#look i know the whole plot of the freeza arc is that vegeta wants to be immortal but i think this is still so vegeta core i couldnt help it

[nessguts]

who wants to see something stupid i made

[freeza-emperor-of-the-universe]

Thoughts on Dragonball Super: Super Hero

Overall 7/10. 

The CG animation looked (mostly) better than I thought. However all the material on Beerus’ planet didn’t look good- Goku and Vegeta sparing, some of the models like Beerus and Whis.

 I also liked how it focused on Piccolo, Gohan and other characters rather then Goku and Vegeta.

I have a lot of issues with the plot and some character writing.

I’ve never been a fan of the Artificial Human and Cell arcs. We are told in the Saiyan to Freeza arcs that the Freeza army technology is far superior to Earth’s and it just felt really off that a human scientist could make robots, a bioweapon and enhance humans to make them stronger then Freeza and the Super Saiyan.

This is even worse with Gero’s grandson who’s noted to be more of a genius than his grandfather could make robots and a Cell rip-off that are as strong as Goku and Vegeta in their God forms (Piccolo notes this) or even Gohan in his Ultimate state. 

Then there’s the whole should Magenta for example exist. At the climax of the Boo arc they wished back everyone killed by Boo back to life except the very evil ones. Magenta wants to take over the world that surely sounds very evil. Hedo I can understand likely was spared by this because I do think he’s on that level.

I also don’t like now that Dende has upgraded Shenlong he can now literally be used to wish to be stronger. What’s the point of training or anything now if they can just collect the Dragonballs to do this. 

Then there’s some character issues I have. For what is it? The third time? Gohan is slacking off from his training. Yeah, Gohan doesn’t like fighting, but the Resurrection F arc established after what happened with Freeza, Gohan will train when he can to protect his family. It just feels very repetitive. 

Then there’s Piccolo’s attitude to Gohan. I just find this out of character that he doesn’t like that Gohan isn’t training. Remember in the Cell arc, Piccolo was willing to jump into fight Cell because he knew Gohan doesn’t have ‘a warrior’s stomach’ like Goku. Piccolo IMO would respect that Gohan is fulfilling his dream of being a scholar. Chastising him for not picking his daughter from preschool, sure, but for not training I disagree.

Bulma is just used for fan-service here with some fan-service shots of her ass. Yes, Bulma can be vain but c’mon Dragonball never sinks to such depths.

I wasn’t a fan of how Kuririn is treated here. They have him act like he is too scared to help out in the fight with Cell Max, which has NEVER been the case. That’s more Yamcha NOT Kuririn.

The Gammas are entertaining but don’t really have much depth. Cell Max is just a kajiu sized Cell (some of his attacks literally feel ripped from Shin Godzilla) who just screams and fires energy blasts. NO character at all.

I do find it amusing that nobody still knows that Commander Red ultimately wanted the Dragonballs to wish to grow taller NOT world domination.

I didn’t mind the new forms. Orange Piccolo kinda feels like something out of One Piece looks wise. Beast Gohan while cool enough is literally just SSJ2 Kid Gohan all over with the exact same hair style and he even wears the same outfit.

Anyway, those are some thoughts off the top of my head.

[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!

[saiyanblood2]

Songs for some darkest timeline stuff, re: Vegeta IV, Tarble, and Future Trunks:

-Tarble never getting sent to Planet Tech-Tech and having to stay in the Freeza Force after Planet Vegeta gets destroyed:

1. "Peacemaker", from The Mechanisms' album High Noon Over Camelot.

With Vegeta IV as Gawain and Tarble as Mordred.

"GAWAIN:

Oh, Peacemaker, where you gonna run to?

Oh, Peacemaker, are these your friends?

Oh, Peacemaker, what'cha gonna do now?

Is this your end?

Oh, Peacemaker, nowhere left to hide now.

Oh, Peacemaker, you have failed.

Oh, Peacemaker, draw your gun now.

And end your tale.

MORDRED:

No path past hatred’s stain

I see that hope for unity made me a fool

Corpses leer 'round Gawain

Tell me dear brother is this how you’ll rule?

