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duhragonball · 4 years

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Review: Unabridged Episode 1

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I can’t remember how long it’s been since I last wrote about Team Four Star, but the short version is that they officially ended Dragon Ball Z Abridged, a little over a year after the final episode was published. At one time, they seemed to think they could tackle the Buu Saga, but eventually it became clear that creative burnout was just too big a hurdle to overcome. More importantly, they’d have to end DBZA eventually whether they finished the Buu Saga or not. Somewhere along the way, TFS decided to focus on their future, which lay in producing original content. There have been earlier examples of this, but I think it’s safe to say Unabridged is their flagship for 2020.

I’d like to compare Team Four Star to some other media entity, but I can’t think of anything that fits. In a way, they’re kind of victims of their own success. They got tons of fans thanks to DBZA, and they managed to make enough money to turn their fan production into an actual business, but they can’t monetize DBZA, since they don’t own the source material. So the trick is to somehow convince that audience to stick around for their other acts. And those acts really can’t have anything to do with DBZ. What else does that audience want? Well, hopefully, a pastiche of The Office, because that’s what we’re getting.

Unabridged is a mockumentary set in the offices of Team Four Star. Stephan Kosecz plays... Stephan Kosecz, their newest hire, who is immediately disturbed by the camera crew filming his experience. He meets the other members of the team, and they’re all outrageous characters. Scott Frerichs is drunk on the job, Nick Landis is mercurial and disconnected from reality, Chris Zito is some kind of deranged lunatic, and so on.

It’s soon revealed that Nick hired a camera crew to film a docuseries about them, and he paid them in advance, so they’re stuck with it whether they like it or not. Scott pleads for the team to make a good impression, which leads Grant Smith and Kirran Somerlade to brainstorm ways to be impressive. They settle on taking a picture of themselves and then going around asking people if they like it. Stephan considers quitting on his first day, but changes his mind after he sees how grateful Grant and Kirran are for his support.

I think the idea here is that this is supposed to be the Office turned up to eleven. Zito is way crazier than Dwight Schrute, Nick is far more self-absorbed than Michael Scott, and Stephan is more over this than Jim Halpert. And it fits for the style of comedy that TFS is known for. The gags work, and there’s plenty more that can be done with the characters in future episodes. It’s a solid way to kill sixteen minutes while I eat a meal, and that’s basically all I ask from a YouTube channel.

But the bigger question, I think, is whether this series accomplishes what TFS needs for their future. It’s certainly a good start. From what I understand, they plan to release subsequent episodes on a weekly schedule, which is a welcome change from the chaotic timetables of their past few years. Since about 2017, the unofficial slogan of TFS seems to have been “We’re working on a lot of cool stuff for you guys, and we can’t wait to show it to you!” There’s been a lot of overpromising and underdelivering with TFS. I feel a little guilty saying that, but they’ve admitted it themselves, so I think it’s a fair statement. “Hey, we’re working on this, whoops that’s taking longer than we thought it would, it’ll have to be postponed, hey, sorry gang it’s taking even longer than we thought aaaand now we’re not doing the thing at all, so we can focus on this other thing that starts the whole cycle over again.” That’s pretty much been the TFS experience for the last few years.

The main thrill of Unabridged is that they actually got it done. I feel like they’ve been hyping this thing forever, and now it’s finally a real video that you can watch instead of wonder about. From here on, they can proudly state that they’ve made a series that’s completely their own. No anime footage, no video game footage, No DCMA takedown bullshit. Just their own guys making their own show that they wrote and produced themselves.

Having said that, I’m not convinced that this was the project they needed to be investing all this time and energy into. Maybe there’s a huge crossover between DBZ fans and Office fans. If so, then they’re smart to take advantage of it. Otherwise, it looks a lot like they couldn’t figure out anything better and settled on making a show about themselves. It’s a very recursive concept. This isn’t Steve Carell playing Michael Scott, a regional manager for a fictional company. This is Scott Frerichs playing himself in the actual TFS building that he’s really the CEO of. The implication here is that he’s doing a character, but it’s probably an exaggeration of the real person, maybe? I don’t think KaiserNeko is drunk all the time, but it’s not like I know the guy.

I don’t mean to be a killjoy, but I find the whole concept kind of irritating. TFS is a real-world business that's producing a show about a fictionalized version of itself... making... a documentary about... itself. This is navel-gazing, right? I’m pretty sure that’s what this is.

Let me put it like this. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four. It was a big hit, and they occasionally appeared in their own comics as sort of a side gag. Now, imagine if, for whatever reason, Stan and Jack couldn’t do Marvel Superheroes anymore, and they had to make a comic about something else instead, so they decided to just make a comic book about themselves just sort of hanging out. In the late 60′s, there might have been an audience loyal enough to their past work that they’d stick around for that. Hell, Lee and Kirby could probably even find a way to make it successful, but they’d probably also be savvy enough to find a stronger idea.

That’s kind of where TFS is these days, and I don’t know what the solution is, but I don’t think it lies in filming themselves bantering back and forth. These days that’s all they make anymore. There’s the TalkCast PodShow, where you can listen to them talk about whether they liked the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, or DBCember, where you can listen to them talk about whether the Fusion Technique is cooler than the Special Beam Cannon. I’m just having trouble seeing the point of Unabridged. Like, this is the one where Grant and Kirran goof around on camera, as opposed to the Pokemon Nuzlocke videos, where they goof around on camera and also a game of Pokemon is happening.

Personally, I think the future of TFS lies more in the direction of shows like Fist Master, which represents TFS’ first foray into original animation. The first episode looks a little rough, like a NewGrounds video from 2006, but that’s not the point. It’s a fantasy action story with super powers and larger-than-life characters, featuring a lot of the same voice actors from other TFS projects. Sound familiar? The problem with Fist Master is that the first episode came out like 18 months ago, and maybe we’ll get to see Episode 2 sometime in 2020. That’s not exactly a winning formula.

Nonetheless, I feel like that’s the sort of basket TFS needs to be putting more eggs into. If Fist Master is too complex to produce on a monthly basis, then maybe get some artists to make some simpler assets and do something with a lot more talking, and all the action happens off-screen. Kind of like Sealab 2021. Or hell, just do some audio-only sketches. I feel like the big disconnect here is that TFS’s biggest asset is its voice acting talent, and yet they keep killing themselves trying to make video. Meanwhile I’m one of these guys who wishes the YouTube app would play while the screen is off, because I just want stuff to listen to while I’m at work. If they did an audio-only show about TJ and the Wombat, I’d be lining up to hear it.

All that said, Unabridged looks like it got about 110,000 views in the past 12 hours, and that sounds like a big enough number to justify the hype, so maybe it’s a better idea than I’m giving it credit for. It doesn’t have to be all things to all people, just so long as it keeps TFS afloat long enough for them to find their footing for their next project, and the next one after that.

#team four star #unabridged

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dragon-ball-meta · 5 years

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What do people get wrong about Goku?

