#all i can see is mr. piccolo's turban

[dbphantom]

biblically accurate sun god

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 218

Last time, Videl got destroyed in her first-round match with Spopovitch.    Well, not literally destroyed.  I forgot what kind of show this is.  Spopo just beat her up pretty badly, to the point where Goku headed out to get her a senzu bean.    Backstage, Mr. Satan is so mad at Spopovitch that he takes all the press microphones and crushes them up into a ball.   Make no mistake, Mr. Satan is no one you wanna mess with.   He’s a weakling on this show, but only because the heroes can all fly and blow up whole cities.  

This also underscores just how strong Spopovitch must be, because Videl’s supposed to be even stronger than Mr. Satan, so she could probably crush twice as many microphones, and she still lost.

The thing is, Spopovitch was no match for Mr. Satan at the 24th Tenkaichi Budokai, held several years ago.  

He also looked a lot healthier back then.

So how could Spopovitch have beaten Videl so easily?   Mr. Satan has no idea, so his only guess is that Videl just got extremely careless.   And I guess that’s not entirely untrue, but I don’t think he’d be saying that if he had watched her match.

So what’s holding up that senzu bean?   Well, Goku wants to eat first.  Okay, fine, but did Korin and Yajirobe just happen to have all this food lying around?   Well, Yajirobe’s here, so maybe it makes sense.   Remember when Korin only ate like one fish every five years or whatever it was?    Back then, he had a whole pot full of senzu beans, and nowadays he barely seems to have any.     Blame Yajirobe.

Korin wonders why a dead guy even needs to eat, and Goku explains that he doesn’t, but the food is tastier here in the living world.   That sounds kind of tragic, really.   Anyway, he wants to sample as much cuisine as he can before he leaves Earth for good.

Finally, Goku returns with the beans (they only had three, thanks a lot, Yajirobe), and Gohan asks everyone to hold off on his upcoming match with Kibito until he can give one to Videl.   

While all of this is going on, we check in on Vegeta, who doesn’t really care about Shin, Kibitio, Spopovitch, or that Yamu guy.   He’s got a one-on-one match against Goku, and that’s all that matters to him.  Hold that thought.

So Gohan gives Videl the bean, which is kind of a tense moment, because Videl trusts Gohan, but Mr. Satan thinks he’s giving her candy, and the people taking care of Videl have no idea what this is about.   

So, this right here sums up what makes this ship so romantic.   Everything Gohan does around this girl is mysterious and wonderful, and she’s totally blown away by it every time.   Meanwhile, for Gohan, all of this stuff is no big deal, or things he wants to keep quiet because he’s worried about how she’ll react.   “Um, hey, my dad got some magic healing beans from a cat he knows, nbd.”     For Videl, this is all like that “A Whole New World” number from Aladdin, only Gohan’s worried that she might not like the pattern on the carpet.    

Anyway, he leaves and she swallows the bean, and she’s healed immediately, and it’s adorable.   

So now it’s finally time for the fourth match, Great Saiyaman vs. Kibito, only Gohan lost his head wrapping when he turned Super Saiyan last episode.    So when his friends from high school spot him, he just looks like Gohan in sunglasses, and they realize it’s him.  The funny thing is that they don’t quite figure out that Gohan is really the Great Saiyaman.   He might only be impersonating the real Saiyaman to enter this tournament anonymously.    Come to think of it, Gohan’s whole disguised entry in the tournament here is sort of a callback to his mom’s appearance at the 23rd Budokai.   Huh.

Okay, so Toei didn’t know what to call Great Saiyaman’s head wrapping either.   Good.    I kept wanting to call it a turban but it really doesn’t look like one, and I don’t think “bandana” or “do-rag” works either.    Anyway, Gohan hears his friends cheering for him and realizes his secret has been exposed, so he tosses away his sunglasses.

NO YOU DID NOT WORK “SO HARD” TO DISGUISE YOURSELF.    YOU BLEW IT WITH VIDEL IN LIKE TWO SECONDS, AND YOU SPENT THIS WHOLE DAY HANGING AROUND YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY, WHO ALL CALL YOU “GOHAN” IN FRONT OF EVERYONE, EVEN WHILE YOU’RE IN COSTUME.  THEN YOU TURNED SUPER SAIYAN IN FRONT OF EVERYONE HERE, AND YOU FORGOT TO PUT YOUR DISGUISE BACK ON.    ARGH!