Narrator:

'And so Mordred fought, seeing in each slain Saxon the face of she who saved him. And as his cheeks grew warm with tears and blood, so too his heart grew cold.'

MORDRED:

Oh Warmonger, is this what you wanted?

Oh Warmonger, is this all you know?

Oh Warmonger, is your world so empty?

Just friend or foe?

Oh, Warmonger, see ’em flee before you.

Oh, Warmonger, watch them fall.

Oh, Warmonger, their flowing blood implores you

To heed its call."

-For if Future Vegeta got revived after Future Trunks deals with the androids and Future Cell, and Vegeta going all Majin when Babidi shows up and Future Trunks (and maybe Future Tarble, if he's alive) having to fight him. Or, in the worst case scenario, kill him:

1. "Once and Future King", from The Mechanisms' album High Noon Over Camelot.

[Narrator singing:]

"A broken man lies in the rust that's stained his whole life through

The blood that pools beneath him doesn't change the metal's hue

Like rainfall long forgotten, Mordred's tears in his wounds do sting

To Arthur in his arms he sings, 'You're the Once and Future King'

[...]

[Note: Mordred's parts in purple and parentheses, overlapping with the Narrator.]

A kiss upon his forehead binds, at last,

His son's goodbye (We could saved them all, yet you could not see)

Just one more shot will send him out into the

Endless sky (Now you'll always be the Once and Future King)

Here at the end of history,

As the final high noon rings (The key

Was in our hands, yet you could not see)

Mordred sits and waits without the Once and Future King (Now you'll always be the Once and Future King)"

With, obviously, Future Vegeta as Arthur, the Once and Future King, and Future Trunks as Mordred.

(If Future Tarble is alive in this timeline, then Mordred's parts could fit him, too. He wouldn't want his nephew to have to kill his own father, no matter how much of a selfish bastard Vegeta is. He especially wouldn't want Future Trunks getting hurt.

Gods, if anything cemented Future Tarble's resolve to kill his own brother, it'd be Future Vegeta hurting Future Trunks. Tarble loves that boy like his own. He wouldn't want anything to happen to him. Especially not... this...)

This is also the kinda general mood of my main timeline when Vegeta goes all Majin at the World Martial Arts Tournament, too.

-For Future Tarble and Future Trunks. Mostly if Future Tarble died to the androids and never got to really see his nephew grow up. And for if Future Tarble was then brought back after Future Trunks defeated the androids and Future Cell. He'd feel so guilty for not being able to be there for his nephew. For being too weak.

This especially works for a Future Tarble that a) was closer to my main timeline, where he was involved in the plot pretty much since the Saiyan Saga, b) survived past the androids arriving (probably by fleeing, so he can be there to help raise his nephew and take care of Future Gohan) and rampaging around and c) couldn't save Future Gohan from being killed by the androids. (And also possibly losing an arm.)

Especially if he was there when Future Trunks found the body. Especially if Future Tarble found the body with him. He'd hold the boy while Future Trunks cried and screamed to the heavens as the boy went Super Saiyan for the first time.

This also kinda fits my main timeline's Tarble, too, especially by the Goku Black arc in Super.

1. "II B: Unrest in the House of Light" by The Protomen, from their album, The Protomen (2005).

Most of it fits Tarble's feelings of frustration and guilt and regret at not being strong enough to protect his family, but it'd ESPECIALLY fit Future Tarble in the verse where Future Gohan died.

Tarble's protective of kids, and I think he'd feel a special kinship with Gohan because Gohan is so peaceful by nature, despite Gohan's latent skills as a fighter. And Tarble would get that, because he's like that too. He doesn't like fighting and hurting people, but he'll do it if its to protect innocent people and his family.

Tarble looked after Gohan from the Saiyan Saga onward, especially on Namek. He basically looked at the kid and was just like, "Is anybody gonna parent that?" and then didn't wait for a response.

