#however there are somethings fighterz does good with him

[web-pets]

why does no one ever talk about yamcha calling shenron bro in fighterz

like imagine going to god and going 'yo bro'

[animatedminds]

Scoob! Review

Apologies: I watched the movie  two weeks ago, but forgot to write this because I was so busy doing the Dragonball FighterZ thing. But, with that out of the way...

An interesting ride. As a longtime Scooby Doo fan, it was pretty much a given that I would watch this installment by the Warner Animation Group as soon as possible, and I had a pretty good time - albeit with some issue. It’s a fun Scooby adventure, mostly focusing on Scooby and Shaggy, as they go on a new kind of adventure. It’s full of fun references, super charmingly animated action scenes, and lots of humor that actually nails the characters’ goofball antics without diminishing them as the butt of the joke - which is something the previous theatrical series was hit or miss about - which which is also hampered by the fact that it doesn’t really give itself enough time or space to really make any of those things shine.

Spoilers, but only a couple.

The first thing we ever heard about this movie years ago was that it was conceived as a dramatic retool of Scooby Doo into a out-and-out spy series, in order to set up a Hanna Barbera cinematic universe a la the MCU (which, given that they already had a shared universe they could adapt in Future Quest, hit a little hard), giving the impression that Scooby was going to be a pastiche of James Bond. It’s very obvious from the finished product that this concept was since heavily changed, but you still see it in the film. The gang is still the same-old gang - a bunch of kooky teen mystery solvers - but plotwise it’s very much “what if instead of solving a mystery, the gang just fought a supervillain?” Which, let’s be clear, is not unheard of for the franchise: see Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase for another story that’s mostly just “fight a cool bad guy, with a tacked on mystery,” or the other Shaggy and Scooby-centric stuff like Ghoul School or Reluctant Werewolf for other movies that just plain eschew their usual setting entirely - this is a lot like those. It’s centered around the two characters’ relationship, like pretty much every theatrical Scooby release it seems, as this new challenge almost breaks their union, and the group as usual does very well in that kind of action. Faced with an army of dimwitted robots that can go from silly to terrifying multiple times in the same scene, Scoob and Shag’s typical mix of silly bumbling with surprisingly - and destructively - clever antics make for some great scenes, my favorite being a madcap chase through an amusement park that ends with them getting away on a ferris wheel that’s been knocked of its hinges.

This is very much a movie that wants to be a Hanna Barbera crossover, but is trying hard to restrain itself. As a kid Shaggy was a fan of the Impossibles (who, iirc, were once intended to get a movie as part of this universe) with models and posters that the camera never completely focuses on, you see Laff-a-Lympics on an arcade machine, references to classic Scooby writers and actors as location names (I laughed at Messick Mountain, and the Takamoto Bowl outright went over my head at first), even little things like Scooby bowling like Fred Flintstone or the blink and you’ll miss it appearance of Yankee Doodle Pigeon - and yes, Captain Caveman shows up, fully voiced by Tracy Morgan and kicking butt for a very short scene, with one of his show’s supporting characters (Dee Dee Skyes) as a prominent in this movie’s plot. There’s even musical references in addition to visible ones: at one point, the movie even orchestrates one of the classic bits of Scooby Doo background music. I was hoping for a reference to the classic Scooby Doo / Blue Falcon theme, but alas that was one nod we didn’t get.

However, this approach does work especially well with Blue Falcon - who was originally built up through Scooby Doo, sharing a timeslot, advertisement and technically a theme song, and in time has more or less become to Scooby Doo what Donkey Kong is to Mario: technically a supporting character, but able to do his own stuff every once in a while. There have been several Blue Falcon Scooby Doo crossovers in the last few years (though in terms of sheer number of references this movie’s got nothing on Mask of the Blue Falcon), and they’ve all been very fun as each show, movie or comic reinterpreted the character to fit their specific world - and this movie’s novice Blue Falcon who is kind of an egoistical loser, but turns out to have a lot to learn even from Scooby and Shaggy’s brand of cowardly bravery, grows on you even if he has kind of a rough initial landing.

