#blame the fact that he's always the first fight in every single Dragon Ball Z game and damn did I play a lot of those as a kid

[randomthefox]

I do like the interpretation that Raditz was basically toxic masculinity The Character. Even moreso than Vegeta, since the prince honestly seems like he was just born broken and had to be pieced together very slowly. Goku getting amnesia and becoming a sweetheart does seem to suggest that the tabula rasa for the sons of Bardock is to be decent people, and it's the culture of the Saiyan species that turns them into what they are.

Raditz was a low class warrior, and the son of a low class warrior. His species was wiped out and his planet blown up. And the only Saiyans left in all of existence were two Elites, who constantly looked down on him for being garbage who was barely as strong as literal vegetables (the saibamen). They probably only barely tolerated him because he was also a Saiyan, but especially considering this is Vegeta we're talking about here that tolerance probably didn't extend very far. Raditz might have felt the urge to prove himself to his superiors, to show himself worthy among these Elites, by overcompensating and amping up how ruthless and brutal he could be so that he could earn their respect.

And then one day they find themselves having difficulty conquering a planet. Even these two Elites would be challenged by it! But then Raditz remembers, he has a baby brother. Another low class cast off just like him! Surely Kakarot will be enough to tip the scales in their favor, and if he does maybe these Elite's will see them differently. They'll see that they have value as Saiyans despite how low class they are, he and his baby brother will finally earn the respect of his (male, violence obsessed) peers.

So when he finally meets his little brother Kakarot again and finds out what became of him, you could read quite a lot into his reaction and what must be going through Radtiz's head. Based on the way Raditz talks to Goku, it's clear that Raditz EXPECTS Goku to remember him on a personal level. They MUST have interacted before Kakarot was sent off to earth to at least some capacity, otherwise dialog like this doesn't really make sense.

Raditz and Kakarot KNEW each other before the calamity that befell their planet. They've been separated for decades and a lot happened during that time, but Raditz still expects Kakarot to remember him. He seemed genuinely shocked that Goku had suffered from amnesia, and his demeanor was pretty flapped. His only family left in the entire galaxy, his fellow low class Saiyan and kin the only person in the entire galaxy who is on his level. And those memories of their childhood as brothers was erased. Read this panel with that in mind.

Raditz WANTS his brother back. But he has also had 20 years of living with Vegeta to sculpt him as a person, and this is where the Toxic Masculinity creeps in. The desperation and confusion he let drive his interactions with his little brother thus far is put under control, and Raditz starts playing the aloof and bemused monster. He puts on the mask of being the ideal saiyan warrior. Someone who laughs off the destruction of their home planet

Someone who relishes in the thrill of carnage and bloodshed. It's the very reason they became the most powerful race in the galaxy. It's the very reason they are both still alive.

He's TRYING to wake Kakarot back up. He's TRYING to get his brother back. He's overcompensating, he's playing it up, he's EMULATING VEGETA because he thinks this will rile up the Saiyan inside of Goku that has laid dormant.

When Goku rejects him it must be crushing, but he hides it under a confident veneer. Because he's still confident that he can make this work when he notices Gohan. If Goku won't be motivated by the promise of battle and wrecking death, MAYBE Goku will be motivated by the paternal instinct to protect his son?

Think about this given what we know: Saiyans aren't supposed to CARE about their children. At least that's what we've been told. And yet Raditz is trying to wake up Goku's Saiyan instincts by threatening his son. It's almost a Catch-22, Saiyans are supposed to only care about strength and fighting and killing over everything else, and yet Raditz is hoping to stoke those flames by tugging on Goku's love and protective instincts for his child. It's like Raditz is blending what he knows about his own family with what is expected of Saiyans - if Goku was a "real" Saiyan then he shouldn't care about Gohan especially considering he's such a weak child, but Raditz is COUNTING on Goku caring enough about his son that he'd be willing to slaughter a hundred earthlings.

He hopes that if he's FORCED to kill for the sake of his son, that experience will bring Kakarot back out and he'll remember what being a Saiyan who lives to fight and kill is like again. And the only reason he'd think that plan would work is if he assumed, BASED ON NO OBSERVABLE INTERACTION HE'D HAVE WITNESSED SINCE ARRIVING ON THE ISLAND, that Goku cares about his son. THAT'S the true Raditz, the Raditz who assumes based on nothing that his brother would love and value his son more than one hundred random strangers. It's the toxic masculinity of living around Nappa and Vegeta his whole life that makes Raditz think that "a real man Saiyan" SHOULD only care about battle that makes him think that engaging in senseless slaughter will wake Kakarot back up.

He's trying to impart this onto Goku because he wants Goku to join him. He's trying to turn Goku into a monster because that's what Raditz thinks he is, thinks that they both should be, so that they can fit in and be seen as worthy by the only two other Saiyans left in existence. He wants more than anything for Goku to join him so they can both go back to Vegeta and show those Elite's what they're worth. And Goku is rejecting him, rejecting his very nature as a Saiyan, CHOPPED OFF HIS OWN TAIL just so he could fit in with these weak earthlings?

Rejecting his family, his species, his heritage, and for what? So he can be a weakling who isn't worthy of standing next to the Elites?

So that he can leave Raditz alone with those two Elites who he can't possibly measure up against? Again?

He HAS to try and convince Goku to become a monster. That's the only solution, truly. Surely, once he sees how fun it is to commit genocide, he'll come around and be his brother again, right? After all that's what Saiyans are all about. He's a Saiyan, just like me, and we Saiyans HAVE to be this way otherwise we're not worthy, that's what those Elites have always said and they should know because they're the creme de la creme of Saiyan society! I have to be ruthless, I have to be obsessed with strength and power and nothing else, I have to be willing to kill my own brother and nephew otherwise I'm not a real man. And maybe, just maybe, if I show my poor brain damaged little brother that that's what we Saiyans are all about, maybe he'll Wake Up and come back to me and we can be a family again. A family of monsters.

The poison drips through.

[tenshindon]

Have you gotten Yamcha for the ask game yet? Or Tien? 😊

i have received Neither Chaps !!! So I will now do them both :) Pause on that :) gonna put this under a Read More since This Will Be Long <3

Yamcha:

Give Me A Character and I Will Answer:

Why I like them:

Uhhhh A Lot Of Reasons. Like. A lot. BUT I will be brief and say I like him because as a kid I always thought he looked cool and I always thought his first fight with Goku was radical. With My Big Man Brain Now I love him for just how sincere of a guy he is? And how loving and friendly and supportive? And I make fun of him for it but the wolf aesthetic genuinely is really cool- not to mention how he loves to change up his outfits and hairstyles!

Why I don’t:

I have no reason to hate this man. Like none exists. In The Most Platonic Way Ever he’s literally the perfect man and I would take him home to meet my mom and even then she would be happy with me dating a man if it was Yamcha Dragon Ball.