Hoo boy, where to begin… They think, alternatingly, that Goku is either functionally mentally handicapped, a perfectly normal and super kind Superman-tier dude, or a selfish jerk who doesn’t care about anything or anyone, just fighting. They think that he extends mercy to his enemies on the chance they might become good guys someday. They think that he can’t stand to be around his wife and that’s the real reason he’s always training despite the series stating numerous times her strong-willed nature is actually something he finds attractive. They think he doesn’t care about his son unless his son wants to become a fighter like he does. They think he does not spend any time with his son despite the many times he is seen and shown spending time with his son. They also somehow think that, by extension of not caring about his wife, he inexplicably wants to bone every chick he comes across who knows how to fight. They think that he just wholesale forgives his enemies just because he doesn’t actively hunt them down to “make them pay”. They think that he’s an idiot when it comes to combat skill, relying solely on brute force despite mountains of evidence showing he’s both a strategist on the battlefield and quite the technical fighter. They think his best friend is Vegeta as opposed to the guy he was literally raised with like a brother. They think that he actually knowingly doomed the multiverse to death for the sake of a tournament despite the narrative at the time showing EVERYONE was shocked and the series’ statements multiple times over that no, that was not what happened. They mysteriously think Goku became this mature, level-headed “adult” (or how they think one should be, anyways) and not the big friendly goof we see him be throughout the series, even down to claiming he had respect and deference to the gods by the Buu Saga which… we can see is not the case and the opposite is more his character. Goku doesn’t see station; to him, everyone’s on the exact same equal footing… for better or worse. They also think that he intentionally stayed dead after the Cell games simply to duck his family. Would you like the rest of the list?

And again, another good gauge of how the fandom gets Goku wrong? Toyotaro’s manga. He actually said Goku is a horrible student, always letting everyone down, never willing to learn what people try to teach him… and actually made him so stupid that when Goku saw Whis magic Bra out of Bulma, he actually decided that must be how ALL babies were born.Because THIS Goku wasn’t even around or aware when Gohan had been born, y’see. That sure is Goku.It’s amazing, Goku is such a simple, easy-to-get character, the protagonist of the whole thing, and yet he’s easily one of the most misunderstood characters in the entire franchise.

#Goku #Son Goku #Anonymous #Dragon Ball #Dragon Ball Z #Dragon Ball Super #DB #DBZ #DBS #Dragonball #Dragonball Z

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shadowsong26fic · 7 years

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Yet Another AU because I love these things

This idea actually came up in discussion with my Roommates last month, but I decided to do a Distaff variant instead b/c I’m so so sorry it was late. (Is still late...)

[The other AU outlines I’ve done can be found in the tag]

Anyway. We all love time travel fics, right? Here’s one with Luke. Tiny, precious, twelve-year-old* Luke.

Who jumps back to the last year/year and a half of the Clone Wars.

And lands on Ventress.

*Luke is possibly ten instead? Somewhere in that range, anyway. We’ll say twelve for now.

ANYWAY, Luke is off exploring/goofing off, as bored kids do, and he comes across a narrow, winding little canyon he’s never seen before.

“Huh,” he thinks. “Could’ve sworn I knew this part of the desert better than this.”

Naturally, he decides to see where it leads. He finished his chores early today, and there’s still a few hours before dark, so he has time. Adventure!

Except then things get...weird.

He could swear he’s only been walking an hour, but it’s suddenly dark. And, when he turns around to retrace his steps, all he sees is solid rock.

“I’ve got a Bad Feeling(tm) about this...”

There’s no way to go but forward, so he does. Especially when he catches a glimpse of a campfire flickering up ahead.

He knows there’s a good chance whoever built it is Not Friendly--he’s not an idiot--but he is beyond lost, he’s got no supplies...he figures it’s worth taking a chance. At least peeking a little closer. So he heads for the fire to ask for help.

And there, he finds Ventress! Ventress has just finished a job.

This is a few weeks after her and Obi-Wan vs. Maul and Savage.

Why is she camping in the desert? ...reasons.

So, this random kid comes up to her. This--bright, shiny, supernova-in-the-Force kid.

....okay, then.

Ventress really does not have time for this shit.

When he asks for her help, she considers telling him to get lost. See above, re: no time for this shit. Also, she’s really, really uninterested in babysitting a brat who was stupid enough to wander off in the desert like this.

Except the alternatives to keeping him are killing him (which would be...pointless, really; also she’s not super-interested with killing a random kid who’s no threat to her at this point in her timeline, unless she’s being paid for it), or sending him off to a slow death via desert or Sand People (which is just lazy; if you’re gonna kill someone, freaking do it.)

Besides, maybe his parents will pay her if she brings him home. Not a lot--he’s dressed like a small-time farmer--but, hey, every penny counts.

“You can stay here tonight,” she finally says. Might as well keep her options open.

He brightens. “My name’s Luke,” he offers.

“I don’t care,” she grumbles. “Go to sleep.”

Things get...messy...the next morning.

See, that bounty Ventress just collected? Someone else thinks it was his, and resents her poaching.

He and a bunch of his heavily-armed friends track her down, catching up with her and Luke just as they’re breaking camp.

Naturally, a fight ensues.

Ventress is exceptional, but vastly outnumbered.

Luke is tiny and inexperienced, but a) he knows the desert, b) he’s a decent shot, and c) he can hotwire a speeder in under thirty seconds.

Suffice to say, with Luke being a major contributor, they kick some ass and escape unharmed on a bike Luke stole from one of the other bounty hunters.

Ventress grudgingly admits that the brat was kind of useful back there, and he possibly just saved her ass a little bit--or at least spared her some inconvenient and painful injury--so maybe she shouldn’t demand a ransom after all.

She sighs, and instructs him to pull over so she can drive--kid’s good, but she has her dignity to think of--and tells him she’ll take him home, make sure he gets there safe, then take the bike and leave.

Things get weird again when they get to the Lars homestead.

Luke has her stop at the edge of the property. “This isn’t right,” he says, biting his lip. There’s supposed to be another building right there; he and Uncle Owen just finished putting it up last season. And the closest vaporator is an older model; one he vaguely remembers trying to climb as a toddler, before it was replaced.

Also, he’s pretty sure that old man is his step-grandfather, who died before he was even born.

“What about it?” Ventress asks. She can feel the Force swirling around them, around Luke, like ripples spreading out from a stone dropped in a pond.

“This is my uncle’s farm, but it’s wrong.”

And he sort of--sort of--has a clue, because there’s Stories, about people wandering into the desert and coming back to find that years have passed in a night. But things are a different kind of wrong. He’s never heard about anyone going backwards. Besides, that’s all they were--stories. Right?

He takes a deep breath. “What year is it?” he asks, after a long minute.

She quirks an eyebrow and tells him.

“That doesn’t make sense!” He blurts out what year it’s supposed to be.

Which...actually does make a weird amount of sense to her. Because of the way he casts ripples in the Force, if nothing else.