Unfortunately, this is also a movie that very much wants that rigid hour and a half timeslot, and has absolutely no interest in a going a second longer - and that’s where it’s problems come in. I’ve said before that animated films have become more and more written with expediency in mind: plot points are rushed, denouements are minimized, side or even main characters might not get much utilization, and sometimes things come of as just kind of happening to the protagonists without much set-up. Even the best or the best animation companies fall into these traps at times, and this movie is a good example of what it looks like if you fall into that too much. Take the Scooby gang - Velma, Daphne, and Fred. They’re not really fleshed out that much in this movie, even if they were tweaked a bit with their new VAs - but that’s not necessarily a problem in itself, given the heavy focus on Scooby and Shaggy. What’s more noticeable is where this intersects the plot: for example - one of the better examples of what I’m talking about - the scene that kicks off the whole story. Fred, Velma and Daphne want to expand Mystery Inc, and call Simon Cowell to invest in them. Cowell decides Scooby and Shaggy are incompetent because reasons, and the two storm off. This is later framed as the gang abandoning the duo, that’s not really what happens. Once Cowell hits the scene, beyond one or two lines the rest of the gang essentially ceases to exist, and barely reacts to anything: there’s no moments with them where they seem to buy into what Cowell is saying, there’s nothing beforehand that implies that they’re dissatisfied with Scooby and Shaggy, there’s isn’t even really a status quo for what their dynamic is like. We cut straight from them meeting as kids to them having a supposed fight as adults - this is something that wouldn’t have taken a lot of time, but would have strengthened pretty much everything, from Scooby and Shaggy’s reaction to the trio’s guilt later, but is skipped over entirely. The others get very little beyond being summed up as “the muscle” (Fred), “the face” (Daphne) and “the brains” (Velma), and it feels less like expediency and more like we missed a scene somewhere.

Granted, this particular thing also runs a unique problem that the Scooby gang face. As characters who just turned fifty and who are well entrenched in pop culture, adaptations often assume you know who they already - and this movie definitely assumes you can do its work for it and establish a baseline for the Scooby gang on your own... and on that front, I suppose it does better than the previous film series, which based a lot of its humor on fandom in-jokes they poorly assumed everyone agreed with. But... there’s a degree to which every film needs to establish a baseline for that it itself to trying to do, and I think skipping this hurt the film more than it should have. And it’s hardly the only point where the need for speed cuts out the flow of the film. Scooby and Shaggy get abducted by Blue Falcon, whose assistant then promptly exposits on everything the audience doesn’t know yet about the plot so that they can just skip straight to more action - basically setting up a question and then answering it immediately without set-up. This essentially robs Dick Dastardy - definitely the best thing about the movie - of a strong introduction, in favor of, again, expediency, and it’s kind of baffling given that there’s later scenes where the rest follows the mystery and so repeats that exposition anyway. I mentioned that Blue Falcon himself got a rough initial landing, and that’s because his intro scene is just a lot of new element popping in with exposition, interspersed with pop culture references - and that exposition just stops the whole thing cold for a while. We hit again the “expects you to know” angle with Falcon himself, who is a legacy character of the original Falcon - who we never see, which raises the question of why they bothered to make him a legacy and not just a novice hero in the first place. I’ve always been a strong believer that you can introduce elements without needless explanation unless who introduce concepts that suggest explanation: Scoob and Shag being a fan of the original Blue Falcon, Dynomutt constantly reminiscing about him, and there being a full Falcon organization around which the movie pivots, along with lots of reference, suggest the need for at least a little more than we got - even if it’s just a thirty clip of the way Blue Falcon worked before Brian (the new Falcon) came along - but the movie just wants to rush past it. The entire quest on which the plot is centered it halfway through when we first encounter it, and doesn’t get any explanation at all until halfway through the movie. And then there’s little things like  Captain Caveman cameo, which just leave you wanting more.

This happens again and again, with plot points, characters, all sorts - things introduced halfway and then brushed past as though they’re not. People don’t expect much from animated movies, and stuff like this is one of the reasons why - this movie feels sometimes like it was written for tv, which is ironic given how it ended up being released. But the movies that were themselves DTV or released to TV, like Shaggy’s Showdown or Legend of the Phantasaur, the aforementioned Mask of the Blue Falcon or - my perosnal favorite - Moon Monster Madness, even tend to not have these problems themselves, because they’re more measured and precise about what they want to introduce and why. It’s great to be childish, as long you do childish well.