In the verses were Freeza killed him and Vegeta with that Death Beam to the heart (Tarble hurled himself in front of his brother to try and stop the beam, or to at least slow it down, but it didn't work), Tarble would spend his last moments turning to Gohan, smiling through the blood bubbling out of his mouth, and trying to telepathicly tell the kid that everything was going to be okay.

He wanted the kid to remember him smiling.

He'd spend his time fighting the androids with Future Gohan and helping Future Gohan train Future Trunks. They'd be like family to him, I think. So when Future Gohan died...

"There was another who came before you

He was a hero, and your brother and my son

He fought the darkness, the darkness won

And he fought bravely, and he died bravely

[...]

And I am sorry, because I was wrong

And I'd take away the weight his shoulders had to bear

[...]

That story's finished. That story's ended

Understand there's nothing more that we can do

And I will not risk losing you

[...]

"So you will stay here. You will obey me

And I will keep grieving for the son I sent to death

You are all that I have left

You need to know

You are not him

This fight's not yours

You cannot win!"

I think the main thing that would keep Tarble's faith in humanity alive would be Bulma. Like, he likes humans well enough, too, even if he still feels out of place with them sometimes, but mostly it's his sister-in-law that inspires him. He sees the best of humanity in her- and in Gohan and Trunks.

-You could tweak pretty much all of The Protomen songs that deal with Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, Protoman, and Megaman to fit Future Trunks.

1. "IV: Vengeance" by The Protomen, from their album, The Protomen (2005), could also fit Future Trunks especially well, especially with regards to his feelings towards the androids and Cell.

"Send your armies

There's no man or machine

Who can stop me

And you'll soon see

I come for vengeance

For the first Son of Light

And I'm ready, and I'm willing, and I'm prepared to fight"

Tarble's precious baby nephew has some anger/vengeance issues.

Honestly? So does Tarble.

[aotopmha]

I saw the Broly movie in a specific way (as it is I have no other ways to see it anyway - low or high quality) and have been stewing on it a little. I'm probably going to write a much more elaborate post once the highest quality version is out. I'll also try my best to not give many spoilers here and keep it vague, but I will address the big spoiler everyone knows - Gogeta.

So, here's the stuff I really liked:

-Goku's character. He cares about getting a good fight going into it all and as always, is naive in not entirely good ways, but you also see him be very empathic and sweet and care about protecting the Earth. The usual, technically, but above all, I appreciate the balance here. I was never bothered by DBS exgaggerating Goku's traits at points to the point where I hated his character (some of those points are actually very interesting to me), but it did bug me a few times. Here, the balance is pretty much perfect to me. Aside from that, he does have a pretty interesting character moment at the end of the movie (not the obvious one, but rather something the moment implies) - it's something that will only be obvious if you think about Goku's initial story in OG DB, perhaps even something that could entirely be nothing or unintentional, but a bit of character writing I think that potentially creates a parallel between Goku and Broly that I regardless found interesting. I even thought they would make it one of the central points of the story, but it's there in a much more subdued way, to the point where it could potentially be unintentional, but I chose to think it's not.

-They fixed Broly and actually made me feel for him. He has a pretty clearly defined personality, and above all, motivations that make sense and are very human. He's still pretty basic, in that he is reserved and barely speaks, but that's part of what is also unique about him to me. Much of his personality comes from his expressions and manner of behaviour, rather than a very complex perspective on the world or elaborate dialog. The complexity he has also comes more from the circumstances and the interaction/relationships with other characters around him, rather than a straight-up clearly defined character arc. However, out of any new characters introduced in Super, I think he is the best example of a character that could have an arc that could go in several different directions. Out of most of Super's new cast I feel like he has the most room to do something with. Rather than being just a story that is finished by the end of the movie, this movie feels more like a beginning for Broly.

-Paragus. Paragus is an interesting villain because he's 100% a villain, but you can still get where he comes from - and he actually even has an arc that leads to his villainy.

-Chirai is really fun and very likeably justice-driven and proactive. She's the "heart" within the movie along with Goku and I love her for being so empathic. Lemo is the crusty old man sort of counterpart to her, empathic, but more passive about it.