And, honestly, she’s seen weirder crap than time-travelling twelve-year-olds. She led a zombie army, for crying out loud.

Luke is freaking out a little bit, so she punches him to get him to shut up.

She points out that, while ideally he gets back to his own time, he still needs to survive until he figures out what the hell happened, let alone how to reverse it. “Lucky, you have a home where you can wait all that out.”

(A part of her knows that’s a stupid idea--whatever brought him back here, either it’ll work in its own damn time or he’ll need information he sure as hell won’t get on tiny farm in the middle of nowhere on freaking Tatooine.)

“They don’t know me yet,” he says sadly, scuffing the ground a little.

....no, she insists to herself. She does not need a kid tagging along, especially one this bright with power who has no idea how the world works. At least in the here and now.

But he’s quick on his feet, and keeps a level head in a crisis.

And he is a decent shot.

And one hell of a getaway driver.

Besides, she can always ditch him later if he gets too annoying. Changing her mind in the other direction would be a lot harder.

“Fine,” she grumbles. “You can come with me. For now.”

“Okay,” Luke says. Where else would he go, anyway?

And thus begins the highly entertaining saga of Asajj Ventress luring twelve-year-old time-travelling Luke Skywalker into a Life of Crime.

Except, as the weeks and months pass, it becomes less her leading him into a life of crime (...well, it kind of is; he’s really, really good at stealing cars and Being a Distraction), and more her evaluating jobs based on how Sad Luke looks when she does something really unethical.

What, she thinks, what the hell is this. Why do I give a damn what the brat thinks? I did not sign up for a portable conscience! I am leaving him behind at the next port, I swear.

Except somehow she never does. She picks jobs that won’t disappoint Luke, and he uses his share of the profits to get shiny things that would make their ship so cool, Asajj.

Eventually, she gives up and accepts the inevitable. For as long as Luke is stuck in the past, he’s hers.

(She wishes, sometimes, that she could take him back to Dathomir, and introduce him to her sisters.)

(...important detail I forgot to mention before: she doesn’t know his full name. He didn’t give it when introducing himself, and she never bothered to ask.)

They probably have an Encounter with Boba Fett at some point.

Possibly Cad Bane or Hondo.

Maybe even BB!Han and/or Lando because why not.

So many possibilities...

Fast forward a bit. Luke and Ventress are hanging out on Coruscant, when she sees a familiar face with a bounty attached.

(Anakin’s had some...weird...dreams the past few days. Not bad, not threatening, just...weird. Ever since he got recalled to investigate the Temple bombing. They’ve taken second place to said investigation, since they don’t seem to be urgent or anything, but--he’s maybe a little bit distracted.)

(Luke’s been dreaming, too. He told Asajj about them. She tells him to keep track of them, and tries to guide him through looking for what actual useful information might be in them, but dreams have never really been her strong suit...)

Anyway, Ventress tells Luke to stay in the apartment, and goes to Investigate.

The first bit, with Ahsoka, goes mostly as in canon.

With an added incentive for her pardon--if she’s free and clear, she can get Luke the help he needs, to figure out his dreams and find his way home.

(Honestly, she’s sort of surprised he hasn’t caught any eyes yet, shiny and powerful as he is. Jedi really are blind idiots.)

(And didn’t Dooku’s Master live on Coruscant? ...maybe she should take Luke somewhere safer...)

(After she helps Skywalker’s brat and earns her pardon.)

The part where she gets jumped by Barriss and loses her lightsabers does, too.

Except she called Luke to let him know she was on her way home. And when she doesn’t turn up, he goes looking for her.

And then Anakin tracks her down.

They fight; Ventress does her whole “Ahsoka and I have a lot in common. My master abandoned me, and that’s exactly what you did to her.”

That’s when she senses Luke getting close.

And, suddenly, it clicks.

Talk fast, she tells herself, because there’s no way this conversation ends well if Skywalker sees Luke now, with Tano still in play. (Because if he gets distracted and delays and fails to save his apprentice because of them...)

She gets out what she knows as quickly as possible.

Except Anakin senses him, too. And Ventress suddenly got tense and very to-the-point, with none of her usual banter.

But Ahsoka needs him right now; he has to fix that first.

But whatever’s going on here is Important; he knows that with every fiber of his being.

Besides, if Ventress is brushing him off, if she’s lying to him--

Anakin is thisclose to strangling her again when Luke comes charging in.

“Asajj!”

“I told you to wait for me in the apartment,” she snaps, trying to get between him and Skywalker before things get even more out of hand.

Anakin is VERY CONFUSED right now because what the hell is going on okay that’s definitely the presence I felt approaching but none of that explains why the hell Ventress has a kid with her.

Let alone why this kid feels so familiar.

Luke peers up at Anakin with big, puzzled blue eyes, trying to answer some of the same questions in his own mind.

“Don’t you have an apprentice to save?” Ventress cuts in, putting a hand on Luke’s shoulder and pulling him behind her.

(Luke tries to wriggle past her; settles for peering out from behind her back.)

“Ventress--” Anakin starts.

“Well?” she prompts. “And isn’t that rescue time sensitive?”

He continues to hesitate a breath longer. But she’s right. He knows she’s right.

"Maybe we can help,” Luke pipes up.

That, at least, seems to get through Skywalker’s thick skull. “No, I’ve got this,” he says. Then he glowers at Ventress. “But after I talk to Barriss--”

“I’ll be here, Skywalker,” she says, then, realizing her mistake, claps a hand over Luke’s mouth before he can blurt something out and hold the Jedi here any longer. “Run along now.”

He almost rises to the bait, then glances at Luke and turns and leaves again.

Ventress relaxes once Skywalker’s gone, and lets go of Luke’s mouth.

“He is not a navigator,” Luke says, sounding thoroughly awed.

“.......no,” she says. “Who told you he was?”

“My uncle,” Luke says. “He doesn’t talk about him much. He died before I was born.”

Ventress has a Very Bad Feeling(tm) about the future.

And she does some quick mental math.

Oh karking hell.

She takes Luke back to the apartment, and starts grilling him for details. Which she now realizes she probably should have done a long damn time ago.

Anakin, meanwhile, goes back to the Temple to confront Barriss. He’s still at least partway focused on that kid in the alley, which might affect the outcome of their duel.

She does still get captured, and Ahsoka’s innocence is still proved, though.

And Ahsoka still leaves.

So he’s still reeling, on several levels, when he goes back to look for Ventress and the kid.

He doesn’t have to look too hard; she lets him find them in an alley not too far from where they separated.

“Are you okay?” Luke asks.

“Sure,” he lies.

Luke looks up at Ventress, uncertain.

“Not here,” she says, and leads the way back to her apartment.

“I keep dreaming about you,” Luke blurts, as they walk. “I mean, I think I’m dreaming about you? It’s all sort of vague.”

Anakin thinks back on his own weird dreams the last few days, and nods. He has some kind of connection with this kid, and he can almost--

He stops, in the middle of the street. No...that’s not possible.