Favorite episode (scene if movie):

I have so many favorite Yamcha moments and ergo episodes good god help me BUT I will name ONE off the top of my head so I’m not stuck here forever and I really love the baseball scene in Z for Many Reasons it’s just so good it plays on loop in my brain 24/7 so I Will Say episode 10 of DBZ :)

Favorite season/movie:

The Tien Saga.... legendary.... yes he did get his leg broken but everything before AND after that??? Immaculate. Perfect. Astounding. No The Tien Saga Is Not Therapy But I Will Use It As Such

Favorite line:

Anything Yamcha says is music to my ears and is pure gold, and aside from The Iconic “Looking good, Tien!” quote from Budokai 3, I gotta say my actual favorite quote??

“No big deal. Bones heal, just like everything else.” -Yamcha to Tien in reference to his broken leg after the 22nd World Tournament

Like. It’s SUCH a simple line but it’s SO telling of Yamcha’s character?? Tien literally broke his leg with no concern of the long-lasting effects of doing so, not to mention his dickish behavior beforehand towards Yamcha beforehand. So for Yamcha to just be ready to forgive him at the drop of a hat when he sees Tien’s seem sincerely apologetic? Dude no one talk to me I’m going to write an essay again.

Favorite outfit:

I Mean This In The Most Platonic Way Part II but Yamcha can make Literally Any outfit and hairstyle look good it should be illegal. However I am legally required to choose One (1) outfit and at this point we should all know how much I adore the desert bandit fit of his. It’s just such a classic and cute look to him (not to mention The Sword <3)

OTP:

Oh You Know :) but if you don’t it’s Yamcha and Tien- even as just Friends They’re So Good I’m Going To Write An Essay like god I want what they have so badly.

Brotp:

I love his relationship with Puar, like I genuinely would love a small arc dedicated to how they even became friends in the first place since their origin together is so mysterious yet intriguing? But aside from The Obvious answer I love his brotherly relationship with Goku and Krillin! Unfortunately that relationship wanes as they all get older but I’ll always cherish the moments where he radiated such Big Bro energy.

Head Canon:

I’ve got a dumb amount of headcanons it’s terrible BUT I think my favorite headcanon is that Yamcha’s leg never properly heals after the 22nd Tournament.

Unpopular opinion:

I. Have a lot. Of unpopular opinions. Just genuinely loving Yamcha’s an unpopular opinion in of itself BUT One of my unpopular opinions is that Yamcha’s a flirt, a cheater, and promiscuous. If he’s ever portrayed as a flirt towards women, I can give it the smallest pass in the world that he’s trying to cope but even then that’s such a stretch in my opinion- and I guess this is on top of being a headcanon but Frankly I don’t think Yamcha’s ever even kissed anyone- he’s playing the long game everyone he’ll get his kiss on his wedding day btw that’s like. Partially a joke; I joke around a lot that Yamcha’s Super dedicated to the whole Nothing Until Marriage idea lmao.

A wish:

For the love of God Yamcha pack up your shit and Puar and just move in with Tien your apartment’s shit.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen:

Honestly? I kind of don’t want Yamcha to get a girlfriend? But I also DO because he wants that the most in life and it’d be great to see SOMETHING nice happen to him!

My only gripe with him getting a girlfriend (and hopefully then a wife) would be that his girlfriend wouldn’t be that well defined of a character and she’d just be said in Passing Mentions.

5 words to best describe them:

Perfect, immaculate, loyal, courageous, lovely 

My nickname for them:

Furry, Dumpy, and Wolfie!

Tien

Give Me A Character and I Will Answer:

Why I like them:

Again I Have A Lot Of Reasons BUT I love how like. Deceiving he is as a character. Like ask anyone and 90% of the time people will say Tien’s smart and serious and No Bullshit but no he is exactly the opposite he’s dumb as shit in any department outside of farming and fighting and he’s such a lil’ jackass when breathing next to Yamcha. 

Sincerely though, I absolutely love his character development- it’s one of my favorite arcs in Dragon Ball to be honest but That’s An Essay For Another Time. I also love how funny he can be, intentionally or not, and he’s surprisingly really relatable at times? And just his dedication to fighting’s really neat too; at this point he MUST know he can never be stronger than Goku but he still tries nevertheless and that’s really indicative of his bullheaded personality.

Why I don’t:

You could not pay me to dislike him I’d sell my kidneys for Tenshinhan.

Favorite episode (scene if movie):

Any episode from the gang’s escapades on King Kai’s planet good lord save me. That’s where Tien’s existence shines the best it’s so good.

Favorite season/movie:

His own saga man like. As much as I LOVE Redeemed Tenshinhan I also love how much of a jackass he was like why was he like that LMAO

Favorite line:

Again, aside from The Iconic x2 “Looking good, Yamcha!” quote, I gotta say it’s:

“Yes... sir! <3″ -Tien preparing to strike Goku with the volleyball fist during the 22nd World Tournament.

Also “I left Chiaotzu and Yamcha behind. This seems too dangerous for them.” -Tien to Gohan during the Resurrection F saga

Favorite outfit:

Like Yamcha, Tien’s outfits always hit. Not a SINGLE one misses. BUT I gotta say I love his classic tits-out look- more so for the fact I like how he shows off his scar as a kind of way to say he’s moved on from the Crane School like Damn Son you love to see it :,) Deep reasons aside, my second-favorite outfit’s got to be the Buu Saga listen man everyone just had the Hottest outfits in the Buu Saga you can’t blame me.

OTP:

Oh You Know :)

Brotp:

Tien has Two (2) friends in his life man the pool’s small but even if it WAS larger I would say Chiaotzu anyway LMAO. Love them dudes man.

Head Canon:

Tien is just. Terribly academically and socially stupid. The Social Ineptitude isn’t even a headcanon that’s just fact but when I said he’s stupid in every department But Fighting And Farming I meant it. Flirting with Tien is a nightmare. If you’re not Yamcha or Chiaotzu joking with him is a headache. He’s only smart in the vocabulary department other than that he couldn’t tell you how many planets are in the solar system. He’s dumb as rocks but is smart enough to convince everyone around him he’s smart because he knows what picayune means.

Unpopular opinion:

I have nothing but love and respect for Krillin, but it makes like. No sense to insist Krillin’s the strongest human on earth. Tien does not go hard on that grind 24/7 just for everyone- writers included- to reduce him to such trash when fighting. But why pit two kings against each other you know?

A wish:

Please just give him one good sexy fight that’s all I’m asking for. Also Tien PLEASE use the solar flare you dumb motherfucker YOU INVENTED IT??? Actually all of my wishes are fighting related but yeah Tien for God’s Sake acknowledge how crazy your move kit is and fuck it UP MY GUY.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen:

Tien please don’t get a random wife I fortunately cannot see that happening but for the love of God Toei if you make that happen I will actually commit arson. Any other fear I could have either has come true or cannot happen.