But now that the criticism portion of the review is done, I will say that this doesn’t hamper the movie’s desire to be fun and easy to follow, it just makes it not as much so as it clearly could have been. If you wanted more Falcon, or more Scooby and Shaggy, more Mystery Inc shenangians, more Dastardly, more adventure, more of a certain gag or humor, more of really any of the movie’s best points, you weren’t getting them that much because the movie was trying to do all of them all at once. But one the movie starts getting traction, about halfway through, that starts to fade as everything coalesces. All the characters meet, we finally know what the heck is going on, and it’s just a straight shot to the end with lots of what this movie does best: cool visuals, silly characters doing silly things, and brave characters doing brave things. Much as I wish there was more to the Captain Caveman segment, it’s one of the most visually hilarious parts of the movie, with the stark contrast of these hi-tech, modern character colliding with these explicitly more cartoony prehistoric designs and antics, and its just wonderful. Everything about Dick Dastardly’s story is great - though I was wishing for a Penelope Pitstop reference - and he even gets a heartwarming conclusion to the whole thing.

I don’t know where the series is going after this - whether they do indeed intend to make more Hanna Barbera movies in this vein. The credits teased Johnny Quest, Frankenstein Jr, Grape Ape (who according to concept art was supposed to be in this one), Atom Ant, and even a bit of Wacky Races, and it’s clear they have the love for classic Hanna Barbera to make it happen. I just hope that if they do, they go with a series who can expand this in a more concise way, with a little better character introduction. I’ve still got my fingers crossed for Future Quest.

The film is still very recommended by me. I loved it, I watched it twice, and it a heck of a lot of fun even with its hang-ups. If you haven’t seen it, there are worse ways for a parent, a kid, or just a big ol’ child at heart to spend an afternoon.

[tubbotums]

A Serious Talk

*This talk is very long and ranty. I understand not everyone wants to see that on their feed, and I know you guys don’t come here to see personal biznasty. I’m going to cut this off so you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to, but I please ask you do so if you follow my blog for the most part. I feel it’s important for you guys to see this, and I hope it’ll clear up any questions you might have for me and also give you a little insight on who I am. Thank you for reading in advance if you do so, and I hope you have a great day. <3*

It’s time I sit you all down and have a talk with you guys, my lovely followers, roleplay partners and friends. This is a talk I feel like I’ve needed to have for a while with all of you, just to be honest with you guys about me and what I feel about this blog. I think honesty is the best policy, and getting this out there is something that I feel like needs to be done.

So, as all of you are probably aware at this point, I change muses on this blog as quickly as I change pairs of socks. Some come, some go, some stay for a while and then fade away and end up getting booted. For a while, I really felt like I had a good list of muses to use, and I actually really thought that my current batch was nice. That being said, now that I take a more serious look at them, I realize that there are a few problems with it. A lot of my muse picks are for characters that I really love and want to see fat. characters that can really fit a specific thing I’m trying to do when I feel it a certain day. However, that’s the problem:

My muse list isn’t flexible

There are a couple of muses that get attention by the masses (heh puns), such as Yang or Mia and most recently Momo (seriously y’all love her so much). But that leaves another half that I’m not satisfied with, the “niche” characters if you will. These are the characters that when I’m in a certain mood I’ll be like “hey I wanna play them”, but they aren’t ones that’ll catch anyone’s attention. I’ve come to notice around here that Fate, Touhou, DanganRonpa, and a couple of other series are very popular around here, while others such as Fairy Tail or Skullgirls aren’t, and that’s perfectly fine. I have no problem with that because quite honestly the girls in all those series are on a god level of cute/perfect for these situations. But unfortunately for now, that leaves me stuck. I’ve never watched a Fate series, played a match in Touhou or touched a DanganRonpa game, but I’ve watched 200+ episodes of Fairy Tail and played the mobile game of Skullgirls to basically its entirety at this point. I don’t have a lot of muses that are flexible with things people know and that I know, which really does stink at times. I should know better than this at this point, but quite honestly I don’t because part of me thinks it’s on me for not being a good enough writer and keeping you guys interested in my muses. So, at this point I’m going to make clear who the muses I’m going to be trotting out for now:

Yang Xiao Long

Tohru

Mia Fey

Pharah

Momo Yaoyorozu

Now that leaves Erza, Cerebella and Akira gone. Most of you will probably ask why I would get rid of Akira. After all, he’s from a very popular game a lot of you know, and he’s the only male muse on here that I can’t stop talking about. The issue I’m having with Akira now is that he’s certainly fallen into that niche roll. I won’t always be in the mood to do a thread for him and I’ll leave my RP partners on wait for weeks on end, which isn’t right for them at all. I’m not at a point on my blog where it’s active enough to maintain keeping him here for asks at this point, and quite frankly I’m starting to think having male muses on here was a mistake. It has nothing to do with anyone, but I think it would just be best to focus on female muses from here on out. I love my big boi’s, but with how niche I can be with them I don’t think it’s worth it anymore and it’s time for me to really focus on how flexible I can be with characters I like to write and people know. I’ll be adding another Persona 5 muse in the coming days however, since it is my favorite game of all time. I have it down to about three people I’m considering adding, so if you guys want to hear more or don’t care, I’m fine with giving you whatever information you guys wanna hear.

Moving on to the next thing I wanna talk about, I want to talk about my writing and my feelings for the future of this blog. As of now, I’m a college student who wants to write his own TV shows in the future. I want to make worlds, tell stories and inspire others to do the same. That being said, I am probably my biggest enemy when it comes to this. I’m scared of myself, my shortcomings, of others, and the world itself. I have goals that I’m too scared to pursue because I worry about what others think of me. I do the same thing on here, mainly because there are so many of you I want to RP with but am too scared to even approach. I feel like my writing is insignificant and bad, and when I start threads with someone and they die, I’ll always blame myself for the cause. I want to be the best RP partner possible for all of you guys and entertain you guys, but being the person I am, I don’t feel like I can be that at all...

For a while, I was considering shutting this blog down and moving on from here. I didn’t think it was worth feeling shitty about myself all the time, but I started realizing that this place was probably my biggest safe haven. There are a ton of other places I’m involved in that don’t feel nearly as welcoming as this community. Other places, I feel like my words hold no value and that I’m just someone who doesn’t contribute anything positive. I just make people angry because I say a stupid thing, and then I feel terrible about it and want to apologize correctly, but I can’t even do THAT right and I make things worse because of the stupid person I am. The more I take a look around me, the more I start seeing people that don’t really care about me at times. They say they do, but they’re just as quick to move on from me when I want their help.

I’m not afraid to admit that I’m needy and love attention. I need people around me to talk to and keep me positive because I hate being alone. I like talking with all of you guys because you all make me feel special and wanted. I have made so many good friends on here that I talk to almost everyday, whether it be on here or through discord. They’ve helped me through some tough times, supported my ideas and encouraged me to go beyond what I feel comfortable doing. For the past three or more months, this place has been my safety net, my pride and joy because of how afraid I was to do other things at times. This blog actually got me watching new shows and playing new games I might’ve never tried before, and it still is. I don’t know where I’d be in all honesty had it not been for some of the amazing friends I’ve made on here.

So how does this tie in with my writing? How does this affect me and most importantly, you the fan of this blog or potential partner/friend. I’ve decided that I’m going to keep this blog going, and I’m going to write for me now. I’m going add muses that I’ll think are fun to play and flexible enough to use in certain situations as well as ones you all can interact with. I’m going to write whatever the hell I feel like on here and not feel like I’m being judged for it. I want to write because it’s fun, and I don’t want to feel pressured to be perfect. I’m nowhere near a perfect writer at this point in time, but trial and error will help me develop these skills that are essential to mold me into what I want to be. My writing from here on out is going to be something I can take great joy in and feel proud to show it off to everyone. I’m not going to pressure myself with feeling like I have to write this for everyone.

I’m going to write this because I want to write this, and I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks.

Granted, it’s not going to be easy to break out of old habits that have kept me down for years on end at this point, but I’m going to try my best. So please, bear with me and I promise that I’ll be better than ever for myself and for you guys. You guys deserve so much credit and praise for sticking by me for soon to be a year in February. Almost eight months going strong on here has been a treat, and I hope that it’ll continue being that.