“Not here,” Ventress hisses. Luke takes his hand and tugs it.

They get to the apartment, and Luke confirms what Anakin has started to guess.

“I’m Luke Skywalker,” he says. “I’m from the future. And I’m your son.”

For a minute, Anakin just stares at him, because this can’t be real; he and Padme are so careful, and time travel is not a thing.

But he can feel the truth of what Luke is telling him.

Ventress waits until he settles, then follows up with a bombshell of her own.

“You know I’m not your friend. Or your Order’s. But I am Luke’s friend. And based on what he’s told me, about how and where he grew up--raised by people I had never heard of, and believe me, I know who most of your friends are. So we think something awful is about to happen. We don’t know what, exactly, but a lot of people are going to die.” She sighs. “And I suppose we want to help you stop it.”

...and that’s about as far out as I have planned in detail. But Padme, of course, will be brought in on this pretty much right away. Ventress will probably drag Obi-Wan in even if Anakin refuses; he owes her a favor and they parted on reasonably good terms, and he’s good at this sort of thing (“He looks a lot like Ben,” Luke muses, after meeting him; which just raises more questions), and once Luke shares the Emperor’s name...

Shit is going to Go Down.

Bonus:

MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE FUTURE

After Ben realizes Luke is missing, he sends a message to Bail, and then goes to try and find him...

#shadowsong26fic #shadowsong writes star wars #au outlines for the win

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ramajmedia · 5 years

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Star Wars: 10 Movie Plot Holes Filled In By The Marvel Comics

The Star Wars saga has been going strong for over 40 years now, so it’s hardly surprising that several plot holes have cropped up during the time. While these gaffes are occasionally addressed on-screen – like when Attack of the Clones indirectly clarified that Yoda trained Obi-Wan before Qui-Gon took over – typically, it falls to other tie-in media to plug any storytelling gaps that arise.

So if there’s a particular continuity error that’s really bugging you about everyone’s favorite galaxy far, far away, chances are there’s a novel, TV show or comic book that’s already fixed it. Indeed, Marvel’s Star Wars comics in particular have built a well-earned reputation for crafting satisfying answers to many of the saga’s biggest unexplained questions – including those we’ve rounded-up below.

RELATED: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: 10 Showdowns We Want To See

10 Why Does Vader Take Orders From Tarkin?

The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi firmly position Darth Vader as the second most feared guy in the galaxy, with only Emperor Palpatine surpassing him in power and authority. So how come the Sith Lord plays second fiddle to Grand Moff Tarkin when we first meet him in A New Hope? It’s one of the biggest discontinuities in the original trilogy – but fortunately, Marvel’s Darth Vader comics have it covered.

Early issues in the series establish that the Emperor initially played Vader off against the Empire’s top brass, which meant occasionally taking orders from the likes of high-ranking officers like Tarkin. What’s more, we later witness a violent encounter between Vader and Tarkin that seemingly engenders a lasting mutual respect between the pair, and explains the collaborative relationship they subsequently adopt on-screen.

9 How Does Princess Leia Remember Her Mother?

Revenge of the Sith’s protracted denouement ticks off a laundry list of major Star Wars moments fans had been waiting to witness for over two decades. Arguably the most important of these is the birth of Luke and Leia Skywalker, which fittingly coincides with their father’s rebirth as Darth Vader. It’s a suitably emotional scene, and it’s made all the more emotional when the twins’ mother, Padmé Amidala, passes away shortly after.

But this also causes a problem for the saga’s official canon – after all, in Return of the Jedi, Leia tells Luke that she remembers their mother (albeit in fairly abstract fashion), which seems…unlikely. Enter: the Princess Leia mini-series, which subtly suggests that our heroine’s latent Force potential is the source of her otherwise impossible childhood memories.

8 When Did Luke Learn To Use A Lightsaber?

The original Star Wars trilogy features several memorable scenes of Luke Skywalker learning to become a fully-fledged Jedi Knight, but his lightsaber lessons are almost totally glossed over. Seriously: Obi-Wan Kenobi only taught Luke the absolute basics – deflecting incoming blaster fire – while the days, weeks or (if you want to be really generous) months he spent training with Master Yoda didn’t include a single saber technique tutorial (on screen, at least).

That leaves continuity-conscious fans in a bit of a pickle: how do they justify the formidable swordplay Luke displays when duelling Darth Vader or tearing through Jabba the Hutt’s cronies? It’s simple – they catch up on Marvel’s main Star Wars title. Set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, this ongoing series elaborates on the lightsaber combat coaching Luke underwent with the Gamemaster, as well as additional theory on the subject he gleaned from Obi-Wan’s journals.

RELATED: Star Wars: The Highest-Grossing Films (According To Box Office Mojo)

7 What Happened To All The Prequel-Era Technology?

While the technology seen in the Star Wars prequels is (generally) less advanced than the hardware of later generations, it’s nevertheless hard to swallow that none of this gear crops up in subsequent episodes. You’re telling us that nobody has any use for mobile weapons platforms like the droidekas, or could see the appeal in zipping around in a Jedi starfighter?

Fortunately, Marvel’s Star Wars comic books have this covered across the board, and prequel-era tech appears prominently in several stories. From Darth Vader heading up a squad of battle droids to Thrawn collecting buzz droids, and right on through to Luke Skywalker squaring off against MagnaGuards, the comics continue the proud tradition of recycling the saga is famous for.

6 Why Didn’t Chewbacca Receive A Medal?

OK, we’ll admit it: as plot holes go, Chewbacca not being awarded a medal during the closing moments of A New Hope is hardly galaxy-shattering stuff. But dang it, the flagrant disregard the Rebel Alliance shows for Chewie’s pivotal role in the destruction of the Death Star has always bothered us – to the point that we’re worried the Rebellion might have xenophobic tendencies!

Thank goodness for the Chewbacca mini-series Marvel published back in 2015, then. Here, we see the kind-hearted Wookiee bestow a medal identical to those seen in A New Hope upon a brave young girl named Zarro. The clear implication here is that Chewbacca did indeed receive a medal for his services, presumably at a separate ceremony not depicted on the big screen.

5 How Was General Grievous A Match For Jedi Knights?

Jedi Knights are legendary for their Force-powered prowess on the battlefield, however that doesn’t mean that non-Force sensitive opponents can’t defeat them on occasion. But even if the Republic’s sworn protectors aren’t unbeatable, it’s a bit hard to swallow that General Grievous supposedly cut down enough of them to line his cloak with their lightsabers, as shown in Revenge of the Sith.

We think we’ve found the answer to this conundrum though, in the pages of Star Wars: Age Of Republic – General Grievous. In this mini-series from Marvel, it’s revealed that the cyborg General – who is basically just a brain and a few organs inside a droid body – has inadvertently severed his connection to the Force, a horrific condition so unique it’s likely to blame for throwing his Jedi assailants off their game.