5 words to best describe them:

Deceivingly smart dumbass I love

My nickname for them:

Headass, Slap Head, My Man/s, Bald Motherfucker, Polyphemus Headass (I know Polyphemus is a cyclops but shush), Four Arms, Machamp, Stitch, Roach, King, and Ikea Dresser

[imadeletingmysocials]

My Final Say On The Final Fantasy 7 Compilation:

DILLY DALLY SHILLY SHALLY!

Now let me say something: I don’t fully hate the remake, my feelings are at best mixed towards it, because of course it plays on my heart strings at moments, I grew up with Final Fantasy 7, I recognize and fall for the fanservicey recreations of PS1 moments, I just hate it’s tone and different atmosphere because I recognize this is obviously fanservicey everywhere you go and rarely comes as close to the original feel, more on that later of course, here’s what’s core: Final Fantasy 7 Remake at best feels like a compromise between the new and the old fans, with some old fans not really feeling 100% about it from what I gathered around many people I know. Everything I hear is “The gameplay is fun and engaging! but some shit is definitely silly and could have been cut” stuff like: the amount of filler, characters that honestly don’t add that much to the world building, and the saturday morning cartoon prolongation of certain moments which were straight to the point in the original, this is a remake where you get to see fast-paced deep cut moments turned into a slow agonizing over-redundant slow insertion of a knife, it’s like using a butter knife to cut a well done stake.

Again, a compromise with the fandom, THAT fandom, the fandom that scared everyone into playing Final Fantasy 7 which was at best a REALLY Good regular JRPG, and it really was like this weirld proto-cringe culture built around a cult, Final Fantasy 7 was this grimdark game about ecology, direct action, the over reach of corporate control on resources, spirituality and all that, and it was ALL REDUCED TO YAOI SHIPPING, I will never forgive you guys for reducing Final Fantasy 7 to that shit and it is one of the main reasons why the Compilation became this anime shit, I’m not even someone who unironically says “this is too anime” but that’s my attitude with a lot of the compilation, there is stuff in this compilation series that makes it all feel like a fucking parody of Dragon Ball Z when outside of that, the original was pretty grounded.

The original was so grounded that it’s still debated if Final Fantasy 7 is cyberpunk AT ALL if not dieselpunk, with the compilation and remake adding more cyberpunk and high-sci-fi aspects like China-like social credit, or VR, and they’re all ham-fistedly added additions to the series, it’s just them running with the idea of “I guess we’re considered cyberpunk now, better play the part and add these cliche tropes”, Final Fantasy 7′s world clearly has a class division when it comes to who has technology and who doesn’t, some technology in the FF7 world is old and some is new, but in the original it’s really just a select places that hold power towards technology: Like the facilities of Midgar or the Golden Saucer.

Adding a lot of these sci-fi aspects and prolonging on the midgar section of course adds plot holes: In the original, the Midgar section flies so fast it’s just one event after the other WHICH IS GOOD, not letting air to breathe in your structure keeps the plot tight, keeps the momentum and pacing good, allowing that air to breathe too much results in what I like to call: Nomura’s Awkward Silence. You’ve probably seen it in Kingdom Hearts quite a lot but Nomura is a shitty director who manages to make scenes so badly and prolonged that by the end any logical person would go: “...But? Wouldn’t that not work?”.

FF7′s Midgar was fast-paced cuz this is a group of eco-terrorists which are on a constant verge of being caught so they’re constantly on the move, plot hole nitpicky shit starts to happen when you don’t have a fast-pacing to keep most hooked and here are examples which aren’t helped with the new plot device additions:

Why doesn’t Tifa confront Cloud’s past since they now have a lot of time to catch up

Why would a terrorist group just... Hire someone and let them stay in a normal ass 

Why is Avalanche just chilling around the sectors when they all live in a mass surveillance state, no really adding that mass surveillance plot device really makes everything fall apart, in the original SHINRA just IMMEDIATELY after the first bombing bombs sector 7 with absolutely no-restraint, them seeing AVALANCHE bomb one of their reactors makes them go: “Oh we can kill them all in one swell swoop and put the blame on them no problem we just giving them a false means of comfort” and the new bombing of Sector 7 REALLY does showcase my annoyance with all of the minor changes that were fine and better in the original: This is also best exemplified by how reno in the original just presses the button and is done with it but the remake prolongs this scene so much, that RENO has to fight you first??? Even if he is literally facing the fucking button??? cuz ANIME FIGHT! and then they make RUDE press the button when before they developed him as “somewhat nice guy” which only clashes even worse with the fact that he was the one who presses a button to SUPPOSEDLY kill an entire sector, well I say supposedly cuz now, there is no weight in that, Barrett doesn’t shoot the fallen sector’s walls in anger and (that’s what motivates him to go to Shinra once and for all) because actual stakes? what are that? No, everyone evacuated this time and the new NPCs are all fine :)

Throughout the whole game, they play up characters who are minor in the original but are FULL BIG FUCKIN IDOLS in the remake now, and as a result, the “bad guys who become good guys as the game on” HAVE TO HAVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IMMEDIATELY. Fuck pacing! We need to show that the HEROES HAVE A CONSCIOUSNESS NOW! and STILL MAKE THEM DO EVIL THINGS. Like what is the point in developing your villains and showing they have a conciseness if they are still going to do bad things? In FF7 the only start developing a consciousness AFTER the bad things, like ff7 remake makes Dude somewhat decent and showcases Reeves as a nice person but they still did evil things regardless so it’s uselesss. Now I won’t say FF7 doesn’t do this and shows Reeves has his gripes but it doesn’t go

Again, BARRET HAS A FUCKING GUN FOR AN ARM, HE SHOULDN’T BE OUT IN THE PUBLIC... AT ALL, HE SIGNED HIS DEATH WARRANT WHEN HE GAVE HIMSELF THAT ARM AND DEDICATED HIMSELF TO THE CAUSE, THIS IS WHY HE ALWAYS LIVES ON THE MOVE AND ALWAYS HIDING. 

Again, why did they introduce the idea of everything being a mass surveillance state if Cloud, Tifa and Barret can literally storm Shinra’s headquarters and Shinra workers are just... chilling in the lobby, it’s all empty, but in the original you had a somewhat sense of danger and the only way to progress was through going through specific corridors in a certain order or tricking Shinra workers.

Every single time the dementors appear.

Examples of the anime-transformation of the remake and making everything a lot harder to not take seriously are: 

Scarlet being a comical dominatrix who like a cartoon character smacks the character when in the original she was truly like a serious fucking villain.

Aeris (or Aerith, not sure anymore) pretty much becoming a Disney Princess

Every single villain going to saturday morning cartoon levels of overreduncancy. 