- Freeza is entertaining humor-wise, but also still very hateable as a villain. I like his further development into a more effective villain. He's kinder to his subordinates, ready to retreat when things look bad, rather than just doing everything to get a victory right away - undoubtedly evil and self-serving still, but much more calm and collected about reaching his goal. It wouldn't surprise me if being so lax with him would later lead to very bad things.

-The more diverse portrayal of the Saiyans. They're not just a cold-blooded warrior race, but we also see regular workers like Gine or Beets and the social stratification of the whole society plays a big role in why the story takes place at all. Basically, we get a much more nuanced look at the Saiyans.

-Piccolo's brief role. I really liked his moment with Goku and his moment with both, Goku and Vegeta later on was a blast.

-Animation and music were mostly spot on. Great, great stuff. I thought there was some odd music placement in one scene, but beyond that, I think even some of the sillier-seeming music choices fit. There were a couple of CG moments, but they didn't distract me all that much and outside that I thought the movie looked pretty excellent throughout. This is in fact probably the best Dragon Ball has ever looked and the other big reason I can't wait for the high quality version of the movie.

I had parts of the movie I wasn't as big on as others, but I didn't straight-up dislike anything in it.

-The fights took too long. Particularly the Gogeta fight felt too long. It was a pretty-looking battle, but that was just it. The fights with Vegeta and Broly and Goku and Broly, plus their double-team at least had character stuff going. The Gogeta fight is pretty much 100% fanservice stuff outside of the finale, which did a very cool perspective thing with both participants of the fight. But, again, at the very least, it was REALLY pretty-looking fanservice stuff.

-Related to that, while it fits the more focused nature of the story, it's really odd that nobody else but Piccolo seems to notice the battle. In fact, I think Broly could've been restrained by Gohan and the other fighters just as well as Freeza.

-Gogeta is pretty much the weakest link to me in terms of plotting, though. Again, imo, nothing that ruins the whole thing because I think the outcome would be same no matter which way - getting the Potara (Goku could have just gotten them from Shin by quickly teleporting there, the movie does not address this, it just says they don't have the Potara or Senzu) would've just prevented maybe some of Freeza's beating. I think a Fusion or something of that level was actually needed considering Broly's green-haired form clearly kept up with Gogeta and he went into it after being pushed by Gogeta, so I can believe Goku and Vegeta individually would've been beaten if they pushed him.

That is, if you don't consider Ultra Instinct. Ultra Instinct probably could've also done the job, but they dance around that by having Goku do the smart thing and retreat before it could happen that he is pushed too far and have him opt for the Fusion instead. If that didn't work out, Ultra Instinct probably would've done the job, too. You could replace any of them because with any option Broly would probably be pushed into his green-haired form and defeated. Gogeta has just never been used before, so it's a more unique option.

-The Minus stuff went past pretty quickly and I actually think the rewrite is very much better than the initial Minus story, but it's still kind of bland. Bardock's story fits in what the Saiyans' life is like much better, but Gine is still boring and I still basically felt nothing for this part. In this case though, the purpose for it was just setup, which is another reason why I'm more alright with it.

I think the series has had much worse writing moments than these and it makes me happy this is the most I have to complain about. It's all mostly quality of life stuff to me and doesn't break the story or it's ideas.

Above all, I appreciate that this movie took something soulless like Broly's character and gave it soul - portions of it are clearly there to just please the fans, but the whole thing is tied together by pretty strong and heartfelt character writing and themes.

I want to definitely recommend it. If you can, support it. I want DB to continue have such heartfelt stories and look so good. This is a very good direction for the series, even if I'm bummed about the older side cast not getting to do much.

I have much more elaborate thoughts on basically all the characters and, again, 100% can't wait for the HD version. I also can't wait to dig in the themes. It has a very simple, but human core.

Right now, is it my fave DB movie? Not sure. I think it's up there.

Right now, out of those I've seen, I think only BoG tops it, though. We'll see how I'll feel on rewatches.

[heinzpilsnergonewild]

Vegeta’s Character Analysis Looooooooooong Read

Oh my, what can I say? I just really love to write long essays in a language that isn’t even native to me, lol.