RELATED: Star Wars: Rey's 10 Best Moments (So Far)

4 Why Is The Jedi Temple Still Part Of Coruscant’s Skyline?

Before Star Wars was sold to Disney, the saga’s creator George Lucas was notorious for tinkering with the original trilogy each time it was re-released on home media. One of the less controversial changes Lucas made was the addition of two familiar landmarks to the Coruscant skyline during Return of the Jedi’s montage sequence: the Senate and the Jedi Temple.

At first, this seemed like a rare instance of Lucas inserting elements from the prequels without causing any damage…but did he? After all, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that Emperor Palpatine would preserve a gigantic monument to the Jedi Order. Luckily, Marvel’s Thrawn mini-series saves the day here, clarifying that Palpatine converted the Temple into his Imperial Palace – which is exactly the kind of perverse gesture we’d expect from the Dark Lord of the Sith!

3 Why Is Vader’s Fortress On Mustafar?

Darth Vader’s castle being located on Mustafar in Rogue One left more than a few fans scratching their heads. Sure, Sith Lords are all about maintaining their rage – and living in the same place where you were dismembered and burnt to a crisp is enough make anyone cranky – but it still seemed like an odd place for Vader to set up shop, given his options.

Why not his homeworld, Tatooine, instead? Dude has a whole bunch of terrible memories to draw on from his time spent on that desert planet, not just a lone (admittedly horrific) experience. But as it turns out, the very nature of Mustafar itself is the reason it plays host to Fortress Vader, not Tatooine. As recounted in Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, a locus for Dark Side energies resides beneath the volcanic world’s crust, which Vader can tap into via his Fortress’s tuning fork-like properties.

2 Why Did The Death Star Take So Long To Build?

Moon-sized battle station the Death Star took a long time to build: while construction commenced during the finale of Revenge of the Sith, it’s not finished until Rogue One nearly 20 years later. At first glance, this stacks up – we’re talking about a humongous feat of engineering here. However, the second, even bigger Death Star’s much shorter assembly period – although not quite complete, it was famously fully armed and operational in four years, tops – turns this logic on its head!

Happily, the Thrawn mini-series came up with a solution to this dilemma that is both a stroke of genius and painfully obvious, and it all boils down to secrecy. Prior to A New Hope, the Empire still had to tiptoe around the Senate, which meant resources needed to be sourced covertly. Once the Senate was abolished, keeping things hush-hush was no longer a concern, so construction on Death Star II could be fast tracked.

1 When Did Vader Find Out That Luke Was Alive?

Another instance of George Lucas altering existing Star Wars lore, new dialogue added to The Empire Strikes Back – coupled with the baby bump on Padme’s lifeless body in Revenge of the Sith – indicates that Darth Vader only recently became aware his son Luke was still alive. This is problematic, as the Sith Lord is shown to be aware of Luke’s existence already, in scenes that appear prior to the inserted exchange – so when exactly did Vader discover his kid had survived? And is this a glaring goof?

Not according to the Darth Vader comic book series, which confirms that the iconic baddie received the news about his Luke shortly after the events of A New Hope. The intel came from none other than famed bounty hunter Boba Fett and Vader kept it to himself – which means that he was only playing dumb when Palpatine later presents him with the same information in Empire (which is sorta implied, anyway).

NEXT: Star Wars: 10 Things The Comics Added To The Canon

source https://screenrant.com/star-wars-plot-holes-comics-fixed/

#screenrant

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duhragonball · 5 years

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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

#dragon ball gt #really sucks #2013gt #no seriously i'm rereading these as i go and i'm seeing stupid bullshit that i had forgotten about #every once in a while i think to myself 'well gt wasn't *that* bad'#but no it was fucking awful #goku #pan #giru #rage shenron

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z Movie 5: Cooler’s Revenge

Movie time again. This time it’s Cooler’s Revenge, which premiered on July 20, 1991, between the airdates of Episodes 99 and 100. The original title was “Dragon Ball Z: The Incredible Mightiest vs. Mightiest“

I found the timing of this movie very strange, because the whole plot is direct sequel to the events of the Frieza Saga, which didn’t end until Episode 107. In Episode 99, Frieza is still fighting Goku on Namek, and he feels pretty confident about his chances. A few days after that episode airs, you go to the theater and see this movie, where Frieza’s already dead and his brother goes after Goku to take revenge.

On the other hand, the manga had already moved on to the next arc by this time. Chapter 333 was published on July 16, 1991, and it features Goku meeting Future Trunks, right after he finished killing Mecha-Frieza. So this movie apparently presumes you read the comics. Or, if you’re anime-only, maybe it assumes you kind of know which way this Frieza thing is going to turn out.

The movie opens with the destruction of Planet Vegeta. You know, they really got their money’s worth out of that Bardock TV Special, didn’t they. I think this is the fourth of fifth time they used this footage for flashbacks, and it was less than a year old at this point.

From a distance, a second spaceship observes Frieza destroying the planet. They apparently have really great cameras if they could get such a good close up of Frieza’s face.

The crew also notices a single spacecraft escaping the planet’s destruction. I guess they patched into some camera inside the ship? Their leader orders them to destroy it, but then their boss belays that order. He sees this Saiyan baby as an oversight on Frieza’s part, and he refuses to clean up Frieza’s mess for him. As Cooler puts it, Frieza planted this seed, so he can reap the harvest, whatever that might be.

And there’s the title card. We’re underway.

On Earth, Goku’s parting the ocean outside Roshi’s house, and Roshi thinks about how much stronger Goku is since he returned from Namek.

Back at Goku’s house, Chi-Chi brings Gohan some Tang and tries to chase Icarus away, but then Goku does that last one for her. He’s all “Hey, don’t bother Gohan, Icarus. He’s gotta do his homework!” Chi-Chi assumes this means Goku has a fever.

She’s so worried about this that she drinks Gohan’s Tang. Rude.

Turns out Goku does have a fever, and the only prescription for that fever is camping. He want Gohan to hurry up and do his homework so they can goof off in the woods somewhere. I guess the TWO camping trips from Movie 3 didn’t scratch that itch.

Meanwhile, on some other planet, Cooler’s men report that Frieza was killed by a Saiyan named Son Goku. Cooler is astonished and outraged, and he resolves to go to Earth and kill Goku as soon as possible. Not because he cares about Frieza, but because he insists on restoring his family’s honor.

Flash ahead to the camping trip, where Krillin is making curry over a campfire. He sends Gohan to get some more firewood and.... does Gohan have his tail? Huh.

Elsewhere, Goku catches a big-ass fish that Krillin’s gonna fry up to go with the curry. This does sound like a fun time, actually.

But then the bad guys show up. The big green one, Dore, grabs him by the tail, and questions how this kid could have killed Frieza, since his power level is 50. Salza, the blue one, notes that his reading it probably low because of his tail being grabbed, but that’s still pretty weak.

Then Goku shows up, and they introduce themselves as Cooler’s Armored Squad. The brown one is named Neiz, by the way.