And of course I hate this shit, I have a connection with the original you know, if it wasn’t called a remake or if it didn’t touch the original maybe I wouldn’t have thought otherwise but because of the fact that it goes out to make these ridiculous changes feels like some sort of insult in a way. Minor inconveniences start to become major inconveniences and Final Fantasy 7′s remake is CHOCK FULL of it. 

It’s the weirdest comparison I know, but the one I feel still works is: You know how Disney movies would a TV adaption? Like how Disney’s Hercules had a Hercules TV show and it went on to develop background characters you barely knew, while basically overly expanding on that interlude of the movie? Well that’s what Final Fantasy VII remake feels like, some even said that this remake feels like as if they made a MCU movie series based on the original, honestly I don’t know which one is worse, sounds pretty bad which ever way you put it.

A controversial opinion but one that never the less is true is that: Midgar was not supposed to be ANYTHING BUT A SET UP, it was just there for the sake of world building, now I guess it’s just me and a couple of friends but we aren’t part of the gang of “I didn’t play Final Fantasy 7 pass Midgar” which apparently is a thing, it goes as far as cultural video game stereotype, I’m one of the few people who played passed Midgar, and i’m one of the few people who prefer the game past that section as everything when the world begins to open starts to build on that set up Midgar introduced, like Midgar isn’t everything FF7 has to offer, it’s just the setup, Midgar is the BIG BAD, but you need to recgonize how Midgar is pretty much a plot device at best and what is more important is the villages of the planet and how each are affected by Midgar’s reach and corruption, like Red Canyon, small villages with rocket projects or Wutai (which the Compilation LOVES to set up as the other super-power against Midgar, rather than letting Midgar be the only superpower like in the original I guess).

Midgar is structured like this fast-paced action film, beat by beat, in fact following the same structural high points of an action movie. Midgar was always designed to be a 2 hour experience, like a fun roller coaster ride or romp, it wasn’t meant to be the WHOLE GAME or that prolonged. 

And a lot of those things will be gone and sacrificed in the remake: For example, you cannot recreate well-placed shots and angles in the remake cuz it doesn’t have pre-background sets like the original. In doing so, you sacrifice shit and make choices LIKE THIS: 

Rather than the slow-panning of the shot that results in this iconic scene:

I want to be clear here: I do not hate Final Fantasy 7 remake for it’s lack of subtlety, whenever Final Fantasy 7′s remake has the chance to be political and preachy about it, that is actually where it expands VERY well on the original (unlike the whole fucking Compilation shit or the annoying quirky NPCs they introduce which honestly don’t add much and kinda remove and detach from what’s kinda important at the matter, again the pacing fucking sucks), the original works as it is with short burst of dialog without dwelling on actual political theory (It can get annoying of course for example: Barrett in the remake every 10 seconds talks about how he wants to save the planet, while Barrett in the original doesn’t need to be that repetitive, in fact I think you can count every time in the remake he says “SAVE THE PLANET”  almost as much “DARKNESS” is said in Kingdom hearts... NOMURA!!!), you know keeping it simple for all of the teenagers playing it in final fantasy 7, vague enough to be accessible.

I could go on about all of those weird changes in the remake which could have been left as it is, like almost every single side-mission, I don’t know of a single side-mission in FF7 I left thinking “Wow that was really worthwhile, thought provoking and added quite a lot to the world building!” cuz guess what, it didn’t. The children don’t add much like we get it children are not immune to SOLDIER propaganda (Cloud is literally the personification of this did we really need this), the angel of the slums shows stealing from the rich is good (like the entire game is about killing corporate people and despite Barrett feeling a lil bit remorse in his methods he never feels remorse in killing anyone related to SHINRA), like oh thanks for showcasing to me that thieves can be good people like the child I am. These are all engineered to make people who didn’t get the point in ff7, messages which feel are for children, which I guess a lot of gamers are, the dumbification of video games as a whole angers me but that’s a completely different subject, you ever notice how characters in the past didn’t talk about every single action they should be performing but every game after 2010 has to be annoying about that?

I still have mixed feelings on FF7R. Little things that are lil fanservice can be nice, but then the final fantasy 7 remake just throws the cake onto the ground as soon as it seems tasty, the best example of this would be the cutscene showing Shinra’s plan in Shinra’s headquarters, it is an EXCELLENT COMPLIMENT to the original, like the original has about the same amazing world building set up of how 2000 years ago FF7′s world was just a regular Final Fantasy world! Final Fantasy 7 is special because of that this particular world building, and compliments to that realism and tone ARE GREAT! Those are moments in which the tone of the game SHINE! It makes you go “Aw that was a nice recreation and it complimented the game fine” but then Sephiroth. You know... That one villain who isn’t supposed to be appearing every single second in the original but since the pacing is dogshit I guess he’s basically become Cloud’s little one winged angel on his shoulder that has to appear IN EVERY cutscene, I really do hate this mother fucker. I hate that Sephiroth bitch, I hate that he became more of an mascot for FF7 to the point it overshadows his role as just a pawn of a more deeper evil (JENOVA) sephiroth was nothing but the representation of soldier exploitation going wrong, and how that symbolically is connected to the end of the world and an evil very alien. Sephiroth was never supposed to be this actual character, in fact he stopped being a character when... you know.

Somehow Palmer can see Sephiroth but that makes 0 sense and is the dumbest fucking addition... Aren’t only people with Mako supposed to see him? And the idea is that Sephiroth can only gain physical form through the bodies of SOLDIERs cuz he’s more of a virus now. But you know... Sephy-kun is a star now! SO HE NEEDS TO SHOW UP EVERY FUCKING SECOND and PRACTICALLY SPOIL THE WHOLE ORIGINAL GAME, what clearer message of “we hope you played the original or else” than all of those forced flashbacks, and how funny that the original demon of FF7remake was straight forward and didn’t include sephiroth flashback but as soon as the game released they put them in! HM, I WONDER. I WONDER. That really does feel like a “haha you actually bought the game! sucker.” 

But by that point I’ve basically become that fan that goes “you should read the book, I don’t like it that in the movie they did all of these little changes”, but truth be told Final Fantasy 7 remake turned me into that kinda person. Again: It doesn’t help that this is literally not a medium conversion, but a full on re-writting from the people who worked, and I don’t care what Nomura considers a “remake”, this makes the original story flow a lot worse.