Well, nobody’s perfect, I guess. ... Were you expecting a Cell joke here? I may not be perfect, but that doesn't mean I have to be that predictable.

Ahem, anyway.

This isn't exactly a psychological analysis of the character - more like, hmm, a storytelling analysis. Or something in between, really.

You may not find anything fundamentally new in this text, but I definitely had fun writing it, haha.

It's mostly amateur. I have a useless psychology degree, but not a literature one.

My classic rant about vegebul fics is included, of course.

Summary: proper psychological analysis requires a single continuous personality, which Vegeta simply doesn’t have.

The more I think about Vegeta, the more I come to the conclusion that he is only pretending to be a consistently evolving character.

In fact, he's a bit like 10 different characters in one, which abruptly replace each other (and that's without considering the difference caused by the voice actors’ approach and the changes in his looks). Essentially, Vegeta's a collection of disparate images, arbitrarily lined up by Toriyama and hastily glued together. And the beginning of this line is so far from the end of it that these two extreme images cannot be perceived as belonging to the same person. Well, because human psychology just doesn't work that way.

(Not that Vegeta is unique in this respect – it’s a common feature of characters in long stories that authors compose as they write. Still, his case is quite extreme and interesting as example.)

I mean, take Vegeta in the Saiyan or the Namek arc. He's a complete psychopath. He clearly doesn’t suffer at heart from the unnecessary violence (as, for example, Guts from Berserk). His behavior looks like something natural for him, not an unhealthy defensive reaction. He enjoys it, he smiles happily, killing and torturing weak innocent people. And such a degree of psychopathy is not something that can be healed by a couple of deep personality crises or years of peaceful family life. Vegeta's redemption arc works through strong emotional impact and forgetfulness of the audience, but makes very little sense when viewed in retrospect.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Perhaps the biggest, hmm, splitting of the personality occurred with Vegeta right after the Namek arc. Toriyama had already made a small retcon of the character’s motives before (to include Vegeta in the context of the Freeza army after the Saiyan arc), but it didn't feel that drastic.

You see, until Vegeta was invited to Bulma’s house…..

(Gosh, Toriyama, you could’ve done it more subtly, really. Vegeta killed Yamcha, threatened to kill Bulma, gutted Zarbon in front of her eyes, slaughtered an entire Namekian village... Oh well.)

…Ahem, anyway, right up to Bulma's invitation, Vegeta looked to me like a character who, hmm, has a life of his own? I mean, you have always felt that his motives and behavior were generated by the bizarre social system, not related to the little world of Goku and his friends. Simply put, Vegeta was a natural product of the big space civilization, an organic part of it. His whole personality was formed by it, all his plans, motivation and ambitions were associated with it. And although in the Saiyan arc, he gave the impression of an independent entrepreneurial chief at the head of a small hierarchy, in the Namek arc it was revealed that Vegeta is actually far from independent. He lost his throne and his people, he was in slavery to the tyrant all his life, and wants to take power for himself. So, his social background and the motives caused by it post factum get much more complex. But in short, Vegeta wanted a highest possible position in the hierarchy he knew. In this way, he was… social? His belonging to the Saiyan race was only a small (although important) part of the overall picture. Because the Saiyans were dead, but the Freeza Empire was alive.

But when Toriyama realized Vegeta's popularity and decided to keep him in the story after Namek, it came as a blow to the character's personality. Apparently, the author simply couldn't come up with an elegant way that could keep the character in all its complexity around, and therefore did a very clumsy thing. He roughly cut Vegeta out of his social context and almost forcibly glued him to the main character group like a poorly done appliqué. But although you see rough edges and glue drips, the story moves on rapidly, distracting you with Freeza and Future Trunks, and you don't stop to think about what happened. This is how, almost imperceptibly, Toriyama changed Vegeta's motives (and, consequently, the basis of his personality). Yes, Vegeta's saiyan pride was also significant part of his character previously, but when it became his sole and central motivation after Namek, you feel like a very big and important piece of him has been arbitrarily cut off. This wouldn't have happened if Toriyama had followed the logic of previously established social motives, rather than his desire to make Vegeta a convenient figure. Now, bound hand and foot by the author, the character is forced to behave as the plot requires.