So with that out of the way, Gohan turns his attention to Kibito, who immediately demands that he turn into a Super Saiyan.   Dude, he already did that last time.    Were you not paying attention?

Nearby, Yamu and Spopovitch are scanning the ring with some doohickey of theirs.     It apparently senses energy.    Is it just me, or does it look like they pasted Spopo’s head on after drawing the rest of this cel?     It just looks kind of silly to me somehow.    I bet if you could look at the cels for this episode, there’d be one of just Spopo’s head for this.    I’m not sure why, since they don’t move in this scene.  

Speaking of that, I always wonder about fans who collect animation cels.   Like, where do you go to buy those?    There’s probably thousands of them out there, but it’s weird to me, because I think of it as a very limited supply.   Like if I got into that sort of thing, I guess I’d want some cels of Perfect Cell or Movie 12, but I wouldn’t be surprised if all the really good ones got collected years ago.   But there’s probably a ton of Yamu and Spopovitch cels out there, especially ones that don’t look very cool, like just a picture of Yamu’s left arm or something.    Can you buy those?   Or do they even bother putting them up for sale?    Or have they all been bought up by one devoted Spopovitch fangirl?

Gohan isn’t eager to play along, but Piccolo gives him a telepathic nudge to cooperate, since he’s the only one who knows who Kibito and Shin really are.    He doesn’t know why they want Gohan to transform, but it must be important.    Shin then asks the others to stand by for whatever happens next.

Vegeta demands an exaplanation, and Piccolo informs him that Shin is the Supreme Kai, who stands above all other Kamis and Kais.

This seems to genuinely impress Vegeta, which I find odd, since he’s barely had anything to do with all of these godly types.    It always seemed odd to me that he knew what Piccolo fusing with Kami would mean, since he’d never interacted with Kami up to that point.    And he’s never met any of the Kais.    Maybe someone told him how King Kai trained Goku to defeat him and Nappa, but that would be the only point of reference I could see.

Meanwhile, there’s a match going on, or there’s supposed to be.    The fans had to wait just to get both of these guys in the ring, and now they’re just staring at each other while Gohan decides whether to transform or not.    Chi-Chi scolds the crowd, saying that her son’s about to do something cool, so everyone should just be friggin’ patient.   

Also, Videl is back, just in time to see this.    And she’s wearing the “FIGHT” shirt, which is my favorite Videl look. Well, most of it, anyway.

And... yeah, I can’t get over Spopovitch’s head.    What is the deal with this?

Anyway, Gohan’s like “I guess I’ll have to quit school.”   And he starts gearing up to turn Super Saiyan.    You’re making the right decision, Gohan.    The awesome decision.

[magicalgirlmascot]

Can I request number 6 in "For want a Nail" form 🙏. Pretty sure piccolo would be the that kind of partner in a relationship

“You can’t kick me out! This is my bed!”

Piccolo rubbed at his eyes, half swaying on his feet. He’d never been this tired before. His eyes hurt and his head pounded and it was a struggle to concentrate. He never should have started skipping out on his meditations. And for what? More sparring, more training, more excuses to spend time with Nail. It was pitiful. Weak and pitiful. And now he was going to pass out for it.

“You’ve been neglecting your body again, haven’t you.”

Nail’s comment was not a question. He propped his hands on his hips, looking at Piccolo impassively. Piccolo shrugged. “What, you care or something?” His voice was rough with exhaustion and he winced to hear it. Disgusting.

“Yeah, actually, I do.” Nail shook his head. “This may shock you, Piccolo, but most people have this thing called ‘compassion’ that compels them to feel bad for others.”

“I know what compassion is,” Piccolo growled, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. It helped ground him and woke him up a touch, but he was still bone tired. He was going to collapse from exhaustion at this rate.

“Here.” Hands were on his wrists, pulling his hands away from his face. “You need to sleep.”

Piccolo tried to glare at him, but he wasn’t sure how successful it was. “I don’t sleep. You don’t sleep. Our entire species doesn’t sleep.”

“We do if we’ve been forgetting to actually take a rest for a week straight,” Nail shot back. “Just for a little while. Humans call it a ‘power nap,’ I think. Come on.” He tugged, and Piccolo followed, not bothering to resist. There wouldn’t be much point, anyway; in his state he could only put up a token resistance. Nail could overpower him easily, and he refused to give the bastard that satisfaction.