“You fuckers asked for it! So here it is” says Square Enix when people were angry that FF7 was being re-released over and over again, teased with tech demos since the PS3 era! Truth be told, I was always on the fence for a Final Fantasy 7 remake, I was fine with the original, I cannot speak for everyone else but on my side it was just people going “I REALLY FUCKING HOPE THIS ISN’T COMPILATION BULLSHIT“ AND hahah AHAHAHAH well

Final Fantasy 7 remake’s structure is... AMAZINGLY WELL PUT WHEN YOU START TO SEE THAT THE LONGER IT GOES, THE MORE IT STARTS TO STRAY AWAY FROM GOD’S LIGHT, In fact I think that’s brilliant, it’s like a well made bad prank, you get to see people in real time react to this shit and it’s almost a universal experience so props to the designers for managing to do that, at first it starts building your immunity with like dementors and you’re like “why the fuck did they add this? oh well i guess I’ll just keep going” but then by the end of the game throws shit at the fan and some people are devoted to those changes saying “ah fuck it” or you know: This is dumb. I’d say that 35% of Final Fantasy 7′s remake’s content compliments the original and 65% is modern Square Enix’s shenanigans.  

The rest of this thread is pretty funny also:

This might sound controversial but: When your shit is edited in the editing room, maybe, just maybe, there’s a reason it was edited out. Final Fantasty 7 Remake has this attitude of “WE GOTTA ADD EVERY SINGLE DELETED CONTENT WE COULDN’T HAVE PUT IN THE ORIGINAL, WE HAVE THAT POWER NOW TO GET SILLAY!” which is often the downfall of a lot of video games and their artistic integrity, it’s a constant thing and I’m sure I won’t be visiting it for the last time: video game directors are often these egoistical people who are left like children with this amount of power to just do dumb shit and because video games are an exceptional quirky medium, people just let bad writing and anime shit fly, I mean this is what I have always meant by video games as a medium being like b-movies and kitsch at best, you rarely see this medium be high art.

I think the best example of this is comparing to the movie medium, most importantly: George Lucas, George Lucas was a guy who because of a lot of editors their story became something that even overshadowed themselves, have you seen Star Wars without an editor? It sucks. This showcase should have killed the auteur but in the industry sometimes this is not the case, what results of that is a huge inflation of one’s ego and they start getting more and more power to direct stuff in whatever way they see fit!

The Video game medium has allowed the auteur theory to test it’s limits, I don’t know if it’s fair to blame everything on the black sheep Nomura (I mean Motomu Toriyama is as much to blame here, if not even worse, this is the guy who directed X-2, I’m sure if anything he might have done more harm) it is kinda hard to detach the directors from the product however, especially in this case when a lot of people’s gripes come from unnecessary filler, tone, and terrible pacing. That’s kind of all the directors job you know? 

I detest the idea that a good tone is only set by the standards of western cinema or the soviet montage standards. You can accomplish a good and serious tone by a lot of means, it doesn’t need to be 100% serious, but I don’t want it to become as ridiculous or redundant as a low-budget shonen anime. It doesn’t help FF7 Remake case because it doesn’t go out to compliment FF7 that well. It doesn’t matter what Nomura thinks a “remake’ entitles, because regardless, the changes in this will forever be compared to the original, FF7 remake does not exist in a vacuum, it isn’t a stand-alone original game, it just feels like a weird adaptation that doesn’t fair well to the original plot structure.

Which is where I’ll start to bring this long commentary to a halt! If Nomura himself admits that FF7′s Remake is Final Fantasy VII Compilation Part 5 well all I have to say, and what has and will always be my stance of this so called “compilation” is:

The compilation of final fantasy 7 has always been over redundant filler. It’s all either so bad it’s good or so fanservicey it’s obnoxious. Every single compilation is a mixed bowl of “This is actually cool” and “this is just dumb and unnecessary”. The novels, the side-entries on flip phones, they all feel as if they come from a smug aura of “Clearly you didn’t get the plot from one game alone so we clearly have to expand on it so we can get EXTRA MONEY!”

Oh and the whole one winged angel shit (now a plot device thanks to crisis core) and the NOMURA idea of “you gotta play all of the entries to understand this shit” fucking sucks man! 

Nomura games are so close to being so good, but there’s always that fucking CRINGE that appears, and this kind of shit makes me actually sincerely use the word “cringe”, cloud might as well pull a fucking keyblade in which LIGHTNING from Final Fantasy 13 is there saying how she is THE BEST CHARACTER EVER MADE whatever! Consistency and tone is dead, we get it. 

Every single sequel to Final Fantasy 7 is just cashing in on the fame and it’s unnecessary, you can enjoy FF7 on it’s own. It’s feeling a LOT, A LOT like Disney’s approach to Star Wars, you didn’t have to do all of this for Star War’s simple premise. I feel like that ungrateful child who got a shitty present: You really shouldn’t have.

I mean don't get me wrong, the original has that pre-famous Square Enix comic relief, and the only time you ever got that kind of subtle comic relief again was in Final Fantasy 9, the last call-back to the series being traditional. I think it's impossible to recreate Final Fantasy 7 in the style and tone it was created in 1997, because that WAS LITERALLY before Square Enix became famous and that fame went up to their head.

That's like expecting a “Final Fantasy 6″-type game to not be made by an indie developer or a small dev team today, it's not gonna happen. An AAA developer just does not have the soul to do that today. Many people were like “What if they just did the same thing as the game but with jus priddy graphics” well given the crusty JPEG skyboxes in the remake they couldn’t have even concentrated on that alone it seems, also my answer to that is: of course they’re gonna do that. Square Enix has just enough of an ego to not let shit be simple.

I mean it’s a given right, a lot of people were angry about Chrono Cross because it wasn’t quite Chrono Trigger either (at this point Square Enix was already transitioning into Final Fantasy 8-stuff and going all over the place in terms of quality, with multiple teams developing multiple games, trying to catch the high of Final Fantasy 7, but not really seeing what FF7 did to hook so many people, namely on how FF7 is the most serious and accessible entry in the whole series that isn’t Final Fantasy 6 (although Final Fantasy 6 wasn’t as cinematic which the 90s video games loved the opportunity with the gift OF 3D!).

Also:

Bull fucking shit, I am not convinced you aren’t gonna plaster Sephy-kun flashbacks at every single moment like you have, like if you really were to do a beat per beat Final Fantasy 7 remake after that that’s just so funny. 

"OH WE JUST FUCKING SPOILED THE WHOLE GAME IN THE FIRST ACT"

"BUT THE REST OF IT WILL BE NORMAL'

Like... How? Will you lower the budget for the next parts of the remake. That would legit be kinda funny,  "we just wanted to make midgar really long and weird like that, thats all, the rest will be 100% a remake! The alternative universe ghosts won’t come this time.” I just cannot believe that until I see it.

Uh what should I end this long rant with uhhhh...

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball GT Retrospective (5/7)

[Note: I originally wrote this on January 14, 2013.]