Still, all this can be justified by the fact that Vegeta experienced a deep emotional shock as a result of death, which forced him to rethink his life priorities and wait for Goku (especially in the manga, where he just lived with Bulma for a whole year after Namek, without even trying to use dragonballs) ... And then he waited for the androids (despite the final death of Freeza and his father, which was an excellent chance to try to take over the decapitated empire). Anyway, this rationalization doesn't negate the fact that the character, as a result, has lost a significant part of the fire that he demonstrated in the Namek arc. His new energy, the energy of obsession with surpassing Goku, turns him into a new character – bitter, marginalized and focused on training.

(Ironically, the very splitting that made him a less attractive character in my eyes allowed vegebul to take place. After all, imagining the romantic relationship of the nice Bulma and Vegeta at the height of his villainous ambition is really difficult. That just would be a psychologically implausible story.)

In the Android and Cell arcs, after brief glimpses of the SSJ superiority, Toriyama turned Vegeta into a plot tool, whose personality flaws he could use to spoil the situation favorable for the heroes. As a result, Vegeta continued to be an angry and unhappy character who has lost most of his charisma, but on top of that, he also started to be really annoying. ... Still, also kinda amusing thanks to his truly impressive inability to draw obvious conclusions from the ego bruises he gets.

(If you ask me, the character's biggest contribution to the Cell arc was to ignore the existence of condoms, lol. Although strictly speaking even it was an achievement of Future Vegeta (RIP). But seriously, Vegeta's relationship with Trunks turned out to be one of the few things that I was really interested in about this part of the story.)

And then there was Goku’s death and the 7-year-gap. ... At the end of which Vegeta still didn't look like a happy man who has found his place in the world. Even though he had seven whole years (and a spaceship) to change something. I mean, this is the case when it'd be logical to expect changes in the character, but for some reason they didn't really happen (or they did, but veeery quietly and unstable). I mean, Vegeta trains with Trunks, yes. And he's married to Bulma now, apparently (which we learn only at the end of the arc though). And he hasn’t killed himself yet, which means that he sees some meaning in his existence. Hurray, I guess?.. The problem is that when we first see Vegeta after the timeskip, he keeps walking around with such a sullen expression, as if Goku had died just yesterday. (Remember Vegeta in the Saiyan arc? He smiled quite often. For the wrong reasons, but hey.) Basically, Toriyama tried to sit on two chairs at the same time here - 1) keep Vegeta as recognizable as possible (because he hasn't decided what to do with him yet) and 2) keep him around (which doesn't make sense for the character if he hasn't undergone significant changes during the timeskip). And the result of this hesitant approach is an undesirable effect - it feels as if Vegeta hasn't built a new life for himself all these years, but only waited for Goku to return.

As if the man is unable to evolve without Goku's influence. Until Kakarot does or says something, or is just around, everyone else in Vegeta's life and his own reflection has little or no meaning. Old social ambitions? His wife and child? New insights gained from life on Earth? Pffft. Goku is able to destroy the seven years’ worth progress (no matter how small it may seem) in one day, and at the same time, one fight with him is enough for Vegeta's character development to jump forward explosively. It sounds like a solid ground for shipping, but In fact it’s just a direct consequence of the author's poorly chosen narrative structure.

The thing is, Toriyama tend to avoid romance and slices of life, and shows Vegeta's personality mainly through fights and their consequences. And at the time Goku just turned out to be the only significant character for Vegeta, the fight against whom could be used as an excuse to develop the character in front of the audience. Well, Toriyama couldn't get Vegeta to fight Bulma or himself, you know.