Goku fights all three of them at once, and does pretty well, but then their boss shows up and he mistakes him for Frieza.

Then Cooler tries to shoot down Gohan, who’s flying nearby, so Goku has to go save him...

... only to take a ki blast to his back.

Despite this, he manages to fire back at Cooler, who deflects it. Then Goku nd Gohan fall in the river and get lost in the water. Cooler’s men are satisfied that they must be dead, but Cooler isn’t convinced. Goku survived his attack, and had enough power to strike back, which means he’s tougher than most Saiyans. He orders his men to find Goku no matter what.

Gohan manages to get Goku into a cave, but he’s still in rough shape.

Making matters worse, Cooler’s men decide to carpet bomb the whole forest to flush Goku out. All the end up doing is sealing off the cave Goku’s hiding in.

Later, Cooler’s goons report that they must have vaporized Goku by now, but Cooler won’t be satisfied until they bring him a body. He notes that he could have just blown up the whole Earth and killed Goku that way, but he wants to kill Goku in person, as he feels this would be the only way to satisfy his family’s honor.

That night, Krillin, Oolong and Icarus search for Goku, and Icarus manages to sniff out Gohan’s hiding place. Krillin digs them out, being careful to suppress his ki so the bad guys’ scouters won’t pic them up. Goku insists that he should take care of the animals first.

But Krillin has already delegated that task to Oolong and Icarus. Only trouble is that Oolong starts a rockslide while he’s freeng that bunny rabbit, so Krillin has to use a ki blast to save him.

Fortunately, Neiz nearly collides with a pterodactyl as he chases down the scouter blip, and he decides the pterodactly must have been the source of the disturbance.

So Krillin sends Gohan and Icarus to Korin’s Tower to get some senzu beans. Meanwhile, Goku sleeps on a deer while a bunch of otehr animals gather ‘round him to make him look cuter, I guess.

Gohan makes the trip via Icarus, because if he flew on his own power it would tip off Cooler’s guys. But when he makes it to Korin, Korin chews him out for not climbing the tower like everyone else i supposed to do. Gohan started about halfway, because he was riding Icarus. This scene is kind of weird, because Gohan’s never even been here before, and Korin seems pretty content to mess around while Goku’s life is at stake. Does he not sense Cooler’s presence on the planet? This is an emergency.

So Gohan agrees to go back down and climb the tower from the ground, but then Yajirobe tosses him a whole bag of senzu beans. He and Korin argue about it, and eventually Korin admits that he was just going to give Gohan the beans for being honest, so Yajirobe just stole his thunder.

On the way back, Icarus is pretty worn out, so Gohan gives him a senzu bean to rejuvenate him. But it works a little too well, because Icarus ends up flying so fast that he creates a signal on the bad guys’ scouters.

Gohan tries to fight the Armored Squad by himself, and he doesn’t too badly, but there’s three of them and one of him, and soon the numbers game catches up with him. It’s a really well-animated scene, though.

Then Piccolo shows up to help, because by now it’s become a DBZ Movie tradition.

Piccolo sends Gohan on ahead, but the squad sends Dore after him, so Piccolo shoots a ki blast at Neiz. Neiz can suck his entire head into his chest, though, so the blast misses him...

Only Piccolo wasn’t aiming at him in the first place. The blast locked onto Dore and followed him until it killed him. Piccolo, you magnificent bastard.

Neiz manages to catch Piccolo in some sort of paralysis field, so Salza heads after Gohan, leavng Neiz to finish Piccolo off.

That turns out to be a huge mistake, because Piccolo somehow manages to turn the attack back on Neiz, killing him instantly.

Then Piccolo chases after Salza in the forest. You know, this movie’s really good. Even this middle part has plenty of cool visuals and action sequences.

Piccolo does some stretchy arm stuff, and Salza makes a ki blade on his arm that can cut through trees, but ultimately Salza only survives thanks to a timely assist from Cooler, who zaps Piccolo with ki beam.

Later, Gohan returns to his dad with the senzu beans... but then Salza shows up and zaps them into ash before they can use them. Whoops.

While Krillin fights Salza, Gohan remembers that he still had one more bean in his belt, so he digs it out and feeds it to Goku.

Salza makes short work of Krillin and Gohan, and then he checks for Goku... when his scouter explodes.

Goku’s back and he’s pissed.

Then Cooler shows up and sets off an explosion under Piccolo. What a jerk.

Salza tries to punch Goku while he’s distracted, but it does absolutely nothing. Welcome to Goku Town, jackass.

Salza gets knocked into some rocks when Goku powers up, and then Goku and Cooler fight. It’s mostly even, though it looks like Cooler is holding back somewhat. Once he’s satisfied that Goku really is strong enough to have beaten Frieza, he decides to step things up a bit.

He reveals that while Frieza had four forms, Cooler has a fifth, which means he can become even stronger.

I mean, I get the idea of having your new villain one-up the last villain, but this sort of goes against the notion of Frieza’s transformations. The “final form” he used was his natural state, and the weaker forms were ones he devised to help suppress the bulk of his immense power. Cooler is starting out in his “final form”, and he claims to have a transform that will make him stronger instead of weaker. I think Toei might have gotten it backwards.

Still, the fifth form looks pretty cool.

Cooler just beats the shit out of Goku at this point. Goku can barely do anything against the guy. At one point he tries the 20x Kaio-ken Kamehameha he used against Frieza, but Cooler just leaps into the blast, swims through it, and comes out the other side to punch Goku in the face. Wicked.

Satisfied that he’s beaten Goku, Cooler decides to go ahead and blow up the planet.

Goku collapses onto the ground, and then he spots a bird that must have been hurt during Cooler’s invasion.

Then Goku gets up and heals the bird. How the hell did Goku do that, you may ask.

Because he’s the Legendary Super Saiyan, that’s how.

Cooler tries to fire a blast down at him, but before he can even bring down his arm, Goku’s already floating next to him and grabs him by the wrist. “Bitch, you thought--?”

Then he tries to punch Goku, and that does absolutely nothing. Welcome to Super Goku Town, you grape-flavored dumbass.

Goku only hits Cooler a few times before he gets the picture. This was the power Goku used to defeat Frieza, and Goku is about to use it on him.

So Cooler fires a huge blast at Goku. It doesn’t hurt him at all, but that wasn’t the point. The point was to use it as a diversion...

... so Cooler could make a big energy ball to destroy the whole planet. Baically, Cooler is a lot like Frieza, only he’s much more direct. He doesn’t waste nearly as much time on this stuff, although he could have done this half an hour ago and saved himself some trouble.

Instead, Goku stops the attack before it hits the ground, and then he mucles it up and launches it back on Cooler with a Kamehameha. If you’re watching the dub version, “Revelation” by American Pearl plays over this, and it’s petty awesome.

Cooler ends up getting launched into space, and eventually he realizes he’s headed for the Sun. That’s what you get for hurting innocent birds in Super Goku Town, you lowlife. Also, Piccolo and so forth. Mostly birds.