The final arc of Dragon Ball GT is one big slap in the face of anyone who held out hope that it would somehow get better.  I remember when Funimation promoted the last round of episodes premieing on Cartoon Network.   "The Shadow Dragons Saga".   That just sounds epic, right?  They couldn't possibly screw that up, right?   I mean, Shadow Dragons have to be awesome, whatever they are.   It's probably a law or something.   Well, someone call the cops, because Toei found a way to take a concept like "Shadow Dragons" and make it suck. 

The story begins with the fallout from the Super 17 Saga.   Goku and his friends gather the Earth's Dragon Balls to repair the damage caused by the Hell portal, but when they find the balls, they're all cracked.   Unsure how to proceed, they decide to summon the Eternal Dragon anyway, and to their horror the whole thing goes pear-shaped.   Smoke billows out of the cracks of the balls, and the dragon that emerges is completely different from the Shenron they usually deal with.   This dragon smokes a big cigar and he mocks the heroes when they ask to make a wish.   The Smoke Dragon then takes the Dragon Balls away and dissipates.   At this point, the Elder Kai contacts Goku and explains what the hell just happened.    The whole issue stems from a throwaway line from the end of Dragon Ball Z.   Then, the Elder Kai disapproved of using the Dragon Balls to revive the victims of Majin Buu.   He trusted the Namekians with the power of the Dragon Balls because they refrained from using them, but he felt that frequent wish-making would interfere in the "natural evolution" of the universe, or something like that.  At the time, everyone just assumed he was being conservative, but this Smoke Dragon is what he had been worried about from the beginning.   The short version is that the Dragon Balls have side-effects.   Each time you make a wish, it introduces bad karma to the balls.  They store the negative energy until they can't contain it any longer, and if that happens they crack and release an evil dragon that can destroy the world.  Normally the safety valve for this is that the Dragon Balls scatter across the planet after each use, and they take centuries to find again, which is plenty of time for the negative energy to dissipate.   But Bulma invented the Dragon Radar, which has allowed her and her friends to gather the Dragon Balls multiple times in a matter of decades.   This latest attempt was the straw that broke the camel's back.  Bulma quickly shifts the blame to Goku, since she never would have been able to gather the Dragon Balls without his help, and Goku decides that the only way to make things right is to go kick some evil dragon ass.  Pan tags along with Giru (the robot who assimilated the Dragon Radar), and that's the status quo for the next several episodes.  The Smoke Dragon separates into seven evil Shadow Dragons, each with a Dragon Ball embedded in his body.  Giru locates them with the radar, Goku fights them for a while, repeat seven times.   As you might have anticipated, I have several problems with this premise.   First, the Dragon Balls aren't some magic talisman that appeared out of nowhere.   Granted, they didn't come with an instruction manual, but over the course of the story, we learn how they were created and how they work.   The Namekians essentially "invented" the art of making Dragon Balls, and the general rule is that a set of balls is only as powerful as its creator allows it to be.   Thus, the Earth's Dragon Balls could resurrect the dead, but they were helpless against Vegeta and Nappa, who were stronger than Kami, their creator.  The Namekian Dragon Balls could grant three wishes, but they could only resurrect one person per wish.   Dragon Balls can also be "transferred" from one creator to another.  When Kami merged with Piccolo, Goku recruited another Namek, Dende, to reactivate his Dragon Balls.   Dende not only accomplished this, but he took requests, and rearranged the wishing power of the Dragon to grant two wishes instead of just one.  As a bonus, you could just make one wish, then come back and make the other four months later instead of waiting a full year.  When Guru, the creator of Namek's Dragon Balls, died, Moori became their new caretaker, and he removed the whole "one resurrection per wish" limitation.   The point I'm trying to make here is that the "technology" of the Dragon Balls is pretty well understood, and while it might seem magical to the uninitiated, experts like Dende, Mr. Popo, and Moori were always happy to answer questions and explain the rules.  So why didn't they ever say anything about the dangers of overuse?   When the Smoke Dragon appears, Mr. Popo mentions how an evil dragon destroyed an entire star system once.   Why didn't he say anything about this before?  Of course, it's not like the good guys used the Balls frivolously.  Most of the time it was kind of an emergency, or a matter of stopping a bad guy from using them first.  But still, at some point they should have come forward and explained the risks.   "Look, we seriously have to stop using the Dragon Balls or else." Second, assuming the Dragon Balls were designed with this limitation in mind, why do they only turn to stone for a single year?   Whoever wrote this episode of GT never considered the fact that the Dragon Balls already had a safety valve in that they can't be used continuously, even if you have the means to re-gather them all.  If the safest course is to use the Dragon Balls only once every 100 years, as Elder Kai says, then why not fix it so the Dragon Balls remain inert for a full 100 years?  This is the same problem I had with the Black Star Dragon Balls destroying the world after each use.   Why would anyone create something so inherently dangerous?   This would be like Sauron forging the One Ring and if he doesn't take it to Mars and polish it exactly seven times on every seventh Thursday it blows up and kills him.  No, that's dumb.   He made it convenient for himself.   If he loses it, it'll find its way back to him.   It's indestructible unless you take it deep within the heart of his own territory.  That's not airtight, but it's pretty safe. I could accept that the Black Star Dragon Balls were a flawed, overpowered creation, but this "negative energy" idea holds that any Dragon Balls are flawed and overpowered.   What good are they if you can only make one wish every century, and there's no one around to enforce that rule? Third, no one ever brings up the Namekian Dragon Balls, which were used almost as often as the Earth's set.  If each wish contaminates the Balls, then a set that grants three wishes a pop should be even more dangerous.   Worse, the Namekian year is roughly one-third of an Earth year, so the Namekian Dragon Balls can be used three times more frequently.  The Namekians themselves had little need for that many wishes, but after the battles with Frieza, Buu, and Baby, they had to use them to help out the people of Earth at least five times.    That's fifteen wishes, dammit.  So where's their evil smoke dragon monster?     No one even attempts to explain this, which just makes the premise that much harder to believe.   I'm not saying Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z were free of plot holes, but Akira Toriyama worked pretty hard to establish the rules of the story and keep them straight.  With GT they just do whatever and hope the audience doesn't think about it too hard.   Fourth, why don't they just kill Dende?  The deal is that if the Dragon Balls' caretaker dies, then the Balls and the Dragon both go inert.   Usually this is a obstacle to be overcome, but in GT the Dragon Balls seem to cause more problems than they solve.   Piccolo sacrificed himself to prevent the Black Star Balls from being used again, so why doesn't Dende take one for the team and end this Shadow Dragon crisis before it starts?   