Nail led him down the hallway to the room he’d taken over when he and Piccolo first defused and Nail started living on the Lookout. From what Piccolo knew, he mostly used it as storage for the things he collected when they went sparring–rocks, branches, dried plants, living plants in tiny jars or pieces of broken pottery. There wasn’t much other use for it, since they didn’t sleep. Piccolo certainly never used the room that Mr. Popo insisted belonged to him. The only one who ever slept there was Gohan on the rare occasion he stayed on the Lookout overnight.

To Piccolo’s surprise, though, the bed in the corner looked fairly well used. He raised a brow at Nail, who shrugged. “It’s comfortable, and sometimes I like somewhere quiet to relax with a good book. Now come on, lie down.” Grumbling, Piccolo crossed to the bed and started to crawl onto it. “Hold on.” Nail’s hands gently lifted Piccolo’s turban off. “You don’t want to have your weighted clothes on for this. I swear, Piccolo, that’s half the reason you’re so tired all the time.”

“Some of us aren’t happy getting complacent during peace time,” Piccolo muttered, but he tugged his cape off and let it fall to the floor before crawling onto the bed.

As soon as his body hit the mattress, it was a struggle to keep his eyes open. Shit. Nail had been right. Piccolo needed this. The last thing he registered before dozing off was a slight dip in the mattress behind him.

When Piccolo woke, it was dark, and he peered blearily around to see if he could figure out where he was. It was comfortable, and warm. His eyes started to drift shut again. Surely a few more minutes couldn’t hurt.

Something shifted behind him and his eyes blinked open again. There was an arm across his waist, pulling him flush against a body. He rolled over and squinted through the darkness. It was Nail, of course it was Nail. Piccolo couldn’t even be surprised.

Although wait, yes he could. It was all coming back to him now–he’d been so tired, and Nail had dragged him to his bed to sleep, and there he was, and there Nail was, except why was Nail with him? Such proximity was making Piccolo feel things, uncomfortable things, the same things that drove him to seek Nail out every waking minute while also screaming at himself to push Nail away. It took a long time for his eyes to adjust to the dim light, but when they did his vision was filled with Nail’s calm, sleeping face, and he swallowed.

Nail was so…attractive. There was really no other word for him. His full lips were parted slightly and Piccolo wanted to touch them. But that would be so inappropriate, so he held back, instead resting a hand on Nail’s side and closing his eyes again. He still needed his sleep.

The second time Piccolo woke up, it was to Nail’s smiling face. “Hi there,” he murmured. “Sleep well?”

“Yeah,” Piccolo mumbled, blinking sleep from his eyes. The situation suddenly registered, far clearer than it had while he was still half-asleep, and he shoved away from Nail, his back slamming into the wall. His eyes went wide and panicked. “What the hell?” he demanded. “Why–why are you here?”

“I needed some sleep too.” Nail shrugged with one shoulder. “Come on, can’t a guy sleep in his own bed?”

“But–” Piccolo rubbed his forehead. “I’m sleeping here. Get out.”

Nail jerked back in shock. “I–you can’t kick me out! This is my bed!”

“Well I–you–we can’t be in the same bed, that’s just weird.” Piccolo shook his head and sat up. “I’m not sleeping with you. If you won’t go, I will.”

“What, so you can work yourself half to death again?” Nail grabbed Piccolo’s shoulder and shoved him back down. “I don’t think so.”

Something in Piccolo’s stomach twisted about how easily Nail could push him around, but that wasn’t the problem right now. The problem was Nail’s very handsome face directly over his, and the colour creeping up Piccolo’s exposed neck. “Let go of me before I do something we’re both going to regret.”

Nail leaned down, fangs bared. “Try me.”

Without thinking, Piccolo grabbed both sides of Nail’s face and pulled their foreheads together with an audible clack. He squeezed his eyes shut and wrapped his antennae around Nail’s in a searing kiss. Yes, this is what he’d wanted, what he’d really been searching Nail out for. Nail didn’t move against him, but he didn’t struggle either, and Piccolo opened his eyes to see Nail staring bewilderedly at him.

“What…” he whispered hoarsely. One hand came up to cup Piccolo’s face. “What are you doing?”

Piccolo swallowed. “I can’t sleep with you because I don’t understand what these feelings are yet.” It was only a partial truth, but it was easier than the full truth. He understood his feelings just fine–better than usual, a little too well, even. He just didn’t want to admit them. “I want to kiss you and–other things.”

“Other things?” Nail smirked and slid one antenna up Piccolo’s, drawing a startled gasp. “Well. Lucky for you,” he said, brushing a thumb over Piccolo’s cheekbone, “I want to kiss you too.”