As Cooler dies in just about the most awesomest way possible, he realizes that he made the same mistake Frieza did. Frieza failed to intercept Goku’s spaceship when he was a baby, but Cooler let it go too. And now Goku’s defeated them both. So their whole family is a bunch of losers.

I really dig this. It’d be good enough to see the bad guy blasted into the sun like this, but on top of that, we see him realize the extent of his folly. Cooler believed he was even more cruel and ruthless than Frieza, but in the end he was brought down by he same sloppiness that plagued Frieza. He insisted on searching for Goku and giving him a chance to recover when he could have just blown up the planet from the start. And look where it got him.

Somehow, the explosion causes the whole sky to light up and then go dark before everything goes back to normal.

Everyone congratulates Goku on his victory, but they wonder what happened to Piccolo. Then they hear someone digging out of the rubble...

But it’s Salza. He’s like “I lived, bitch.” Then a Special Beam Cannon comes out of nowhere and kills him.

Elsewhere, Piccolo takes a drink of water and goes “No you didn’t.”

How did Piccolo recover from his injuries? He didn’t get a senzu bean, and Cooler worked him over pretty badly. Oh well.

And that’s the end.

Just to touch on continuity a bit, this one almost fits into the canon, because you could set it right after Future Trunks warns Goku about the Androids. It doesn’t seem too unlikely that Goku would take a camping trip as a break from training for the Android menace.

The only real continuity problems that arise are things like Gohan still having his Namek-era bowl cut, and growing his tail back. It’s not impossible, but it seems rather unlikely.

More importantly, it doesn’t add up that Goku seemed to wait until the very end of the movie to turn into a Super Saiyan. In the Future Trunks episodes, he revealed that he could transform at will. In this movie, it feels like he couldn’t transform until the situation became desperate enough. Also, it seems odd that Frieza’s brother invaded Earth and Tien, Yamcha, and Vegeta didn’t get involved at all. When Mecha-Frieza came to Earth, everyone sensed it immediately.

Nevertheless, this is one of the better entries in the movie series. The animation is really excellent, the visuals are pleasing and colorful, and the plot is satisfying enough to compensate for the somewhat unoriginal villain. Frieza has an older brother who’s stronger than he is? And where was he until this movie happened? Why doesn’t he rule the universe instead of Frieza? It’s the sort of thing a fan would make up as a gag, like El Hermano, Jiren’s evil brother from the Latin American DBZ fanbase. Only Cooler really hapened, and he got to be in a movie. Two movies.

Still, Cooler does have a certain charm to him as a guy who wants to be a better version of Frieza. My only complaint about him is that he’s voiced by Ryusei Nakao, the same voice actor who played Freza. That makes sense, sure, but it’s also pretty dumb, becaue the character was already a Frieza clone to start with. Giving him the same voice just makes things worse. Funimation got it right by casting a completely different person to play the part, and punching up Cooler’s self-esteem issues. Also, the dub had the cool soundtrack. If you want my advice, watch the dub version, but the original Japanese is still a good experience.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #dbmovieliveblog #movie 5 #cooler's revenge #cooler #goku #oolong #krillin #gohan #yajirobe #piccolo #korin #chi chi #icarus #neiz #salza #dore #bardock #frieza

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z Movie 3: Tree of Might

Movie time again. This time around it’s “Tree of Might”, which premiered on July 7, 1990, between Episodes 54 and 55 of the anime.

I feel like this is one of the more popular movies of the lot, but it’s never been high on my list. There is a lot to appreciate here, but there’s some things that bug me, and I guess they don’t bug anyone else quite as much. It’s definitely way better than “World’s Strongest”, so I don’t want to overstate my case here.

The movie opens with a space probe heading for Planet Earth. Pretty sure someone making this movie had just watched “The Empire Strikes Back.”

On Earth, Bulma, Krillin, Oolong, and Gohan are on a camping trip. Okay, so I guess there was at least one other meeting between Gohan and Oolong after Movie 2, and this was it. I’m curious to see if they ever interact in any later films, or the TV series.

Honestly, I’m not really sure why Oolong would be involved here. In the last movie, it made sense, because he was the only one who would drag Gohan out on a Dragon Ball hunt, which drove the whole plot. Here’s he’s just chilling out with the trio who went to Namek. He feels like an odd man out.

I feel like this movie is angling at being an epilogue to the Namek Saga, since it depicts everyone safe and sound on Earth. It doesn’t fit well with continuity, but the Namek Saga was still in progress when this movie came out, so I can’t blame the writers there. In any case, the implication is that Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan all got back to Earth, and the first thing they wanted to do together was spend some quality time with Oolong.

Anyway, Gohan’s mom made him pack a ton of stuff he probably wouldn’t need for a camping trip.

Nearby, that probe lands in the forest and the heat of the impact starts a fire! Ruh-roh!

Krillin wakes up to the smell of burning everything, and we see all the animals fleeing in terror, including this little dragon.

Krillin tells Gohan to use his ki to put out the flames.

While they do that, Gohan notices the dragon trapped under a... log? It looks more like a really long piece of rock, but I don’t know what you’d even call that. Gohan lifts it up and the dragon moves to safety.

Later, the fire’s out, but the forest is still ruined, and the gang feels sorry for all the homeless animals. I don’t know, maybe I’m jaded, but I always found it a little cloying how all the animals just stand around at the edge of the forest, looking all sad, like they’re neighbors or whatever. I don’t know what real deer do in a real forest fire. Maybe they just die, but I’m pretty sure the ones who don’t just keep running until they find somewhere else to live.

Then Krillin has a great idea...

Dragon Ball Z! Wow, this is a great idea, Krillin. This show kicks ass, but unfortunately they already made it, so it’s not really your idea, you know?

But seriously, Krilln plans to track down the Dragon Balls just so they can wish to have the forest restored. In lieu of the usual opening credits, we get this montage of the gang collecting the Dragon Balls. Here’s Gohan flying an aircraft. I’d ask why they thought this made sense, but they had Gohan fly an aircraft in the last movie, so whoever made Tree of Might can just claim that the precedent was already set.

Just a thought, but maybe the reason Gohan does all this zany stuff is because Chi-Chi makes him study too much. By that I mean, she wants him to become a scholar, but for some reason she made him read an entire pilot manual, just in case it ever came up in some entrance exam. We’ve seen how well Gohan absorbs information, so naturally he’d finish the book and want to try it out for himself. Chi-Chi probably made him read a book about lion taming, and then she wonders why Gohan ran off to join the circus.

Here’s a variation on the OP, only with a dinosaur chasing Gohan instead of Bulma. Gohan ought to be strong enough to kick that dinosaur’s ass, though.

For some reason, Tien and Chiaotzu happen to be jogging by while they’re at it. Small world, I guess.

And then Gohan shows up with the last ball. Good thing, too. The theme song was almost over.