Of course, he doesn't have to die, he could just use his power over the Dragon to deactivate it, right?   Again, I could live with this as long as someone on the show offered an explanation why this won't work.   The whole premise seems to hinge on the idea that the negative energy contaminating Shenron is much stronger than the powers of Shenron himself or his creator.   But why should that be?  If the negative energy is a backlash to the energy used to grant wishes, then shouldn't evil Shenron be exactly as powerful as regular Shenron?  He can be despicable and uncontrollable, but physically he's no stronger than before.   King Piccolo killed Shenron with one hit, and Goku's like a million times stronger than that in GT. And yet the Shadow Dragons are strong enough to give a Super Saiyan 4 a hard time.   I can appreciate the poetry of the Dragon Balls themselves being the final boss of the Dragon Ball mythos, but it just doesn't line up with everything we've known about the Dragon Balls leading up to this.  For all the hype, Shenron was never omnipotent, and he's actually pretty fragile when you get down to it.  His main role is to solve problems that can't be fixed with punching or explosions, so putting him in a situation where he has to trade punches with Goku is kind of dumb.   Toei tried to solve this problem by beefing up Shenron, effectively turning him into an unrecognizable set of characters.   Instead of one giant dragon who looks pretty scary, we get seven humanoid-looking goofs who are supposed to be insanely powerful, but most of them just suck.   More than half of the Shadow Dragons are pathetic.  I'm not saying that to insult the concept, I mean they are literally pathetic characters.   Goku shows up and they go all to pieces, mostly for the sake of bad comedy.  Then they use guile and treachery instead of strength, and Goku only wins when he finally stops screwing around.   I suppose this was a deliberate plan to make the Shadow Dragons feel like other groups in Dragon Ball.   Each Shadow Dragon is stronger than the last, and the real challenge is to beat the one at the end.   Fair enough, but why would Shenron divide himself so unevenly?  For that matter, why do the good guys play along with that?   Goku wants to fight them all by himself and no one has a problem with that?   Considering how weak most of the enemies are, they would have been better off sending Goten or Majuub to wipe out some of them while Goku handles the tough ones.   Anyway, the worst part about the Shadow Dragons is that they each get at least one whole episode to show off how much they suck.   The Two-Star Dragon: Funimation gave each Shadow Dragon a name, and they called this one "Haze Shenron" because he deals in pollution.   He's the weakest Dragon, but his pollution powers make his enemies even weaker, so that's why it takes twenty minutes to beat him.   This is dumb, because all the heroes in the show are adept at sensing ki, the life energy everyone uses for shooting fireballs and flying and so forth.   Goku can tell that Haze Shenron is weak just by looking at him, but for some reason he can't sense his own power fading.  Of course, if he'd just destroyed Haze at first sight, he could have avoided the entire issue, but they had to stop and talk to him first.   Haze's weakness is his overconfidence.  Once he has Goku and Pan beaten, he tosses them into a polluted lake, thinking the acidity would corrode their flesh in minutes.   Instead, Giru (who is unaffected by pollution because he's a robot) rescues them and drags them to a cleaner part of the lake.  Not only does this clean water revive them, but they stay down there for like five minutes without drowning.  Now that they have a second chance to beat Haze, they take him out with one hit and recover the Two-Star Dragon Ball.   The Five-Star Dragon: This guy was named "Rage Shenron", which doesn't make sense unless rage has something to do with electricity, which is his power.  Rage looks like a deformed bird fetus, and he controls purple slime that feeds on electricity.  He's not much stronger than Haze, so he uses all of his electric slime to create a giant replica of himself to ride around in.   Goku turns Super Saiyan 4 to fight him, but his attacks are useless against Rage's slime, which can absorb ki blasts and redirect them.   Rage's weakness is his overconfidence.  Once the battle starts going his way, he gathers so much electrical power that his slime body grows to the size of a small town.   Goku and Pan are helpless against him, but fortunately it rains.   Rain short circuits the slime, destroying it, but Rage's body is so large that he can't take shelter.   Goku and Pan literally float in the air and watch the dumbass beat himself because he was too sloppy to check the weather forecast.  Rage makes a fake surrender ploy at the very end, so Goku blows him away with a Kamehameha just for good measure.   The Six-Star Dragon: They called this one "Oceanus Shenron", although he seems to be more of a wind elemental than a water one.   At this point, the continuity starts to get fuzzy, because it seems like Goku and Pan have only been at this for one afternoon, but by the time they track down Oceanus, he's already established himself as a local legend in this fishing town.  His tampering with nature somehow causes fish to fly out of the ocean and onto dry land, and the villiagers gather them up instead of fishing like they're supposed to be doing.   For no apparent reason, Oceanus assumes the form of a green woman called "Princess Oto", but Goku and Pan see through the disguise immediately.  Oceanus mostly spams this one attack, Whirlwind Spin, which resembles a hurricane.  Even though Goku once broke a mountain in half with his bare hands, the air pressure it strong enough to pin him down.   He could power up to Super Saiyan 4, but he doesn't.  I have no idea why.   Oceanus' weakness is his overconfidence.  Pan is too stupid to figure out the flaw in Whirlwind Spin, so a seagull demonstrates it for her.   Like a hurricane, the center of the attack is relatively calm, so if you fly in directly overhead, you can get in a free shot.  Pan hits Oceanus with a Kamehameha, and Goku uses his own for good measure, and that's it.   The Seven-Star Dragon: This one is named "Natron" or "Naturon".  I don't even know what that means, since he's a body thief who digs tunnels.  He hot dogs it for a whole episode just so he can pretend to lose and trick Pan into taking his Dragon Ball.  This allows him to take control of her body, which he uses to become much stronger (his first body was an ordinary mole, so it's a big step up).   Pan's not that strong in Dragon Ball Z terms, but apparently Pan + Natron Shenron is somewhat impressive.   It's kind of hard to tell how strong he is, though, because Goku keeps holding back for fear of killing his grandaughter. Natron's weakness is... his overconfidence.  Goku plays possum near the end, and Natron taunts him by allowing Pan to partially emerge from his body.   Goku yanks her out, leaving Natron stuck in his true form, which is somehow even smaller and crappier than the other three Shadow Dragons we've seen so far.  For some reason Goku's totally cool beating up this sad sack in his SSJ4 form, even though he barely bothered to use it against the other three.  Kamehameha, and we're done.  They spent two episodes on this bullcrap, so I especially hate this one.   The Four-Star Dragon: This one has fire powers, so Funimation named him "Nuova Shenron".   I don't know why they spelled it that way, unless it was for trademark purposes.  They didn't call the Two-Star Dragon "Haiz Shenron" though.   Nuova looks pretty dumb, but compared to the first four he at least looks like a worthy opponent.  He's also the first one who can actually fight worth a damn.   So of course Toei introduces him just as Goku's inexplicably weakened from hunger.   It's not like they're in the middle of nowhere.  