As for a couple other small things, I haven’t forgotten about the Lucy X Erza feeding session fic I promised you guys. Time and motivation have probably been my biggest downfalls when writing this fic, but I promise that soon I’ll have it done and it’s going to be amazing. Just give it time and I’ll reward your patience. I’ll also give updates on muses as time goes by, maybe even hint at some if I feel like it warrants it. But as for now, the only muse I know for a fact that I want to play on here is Android 21. UNFORTUNATELY FOR MUN, Dragon Ball FighterZ doesn’t come out until February, and because we don’t have enough information on her personality, I don’t feel comfortable playing her. Sure, I could make some stereotypical observations based on her clothes and fanart, but I feel like that would be really... weak? ( I can’t think of the right word) on my part. I want to give you as close of a canon representation as possible, so waiting for the game is really the only option. Aside from that, I’m going to be delving into some of these more popular series that I see floating around here to familiarize myself with the content, maybe even pick a muse from some of them if someone catches my fancy.

With that, I think that about does my little rant. I really just want to thank all of you for sticking by me and supporting you, especially my close friends on here. There are way too many of you to list, but you guys certainly know who you are. This probably won’t be the last time I switch up my muses again, but I’m hoping I have a long interval in between the next time I do so. Thank you all for being awesome, and I promise I’m going to be better for me, which in turn will be better for you. <3

-Your very sappy mun

[recentanimenews]

Jump Force Is A Really Great Game That's Surrounded By Garbage

The "Hey look! My favorite character is beating the crap out of my other favorite character!" genre of video games has been pretty strong lately, with stuff like Injustice 2 and Dragon Ball FighterZ surpassing expectations and draining me of my social life. Jump Force, a fighting game centered around the characters of Weekly Shonen Jump mauling eachother, wants to be added to that pantheon. And why shouldn't it be? It features a bunch of your favorite anime and manga characters all screaming out their attacks as they fight across surprisingly large stages in chaotic combat. I should be holding a copy of Jump Force up on my roof while I scream, shirtless, at my neighbors to come try and challenge their new god. 

  Instead, I'm politely cracking the window and whispering to them that if they have a quick second to maybe give Boruto a try, Because there is a very cool game inside of Jump Force, a game where Jotaro Kujo, Seiya, and Roronoa Zoro team up to stomp on the skulls of Gaara, Blackbeard and that one Dragon Quest dude. That's a game that makes you want to buy a crate of Mountain Dew, steal a country's supply of Doritos, and kick it with your friends like you're in an old school commercial from 1998. That game is in there. It's just tough to find sometimes.

    See, in between all of the combat, Jump Force fills you with questions. For instance, why am I playing as some kind of self-created avatar that's just a Frankenstein'd glob of other anime character features? I don't know anyone who wants to do this, outside of the people that just buy WWE games to say "HAHA. I MADE PICKLE RICK. EAT IT, TRIPLE H." But those games tend to have complex, gratifying character creation systems, while Jump Force gives you a few options and then sets you loose to stand beside Trunks and Naruto in awkward cutscenes that are so vengefully clumsy that you'd swear they were making fun of you.

    Side note: Why do I even have to use this avatar? Why can't I just switch between the characters that people are buying the game for? I got excited to play as Toguro and Gon and Boa Hancock. When I first saw the trailer, I didn't watch Luffy, Goku, Naruto and Light Yagami and think "But where the heck is my favorite Weekly Shonen Jump character....ME?" 

  A bunch of these cutscenes take place in your headquarters, which sadly takes the place of a simple menu in this game. In this abandoned shopping mall-looking area, you run around to accept missions, talk to characters, upgrade stuff, and just kinda look at the goofy designs other players have inflicted on their own avatars. This layout is cool for a bit, until you realize that it's far bigger than it needs to be. I don't want to spend a decent chunk of my time as my dumb avatar, running around, looking desperately for things to do. And while there are things to do, your instructions for them are pretty vague. The Jump Force boss will tell you "Have you communicated with your allies?" and this is code for "Run halfway across the base, stupid, and see what Yusuke's having anxiety about."