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball 134

It’s the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai!   And Piccolo Junior is the man to beat!   But almost nobody knows who he is, because he entered as “Majunior”, and apparently no one recognizes him with that turban over his antennae.     Tien notices him immediately, but Goku asks him not to say anything, for fear of starting a panic.   

But Piccolo Junior isn’t the only surprise at this tournament.   Turns out there’s a lady at this event, and she’s very excited to see Goku.   Unfortunately, Goku has no idea who she is, which makes her very upset.

Krillin flips out after she leaves.   Krillin goes gaga over every girl who looks in his general direction, but this is on a whole other level.  

I relate to Krillin a lot.   I’m not even sure what he’s so upset about exactly, he’s just frustrated that Goku’s got cute girls he doesn’t even know about, while Krillin’s got nothin’.   Does he want Goku to find out if she has a sister?   Is he hoping Goku will tell him his secret to attracting women?   I don’t know, and I don’t think Krillin does either, honestly.     He just saw Chi-Chi and decided that life was completely unfair.   

Why has one of Piccolo Daimao’s henchmen come to the tournament now?!   This never really gets explained, beyond the likelihood that Junior knew Goku would be here, so it made the best place for a confrontation.   But it’s not like he announced this to anyone, and yet Kami told Goku like it was a certainty. 

Also, why did Hulk Hogan come to the tournament?    

It’s time for the preliminaries.   This year, only 72 fighters showed up, which I think is about half as many as last time.   Tien asks Chaiotzu to screw around with the number drawing, which will ensure that each of the gang gets put in a different block, and that way they won’t have to fight each other before the tournament begins.

So the brackets are set up, and Oolong and Puar sneak in to watch.    The prelims are supposed to be off-limits to spectators, but apparently if you can turn into a bird you can fly right in.    Yamcha looks pretty ridiculous with Puar perched on his shoulder as a bird.   When he’s a cat, it’s fine, but a bird is just too much.   I won’t even get into Oolong’s half-assed pig-man-bird creature.

Goku’s first opponent is... King Chappa!   Again.   What a coincidence.

At the last tournament, Goku basically ate Chappa’s lunch, despite Chappa being a former World Champion and one of the most revered fighters on the planet.   This time, Chappa’s returned to avenge that loss, but Goku’s only gotten stronger.    He doesn’t even bother defending himself, and waits for Chappa to come at him.

Seagull Puar looks on with great interest.

Goku plays with Chappa again, but only briefly.    He lands a single chop to Chappa’s neck, and that’s the fight.    Boom.

And this is the payoff for all those episodes of Goku training under Mr. Popo.   He seemed to be completely clueless the whole time, but now it’s three years later, and the others keep talking about how calm and focused he is, and how well he’s managed to suppress his energy, which were all things Popo was trying to get him to do.    So at least we know Goku has learned how to do all these things and apply them to his fighting style.   What we don’t know is whether or not he’s achieved this to Popo and Kami’s satisfaction.    But Yamcha and Tien are certainly impressed.

And so is Piccolo, although he’s still very confident that he can destroy Goku no matter how well he can lay out jobbers like Chappa.

From here, we see a whole montage of the squad working their way through the preliminaries with no trouble at all.   Then we get to Chiaotzu, who...

OH SHIT CHIAOTZU’S DEAD!   AGAIN.  It... it wasn’t supposed to be this way!  He just had to lightly tap all the weaker fighters and cruise into a friendly match with Tien.   How could this have happened?

His opponent assures Tien that he didn’t actually kill Chiaotzu, since that would get him DQ’ed.

Awwww, yeah, it’s Mercenary Tao!    He’s back, and he’s here for revenge!

Short version is this: Goku defeated Tao about seventy episodes back, and then Tao tried to throw a grenade at him, and Goku kicked it back in his face when it exploded.    Turns out he survived that somehow, and then spent all his money getting rebuilt as a cyborg.   Why did he bother paying his bill?   Normally Tao just threatens people into comping him.

So not only does Tao want revenge on Goku, but he also has it in for Tien and Chiaotzu, since they betrayed his brother, the Crane Hermit.   

This is what I love about this show.    Piccolo Junior would be enough to carry this arc, but this is a whole tournament of guys Goku has to fight, so we were bound to see at least a couple of friendly matches with some of his pals, but on top of that, we have this mystery lady (psst!  it’s Chi-Chi) and now there’s a whole other villain who also came to the tournament to murder Goku.   It’s amazing is what it is.