I believe that the plot structure chosen by the author (rapidly changing action events immediately after a long timeskip) is not a very good basis for a redemption arc. For a good redemption, a character had to have screen time during which small changes accumulate gradually, between the big points. And Vegeta simply didn't have it. Besides, the scheme by which Vegeta develops is really messy. Because at first, Toriyama kinda froze his development at the neutral point (thereby partially devaluing the influence of Vegeta's family on him). Then in one moment, the author abruptly reversed even this the-end-of-the-Cell-arc development with Majin Vegeta (this time completely devaluing the family factor, because the betrayal was Vegeta’s conscious decision). God, how I hated the Majin Vegeta idea. And in the next scene, the author made a quick retcon, which gave the family’s influence the status of a ground for Vegeta’s personal growth again for no apparent reason. It's as if a huge bundle of family values was post factum squeezed into the character in defiance of everything that we just saw with our own eyes. This is a complete narrative mess.

But... oddly enough, Vegeta's redemption still manages to work, and work spectacularly. My guess is that it's because by that time the audience is already SO sick of Vegeta, frozen in his bitter anti-heroism, that it desperately wants the author to finally do something new with the miserable guy. Well, at least get him out of his misery. So people are willing to accept it in any possible form.

... And the author chose the form of a powerful emotional catharsis. The explosion was legendary, haha.

I don't even know if this is a good reason to call Toriyama a genius (after all, he found a very clever way out of a difficult situation, in which he found himself thanks to his own bad decisions.)

The only thing I'm sure of is that despite everything I was very sad because of Vegeta's death. I didn't even realize that I had become emotionally attached to this asshole until he made such a spectacular exit, lol. As if something had broken inside of me, and all the analyticity of my mind couldn’t prevent it. I was surprised when I found myself crying really hard - usually my emotions don't reach this level due to fictional stories. (Well, maybe it was due to the fact that my own father was dying of cancer at that time, and the moment just triggered my emotions. ... Oops, it seems a little too personal, doesn't it? Well, at the end of the day, this fact is an integral part of my unique dbz experience. Come to think of it, in dbz, fathers die regularly).

But while this scene greatly affects emotions and forces a new viewer (or reader) to truly reconsider their attitude towards the character for the first time, the absence of a neat gradual movement towards this moment weakens its influence somewhat.

At this point, Vegeta’s character splits once again (perhaps the last time within DBZ). You simply cease to understand who this man really is and who he was before.

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Now, when I look at all the images of Vegeta in general, I come to the conclusion that I like this character the most in the first two arcs and in the end of the last arc. Two directly opposite moral poles.

(Funny enough, because my initial reaction to Vegeta and Nappa was annoyance: "Well hello, the next stereotypical villains who like to chat and laugh maliciously instead of simply killing their victims." (Still, against the background of Freeza, Vegeta turned out to be a much lesser evil in every sense, haha). You see, usually I'm not a person who likes villains. Basically, I only distinguish such characters from others as a result of romance or redemption. It’s only after that I begin to see aesthetics in their villainous charisma as well.)

And now, in retrospective, I believe that at the beginning of the story Vegeta is at the maximum of his vitality and charisma. Especially compared to his ever-crisis moody version (who supposedly lives happily with a loving family). In the Saiyan arc, he's objectively the most powerful character (Freeza didn’t even exist in Toriyama's head at the time). Vegeta is domineering, playful and unpredictable, but most importantly - his self-confidence is fully justified. Oh well, it was good while it lasted. He's really in control. These are, if I may say so, quite exciting qualities in a man, haha. Even if he looks like an evil dwarf in stupid armor and bullies some weaklings. I'd even say his demeanor in the Saiyan arc (especially with the voice of early Horikawa) is suspiciously easy to translate into a sexual context (well, until he loses control and gets hysterical, lol).

The Namek arc, placing Vegeta in a broader context, somewhat spoiled his original image (after all the big words, it turned out that he was running errands for Freeza all this time), but gave him a more interesting background and a strong drive. He had ambitions and a socially significant goal, and he actively and passionately fought for them against a clearly superior enemy. In addition, his inability to defeat Freeza by brute force forced him to use his brains from time to time, and not just pull another power up out of his ass, as is now traditionally done in DragonBall. (Needless to say, I consider high intelligence to be one of the most attractive traits). All this made his position in the plot as interesting as possible. He literally sparkled with energy.