  Speaking of the Jump Force boss, the story of Jump Force is almost exactly what you'd expect it to be: an elongated system of unlocking new characters. See, a bunch of them that appear outside of the core Dragon Ball/One Piece/Naruto series have been infected by evil cubes and you have to beat them unconscious to get them on your side. However, it's not a bad story. It's no worse than most Mortal Kombat games, where the plot is pushed along by another person entering the room and saying "Now, YOU will die," or Dragon Ball FighterZ's, where you spent hours pummeling the same Yamcha clone. 

    That said, Jump Force does succeed in a really crucial way, something that's necessary in all of these "Who would win?" simulators: It makes you play as (and love) characters that you never thought you would. I remember, when Injustice 2 came out, I figured that I'd probably stick to Batman and Bane if I could. One week later, I was all about Swamp Thing, Scarecrow, and Wonder Woman. In Dragon Ball FighterZ, my sights were locked on Cell and Vegeta, but I ended up almost totally ignoring them and joining Team Yamcha, Majin Buu and Tien. 

  And when it comes to Jump Force, I was dead set on making Luffy, Toguro and Hisoka my main team. But you know who is AWESOME in Jump Force? Boruto. I don't know if there's a character in the entire game that's more delightful to play as than Naruto's kid. Yusuke is awesome, too, and I looooooove how it feels to squash an opponent with Roronoa Zoro. If you can get used to him, Jotaro Kujo is also very cool, even if that's partially due to the fact that I like to yell "ORAORAORAORA" along with the game. I'm terrible as Yugi, but I just can't stop using him. And if you're able to master Asta, you will rule the world. 

    Another thing that I didn't mind very much was the arena combat. I know that, when I played FighterZ, I thought that all fighting games should either be like FighterZ or just be a different copy of FighterZ that I had lying around the house. But the arena battling works here. There's something really epic about sending your opponent flying and then rushing toward them to deliver another blow. I know that it's not a proper adjective, but the fighting in Jump Force feels very, very anime. The fighting noises and all the copious explosions and earth-shattering moves make you feel like you're controlling the final battle at the end of an intense arc ALL THE TIME, even if you're just having a friendly spar with Sanji. 

  Honestly, the story in Jump Force doesn't really matter in the long run. The labyrinthian headquarters doesn't either. They're just there to get you acquainted with the game and the characters, so that you can jump into Online and Offline battles and settle grudge matches with your friends and people on the internet. So if you can wade through some of Jump Force's clunkier set-ups and finally get down to mashing buttons and yelling about how Sabo could totally win against Ichigo, you'll find something to like here. Jump Force is pretty good, as long as you can forgive the non-fighting stuff that's pretty bad. 

  REVIEW ROUNDUP:

+ The characters are all pretty fun to play as, as long as you don't like playing as Sasuke

+ Combat is fast and chaotic, with a bunch of cool explosions and sweet-looking moves

+ Online matchmaking for ranked matches is very simple

+ ORAORAORAORA

+/- Story is simple, but it's kind of just filler anyway

- The main menu area feels sloppy

- I haaaaaate playing as my avatar, and you probably will, too.

  Are you gonna pick up Jump Force? Who are you gonna play as? Let me know in the comments!

---------------

Daniel Dockery is a Crunchyroll writer/editor that has a Twitter, but more importantly, now has a love for Boruto. 

   Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[animatedminds]

What If: Every Character In Dragonball FighterZ Had a Dramatic Finish? (Pt. 1)

Consider this a nerdy thought experiment. I’m a big Dragonball fan, and a big FighterZ fan, and anyone who is either probably knows well by know what Dramatic Finishers are: in one of the most amazing steps of fanservice in recent memory, Arcsys created intricate animated adaptations of some of Dragonball’s greatest moments, which can be triggered in special situations. Huge explosions, great comebacks, cool ends to some of the series hypest fights.

But it gets you thinking - and its something that a lot of fans have asked since the game started: which if X or Y character had a Dramatic Finish, instead of the select few who have some in the current build?

