rings can’t go back to the past, and now this timeline only has a past.  So even if the history of that timeline remains, the Time Ring that goes with it is useless, so it might as well self-destruct.

Except Whis still has that plan to go back to the timeline before Grand Zeno destroyed everything in it, nip Zamasu in the bud, and drop off Trunks and Mai to live out their lives.  This will create a new alternate timeline, but the fact that Whis can do this at all suggests that the Time Ring for that reality still needed to exist.  Ah well, this whole business is pretty dumb anyway. 

My head canon for all of this is that Whis dropped off this version of Trunks and Mai in the timeline where Xeno Trunks lives, and sometimes he’ll come home from Time Patrol duty and say hello to his blue-haired duplicate, an older, more traumatized version of himself who lives with his wife in some cabin out in the middle of nowhere.  Blunks sees his mom now and again, but he and Mai keep to themselves for the most part, as they can’t quite feel like they truly belong in this world.  But they have each other, and that’s enough.

But I can never figure out the timeline logistics to make that provable.  It probably isn’t worth the trouble.

Anyway, Pilaf keeps asking Future Mai what happened to the Pilaf and Shu of that timeline, and she seems to know the answer, but she can’t bring herself to tell him the truth.  I was sort of hoping Future Mai wouldn’t even know who Pilaf was, since the anime never bothered to establish this, but the manga makes it clear that this is the same Mai who we saw in the first DB arc in 1984.  So whatever. 

The thing is, Pilaf’s all worried because he doesn’t know what unspeakable fate awaits him, but for all we know, Mai just doesn’t want to tell him he died.  I mean, everyone died in that timeline. It’s just a question of who killed Pilaf and when it happened.  Maybe something else happened to him before he got killed, and that’s what Mai doesn’t want to talk about, but even if he lived right up to the end, he still would have died in that one shed Goku Black blew up. 

Like I said, this arc is pretty damn morbid, and it bothers me how casually Toriyama brought back this alternate timeline just to eradicate it completely.   He could have just... not brought it back, and that would have been the same as destroying it, but instead it’s like he went out of his way to do this arc just to burn the whole thing to the ground and piss on the ashes. 

And we never really know for sure that Whis succeeds in his plan to relocate Trunks and Mai.  This feels very much like when someone says they took your pet dog to a farm where they can run and play all day long.  Maybe Whis just killed them in secret to wrap up the last loose ends.  Or maybe he made a good faith effort and it just didnt’t work the way he expected.  Or maybe it worked just fine, but Trunks couldn’t handle it and flipped out.   It’s not fun to think about. 

But it’s over now, and I’m pleased to say the manga version is a lot better than the anime, although I guess that’s not saying a whole lot.  Good night, and fuck the Zamasu Saga forever.