Well, we know what happened next. Brain Death, an eternal chase after Goku, and an off-screen family life on a backwater planet that Vegeta is supposedly happy with. Until he suddenly became a really beautiful character without a proper justification for this (well, at least the explosion was spectacular). Really, I like the general concept of redemption, and yet... the way Toriyama portrays it in the story just doesn't work convincingly enough for me.

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Another point I’d like to cover in this already too long essay ahhh I'm a monster is Vegeta’s personality in fanfiction.

Reproducing (?) Vegeta is a bit like playing with a lego set - his personality and behavior is always the result of a conscious reconstruction, which is based around a specific point on the long contradictory line. Depending on which end of the spectrum the chosen point is, the author is forced to shade facts related to the opposite end, or to give new context to Vegeta's past (or future) actions. It's always noticeable when the author extends the later, sympathetic Vegeta's image to an earlier segment of the story. Apparently, it's possible to kill the person who raised you (with an evil smile on your face) just because the situation was too stressful lol. Likewise, when the authors allow Vegeta to remain a charismatic psychopath, the story wouldn't work without ignoring some parts of the later canon.

(And, of course, there is always a "medium" type of Vegeta - Vegeta from the 3-year-gap, whose personality is almost entirely based on anime fillers. Yay, here comes the promised vegebul rant

Honestly, I'm pretty tired of this "gravity room exploded again woman grrr" type of Vegeta.

Because if you take the manga, we have no idea how Vegeta actually behaved with Bulma and her parents, what his training regimen was, and what he did in his free time besides unprotected sex. People elevate his rudeness and irrational self-torturing to the absolute because of all these filler patterns, but this is just one of the possible versions of the events and the character's behavior during this time (albeit partly canonical). But... there are also alternatives. There are smart Vegeta, curious Vegeta, civilized Vegeta. Honestly - I don't think Bulma would've married him later if there was nothing in his personality that’d make communication with him enjoyable. I mean, she's a rich modern woman, she doesn't need a husband just for convenience and Vegeta is a marginal freeloader anyway. And if we subtract good looks (which people often attribute to Vegeta) from the equation, then the idea that he has no interest in anything other than training and cannot maintain an interesting conversation becomes completely unconvincing. Toriyama clearly didn't attach much importance to the fact of their marriage, and generally avoided romantic scenes as if they were on fire (and, perhaps, did the right thing), but these two just had to be capable of adequate and mutually pleasant personal interaction in order to take this step.

In general, Toriyama's lack of attention to most aspects of the characters' lives other than fighting and training, on the one hand, can be considered a drawback of DBZ, but on the other, it creates a lot of room for fans' imagination. But not everyone uses it. Most authors generally repeat the same tropes over and over again and don't try to look at the three-year-gap from a new angle, although the canon provides all the possibilities for this. Because of this, fics in this genre often seem boring. But in fact, it's not the setting itself that is boring, but only dusty formulas in the heads of the authors.)

Ahem, so where were we?.. Oh yes.

Actually, Vegeta's inconsistency is a very handy character trait for the authors, as it minimizes the chance of accidental OOC. Indeed, it's quite difficult to make someone to behave out of character if he has many different canon versions of himself, lol. On the other hand, this leads to the fact that the character seems to... kinda disintegrate. You never see his whole face, because he simply doesn't have it. As a result, Vegeta turns into a mosaic that must be reassembled each time. And I keep staring at this crazy kaleidoscope like an idiot.

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Well, that's... quite a lot of contradictions in my relationship to Vegeta, haha. Still, life without contradictions would be somewhat boring, I guess.

Thanks for your attention I suppose?..... lol, as if someone really got to this point

The End.

P.S. 1: The antisocial version of Vegeta who doesn't understand stupid human rituals and hates crowds, but puts up with it for the sake of his family is my spirit animal, haha. This is just so damn relatable to my autistic personality. Maybe I'm an alien myself.

P.S. 2: Actually, my favorite dbz character is Piccolo. Yep.