Well, over the next few days we’re going to figure that out. With DLC on the way bringing us a brand new and thoroughly expected Finish for Kefla, this seemed like a great time to do it. Now, let’s be clear: this isn’t an attempt to say that all of these characters should get a Dramatic Finish. Arcsys’ style of animation these days is very intricate and extremely time consuming, which makes any new animation something of a godsend in the first place. As a result, not only are most of the characters who don’t already have one probably not going to get one, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them weren’t ever considered at all. This is more as a hypothetical: if these characters were considered, what would their Finishes be? What references would be best for them, to give cool moments from Dragonball history? To give another note, for this the point is to ensure every character gets an appearance in a Dramatic Finish. Not necessarily a win (that’s simply not possible for everyone). Some of these characters are going to have losses listed. Some might even have to make due with Dramatic Openings instead. For the most part, we won’t be assuming the existence of any characters who aren’t currently in the game: it has to be within the current roster.

You can listen along to the entire list right now if you don’t want to read a wall of text over the course of several day: just check out the track on Soundcloud! It’s everyone from the beginning to the end of the roster, with dulcet tones and some neat Dragonball music.

But... if you don’t have the time to hear nerd talk for twenty minutes, go ahead: we’re skipping the ones who already have one - I mention them all on the audio even though I still skip them, just for completeness (and so people don’t ask me why I didn’t think of other ones for existing characters) and in order to make quips - but this is going to be shorter.

Part 1, we’ll go over the first three characters - mostly the Dragonball era with one addition - and so the first character to not to have a Dramatic Finish is...

Tien (or Tenshinhan, depending on your version)

Tien spends a lot of time away from the plot - unlike most of the cast, when he’s not there to do something significant he’s typically just absent, only appearing when he does. However, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have options for a Finish: far from it. I can think of at least two that would make decent choices.

The first is probably the one everyone thinks of when they think of Tien: the moment where stalls Cell with the Kikoho, blasting him into the dirt repeatedly to give 18 and 16 time to escape. It’s a classic epic scene with Tien, and one that a lot of people remember:

A couple caveats with this one: first being that this wasn’t actually a Finish - Cell gets ups just fine afterwards - but if Base Goku’s Finish against Freeza is any indication, that’s not necessarily a problem if the scene is a strong enough moment. The other is that the version of Cell that this happens to - Semi-Perfect Cell - is not strictly in the game: its Perfect Cell. But the game has cheated with this as well in the past. The stage this would happen, however, is already in the game - so no problems there.

It’s not hard to  see how this would work. The typical Dramatic Finish beginning, Cell  looks up and finds Tien already above him, ready to rain Kikohos down  upon him. The way I see this working best is similar to those infamous  Quan Chi and Chronika fatalities in the Mortal Kombat series - the ones  that don’t ever actually end, they just keep going over and over until  the players ends or (more likely for this game) the screen transitions  to the next on its own. Here, you could have Tien just keep Kikohoing  again and again until the Victory Marquee comes up on its own. Very funny, very epic.

The second idea, however, is one I think is  better reference for Tien himself - one of the classic moments from when  his character was more current: the time he narrowly defeated Kid Goku  at the Tenkaichi Budokai:

Albeit without the blowing up the stage on this one.

This fight involved Goku and Tien going at it in midair: Tien able to fly, while Goku couldn’t at the time - they end up plummeting to the ground, but only one is able to avoid a ring out. It’s another one with that same caveat: Kid Goku is technically not in the game, but GT Goku is basically the same character with  few additions, so he can easily be used as a stand-in. This one would also give the World Martial Arts Tournament stage something special, which it doesn’t have yet.

For this, have the fight continue into the scene - a la Super Broly’s - and end up in midair, where they both start to lose steam. Goku knocks Tien down, but Tien is able to knock Goku away. A fun extra they could do is - since the original version had Goku fall into a highway and get his by a car - do like the Jiren Finish and change stages in the middle of the scene, ending at the City. Goku crashes (complete with car, for fun), Tien doesn’t, and the latter enjoys a weary victory pose. Next up:

Piccolo (or if you know what moment I’m thinking of already, Piccolo Jr)

Piccolo, while he’s always around in roles of semi-importance, is another who was phased out of a major slot in favor of stronger rivals and later characters. But he’s always good for a least one awesome moment per arc, and there’s one major scene in particular that I think would be perfect for a Dramatic Finish:

The end of his fight against Goku at the World Martial Arts tournament.