Goku could fly back home in a few minutes and grab something to eat in between dragons, so why did he walk into Nuova's turf unprepared?   The result is a whole episode of pointless stalling.  Nuova wants to play cat and mouse with Goku, even though he seems to be able to kill him in a toe-to-toe fight, thanks to his heat powers.  Goku scampers around and whines about how hungry he is, and Nuova calmly walks around looking for him, apparently forgetting that he can a) fly, b) fly at super speed, and c) melt anything in his path.   If Goku punches Nuova, he'll only burn his hand, so the only hope he has is energy blasts, which he can't use because he's too hungry.   Nuova's weakness is sloppy writing.   Even though Goku just got done complaining that he's too weak to fight with energy blasts, he turns around and starts harassing Nuova with energy blasts.  The idea seems to be that he can't land a heavy blow, but he can whittle him down with hit-and-run attacks.  This leads to Goku using the sewers for cover, and when Nuova chases him into the sewer, he's briefly stymied when he runs into a dead end.   Blocking Goku's path is some sort of giant ventilation fan.   He doesn't want to fight Nuova in close quarters, but that fan you guys.  It's turning at speeds exceeding 3rpm.   It must weigh at least twenty pounds, and it's probably made of solid aluminum.  How can Goku possibly get past it?   Well, he digs down deep, and somehow finds the courage and skill to time a perfect jump through this enormous, slow-moving fan that probably wouldn't have hurt him even if he missed.   What's more confusing is that Nuova didn't just shoot him dead while he was waiting for the right moment.  Once they're out of the sewer, Goku then decides to fight Nuova as a Super Saiyan 4, even though he was too weak to do anything else for most of the episode.   Intermission: Now, in the midst of all this, Vegeta's back at home having a midlife crisis.   This is probably the best episode of Dragon Ball GT, simply because it's roughly 50% flashbacks of cool scenes from DBZ.   Vegeta's frustrated because he hasn't gotten to do anything for the whole series, mainly due to the fact that he never advanced beyond Super Saiyan 2, while Goku is two levels above that.   He wants to help round up the Shadow Dragons, but Bulma warns him he'll die.   Look, maybe he's not the strongest guy on the block anymore, but I'm pretty sure Vegeta could have taken out the first four Shadow Dragons, and I'm really sure he could have blasted apart that ventilation fan that stymied Goku.  Also, Pan's a lot weaker than Goku and she managed to stay alive this long.   Anyway, Bulma figures out how to turn Vegeta into a Super Saiyan 4 so he can join the battle.   I'm kind of surprised it took this long for them to try it, since her plan is to just use the same technology that turned Vegeta into a Golden Great Ape during his possession by Baby.   Cleansed of Baby's contamination, Vegeta can repeat the process, and jump from Golden Ape to SSJ4, the same way Goku did.   Come to think of it, Vegeta could have just undergone the same procedure Goku used to grow his tail back.  It's been like a year since SSJ4 was discovered, so it's not like he hasn't had time to work on that.  What sucks about this episode is that they spend the entire time teasing SSJ4 Vegeta, but we don't get to see it until several episodes later.   The Three-Star Dragon: While Nuova Shenron fights SSJ4 Goku in a halfway decent battle, his comrade "Eis Shenron" shows up and interferes.  See, he has ice powers, so Eis=Ice, or something.   The gag with Eis Shenron is that he's Nuova's brother, and while Nuova's been teasing a face turn during his battle with Goku, Eis is a cowardly opportunist.   He uses Pan as a human shield, has no qualms about using dirty tricks to win, and when Nuova refuses to help him, he feigns surrender and blinds Goku with a.... You know, actually, I have no idea how Eis blinded Goku.  He's on his knees surrendering, he surreptitiously dips his fingers into a frozen puddle on the ground, and then he swipes at Goku's face.  The implication is that Goku's eyes have been poisoned somehow.   I mean, is it poison ice? That doesn't make a lot of sense.  And yet, afterwards, Goku washes his eyes out with water, and Nuova gives him a small bottle of "antidote" (where did he get it?).  So I don't think we're talking about frostbitten corneas or whatever.  The point is that Goku spends the next four episodes or so with his eyes shut.   Eis' weakness is that Goku can kick your ass with his eyes shut.  He stupidly assumes that blinding Goku "halves" his strength.   Except Goku can sense his enemies' ki, so he can still fight just as effectively without looking.   This has been demonstrated countless times in the past, so I don't know why Toei would pretend to ignore this years later.   Eis and Nuova are supposed to be the strongest enemies Goku has encountered to date, but they fight like amateurs.  Goku punches a hole in Eis' body and follows up with Super Dragon Fist, which would have been satisfying if he hadn't waited so long to use it.   Nuova Shenron decides to withdraw, feeling that it would be wrong to fight Goku until he regains his sight.   I find Nuova's change of heart ridiculous.  The Shadow Dragons entire reason for being is to destroy the world.   When Goku meets him, it's in the ruins of a city he presumably attacked and destroyed.  He claims to have a code against hurting innocents or the defenseless, except he's made from evil energy and his ultimate goal is to destroy the world.  Goku never questions him about this apparent conflict of interest, and it doesn't really matter because Nuova gets killed before it really becomes an issue.   Just as he gives Goku the antidote to Eis' blinding attack, both he and the medicine are cut down by.... The One-Star Dragon: This guy doesn't have any elemental powers, so Funimation just called him "Syn Shenron".   He's easily the strongest one, which begs the question of why he didn't just come after Goku from the start.  He no-sells all of Goku's attacks, and leaves him battered and unconscious.  Seems like a winner, right?   Syn's weakness is GT Logic.  Just when all seems lost, Goku's family and Trunks show up to help him.   Gohan, Goten, and Trunks agree that they're not strong enough to fight alongside Goku, but they plan to donate their energy to Goku so he can recharge to full power.  Majuub tries to hold off Syn Shenron, but to no avail.  Despite the fact that Syn dominated a Super Saiyan 4, the boys manage to hold him off long enough.   So if they can do that, why can't they just fight Syn directly?  And if they really are no match for Syn, how are their combined powers sufficient to re-energize Goku?  Of course, this whole paradox is just a retread of the last time SSJ4 Goku needed a recharge, back when he was fighting Baby.   Goku insists on taking more energy from the boys than is safe to use, because he needs extra juice to cope with Syn's power.   This is irritating, because it really isn't clear what the risks are in this situation.  Gohan and the others are no worse for wear, in spite of giving "all" their energy to Goku, and Goku doesn't seem to get much stronger for the boost.  It's just a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.  Goku does manage to get the upper hand on Syn, although it seems less like Goku is stronger and more like Syn just overdosed on stupid pills.  Even though we've established that Goku can fight just as effectively while blind, Syn still tries to exploit the weakness by throwing a clockface from a tower at him.   Goku then blows him away with a Kamehameha-Super Dragon Fist combination.   The only catch is that it doesn't get the job done.  Though beaten, Syn absorbs the other six Dragon Balls, transfoming into "Omega Shenron", the final final boss of Dragon Ball GT.   Hoo-boy. NEXT: The Omega Glory