This scene is actually - to me - a no brainer: it and the moment against Piccolo Daimao where the moments where the series really started getting into having villain defeats with built-up, dramatic physical conclusions, and the defeat of Piccolo Jr in particular was the culmination of everything that came before it. I was actually surprised that when Base Goku was released, and this moment wasn’t added in addition to the Saiyan Saga content: I was at least expecting moments from this fight to be represented in Base Goku’s moveset, as it features such identifiable things to draw from. Either way, there are two moments from this fight that would work in a Finish - the second, incidentally, happens immediately after the first, but either would work. The first being what the Budokai games eventually named the “Meteor Combination” - where Goku seems to defeat Piccolo once and for all after blocking his ultimate attack.

Not going to lie, this ranks pretty high one my personal list of the best action sequences in the entire franchise - it’s pictured above for a reason - and I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t find a video clip with the whole bit beforehand with Piccolo’s explosive attack as well.

It’s a triumphant turnaround, a very dramatic conclusion with a lot of flow and weight, and would be perfect animated in a Dramatic finish. Plus, it’s another that gives the Tournament stage some content. You could either have it begin like Cell’s Dramatic Finish - where Piccolo attempts an attack (the Destructive Wave, in this case), only for Goku to turn it around, or you could simply have Goku go straight into the attack, knocking Piccolo to the ground and finishing with a titanic Kamehameha from above.

As I said before, it’s a little surprising they didn’t add it in some way already. End it with a thumbs up to the camera, like in the original scene, and you’re gold. Or...

The moment right after, where it turns out Piccolo is just faking his defeat, and turns it around only to be defeated by Goku in the end anyway:

This is the infamous one where Piccolo tortures Goku, but that doesn’t have to fully be in the Finish. In this one, you would start the Dramatic Finish with Piccolo getting knocked down, and Goku giving that thumbs up I was telling you about... but then Piccolo hops up and blasts Goku through the shoulder - which is easily done bloodlessly. He then presses the attack, laying on the ground, broken, and is about to torture him, when... For this next part, you could either require Tien and Krillin (or Yamcha) on our team alongside Base Goku to perform, or you could do it with whatever teammates you have: they jump in to help Goku, but Piccolo blocks them with a ki attack. Then he looks down, and finds that Goku is gone! He looks about to find Goku rocketing at him to deliver a titanic headbutt that ends the fight for good. In the source, after getting healed Goku did a dramatic leap into the air to celebrate finally winning the tournament - without a healing segment, that can just happen automatically, and that would be a fine last image of the Finish.

With Piccolo out of the way, the next characters up for a Finish skip a whole saga, and go straight to...

The Ginyu Force

This one took a bit of thinking, as all the Ginyu members fought individually, and most against different characters, but I realized if I was going to pick one there was really only the one option: The moment where Ginyu tries to body change with Vegeta, and ends up in the form of a frog.

Forgive the lack of embedded video on this one - it’s potholed above, but I didn’t want the first post to just be two characters, and alas with the combination of Tumblr’s five vid limit, my coming up with two legit ideas each for the previous two (that won’t happen often for the rest), and needing two entire videos for just one of the Piccolo ideas, I ran out of embeds. Still, this one is a keeper.

This would be a Base Vegeta win, requiring Base Goku to be on his team. The original moment was all vertical: Ginyu flew up in the air and Vegeta flew up after him, but you could just finagle it and do it horizontally instead to cut back on extra animation. The set up for this is simple as anything: do the knockback, trigger the Finish, Ginyu gets furious - while Vegeta is too arrogant to notice - and starts the Body Change, catching Vegeta off guard. At the last second, Goku throws a frog in between them, and Ginyu is left stuck croaking. The last shot - like the Janemba Finish - could be the POV of Frog Ginyu as he runs away, while regular Ginyu hops around like a frog. This more funny that epic, but it is a very memorable part of the Freeza arc, and definitely the most memorable thing attached to Captain Ginyu himself, so in my opinion its the best bet for him.

And that’s the first three: 

There’ll be more than three in the next segment, trust me.

If you like the idea, happy to have you. Make sure to listen to the full track on Soundcloud if you just want the list right away without waiting a day for each installment, and let me know if you agree with the list or not - what you would pick instead, that sort of thing. Either way, stay Sparking!