And finally we get the title card. Granted, these trees in the background don’t look very mighty, but bear with us, we’re getting to that.

DRAGON DRAGON! ROCK THE DRAGON! DRAGON! BALL! Z!

DRAGON DRAGON! ROCK THE DRAGON! COME! COME GET ME!

The sight of Shenron panics that little dragon Gohan saved, and it tries to attack him? That seems like an unusual response. Gohan calls him “Haiya Dragon”, so I guess he named him off-screen?

In the English dub, the dragon was named “Icarus”, which I frankly prefer, because what kind of name is “Haiya Dragon” , anyway? That’d be like naming your son “Hello Human.”

Shenron flails his tail around, and maybe he was getting ready to slap some sense into Icarus, or maybe he didn’t even notice the guy. Anyway, Gohan holds Icarus back and makes their wish.

And the forest is saved! I assume the gang finished their camping trip and went home. All the animals return to their burrows and trees and bushes or whatever, and the probe robot crawls out of its crater. Wait, that can’t be good.

The probe sends signals back to a group of aliens. They confirm the presence of life signs on Earth, although no one can believe it, because they know the Saiyan Kakarot was sent to Earth, and he should have wiped out all of its life a long time ago.

Okay, but why did they bother sending the probe if they didn’t think there would be anything there worth finding? Well, anyway, the probe reports that Earthis a suitable environment for the Shinseijuu Tree, which is Japanese for “Divine Essence Tree” Tree. Um, I think the subtitles goofed a little. I’m just gonna call it the Tree of Might.

That reminds me, the actual title of this movie is Chikyū Marugoto Chōkessen, which means “A Super-decisive Battle for Earth.” It’s also been called “Super Battle In the World”, which sounds pretty dumb. For some reason, most of the movies have Japanese titles that absolutely refuse to indicate what they’re about. Literally every DBZ movie could have been called “A Super-decisive Battle for Earth.” Well, I guess Movie 6 was a battle for New Namek, but Meta-Cooler would have attacked Earth eventually.

Later, we find Goku and Gohan chillaxing in the oil drum they bathe in. Chi-Chi’s tending the fire that keeps the water hot. Does Chi-Chi bathe in this thing? She’d have to, right? I’m surprised that erotic DBZ fan artists haven’t jumped all over that concept. “Oh, now that the fire’s going and I’ve taken off my clothes, I can climb into this oil drum and take a bath! It’s a good think I live in the middle of nowhere, so no one can see my boobs!”

But then Icarus shows up and frightens Chi-Chi until Gohan explains who he is. Chi-Chi immediately takes a dislike to the creature, and I’m with her on this one. Icarus is a stand-up dude and all, but he looks kind of creepy. He’s supposed to be cute, but he ends up looking like one of those Precious Moments figurines.

Chi-Chi tells Gohan to take the dragon back where he came from. Goku tries to stick up for him, but she won’t hear of it.

Gohan shoves Icarus away, but let’s be real here, he could carry Icarus all the way back to his forest if he really wanted to.

Then Goku leads them both to this cave he fixed up as a hideout for Icarus. This seems pretty dumb. Goku tells him not to let Chi-Chi know about this, but how did Chi-Chi find out about Icarus in the first place? He followed Gohan to the house where she could see him.

But Icarus is grateful, and he licks Goku. See, Goku looks way, way cuter than Icarus. They really tried to hard with Icarus’ design.

Meanwhile, Yamcha’s cruising around in a car he bought with a 15-year loan, when suddenly he gets blasted out of the sky by...

... one of these assholes, I guess. If I understand correctly, they blasted a big crater in the ground so they could plant their Tree of Might seed, but I don’t really understand why they couldn’t just use a gardening spade.

Tell you what, let’s go over these guys names right now. The big red one in the center is Amond. The guy on the left is Daiz. He wears pink leg warmers.

The alien in the silver armor is Cacao. I think he’s a cyborg, but who cares? And the two little purple guys are Rasin and Lakasei. They’re all wearing Frieza Soldier gear, so does that mean they work for Frieza? Well, we’ll get to that.

The seed starts growing almost as soon as it hits the soil.

Meanwhile, the aliens’ mysterious leader notes that this was all made possible by Goku’s failure to destroy the planet’s population as he was supposed to do.

The Tree of Might is huge, to the point where its roots erupt underneath a whole city, which I’m pretty sure is miles away from the forest where it was planted.

In the forest, Icarus watches this enormous tree finish growing, and he knows things are looking bad.

Meanwhile, most of the major Dragon Ball characters have gotten together at Goku’s house. I’m not sure why. Also, they didn’t invite Launch, which is kind of bullshit.

Bulma gives Yamcha shit for buying such an expensive car, and accuses him of trying to impress girls. So yeah, about the continuity of this movie. These characters won’t be reunited on Planet Earth until Episode 120 of the TV series. By the time that happens, Gohan’s a few years older, and Goku’s learned to turn into a Super Saiyan, so this whole movie just doesn’t fit. Nevertheless, it seems to depict a possible scenario where the good guys managed to return safely from Namek and wish all their dead friends back to life. In other words, this is the first time Bulma and Yamcha are seen together again since his death in the Saiyans Saga, and what is she doing? Yeah.

Same, Tien, same. Chiaotzu’s not gonna let this stop him from enjoying free refreshments though.

Then Icarus shows up at the window, and Goku and Gohan get caught trying to keep him, but they miss the fact that Icarus came back to warn them about the Tree of Might. Too bad he can’t talk.

Fortunately, King Kai can talk, and he can communicate with Goku telepathically, and he warns him about the Tree of Might. Well, “warn” might not be the right word. According to King Kai, the Earth was doomed the moment the tree took root. It’s basically a parasite on a planetary scale. As it grows, it sucks the nutrients and life force from the host planet, reducing the whole world to a lifeless desert.

So where does something like the Tree of Might come from? King Kai says it was originally grown so that the gods could eat its fruit. That sounds halfway plausible, until you consider that a lot of the “gods” in this franchise aren’t nearly as awe-striking as the Tree of Might. It’s hard to imagine someone like Kami planting a tree like this, destroying a whole planet just to eat its fruit. King Kai literally cooks his own meals, and he seems to eat the same stuff as everyone else. King Yama has a tree in hell that bears fruit reserved specially for him, but it’s not nearly as big as this one. I could imagine Beerus snacking on fruit from a tree that kills whole planets, but he’ll settle for cup ramen. More importantly, Beerus and his ilk wouldn’t be introduced to the franchise for another 23 years.

I’m not sure what King Kai is trying to tell Goku. If it’s too late, why bother telling him about this at all? Is he trying to suggest that Goku should evacuate the planet?

Well, King Kai should know better, because Goku stone cold does not give a shit. As soon as he hears about this crisis, he immediately makes plans to go beat up a tree. His plan: Let’s all go shoot it with our best hand lasers. Diagnosis: Awesome.

Then they all put their hands together in a show of solidarity. It’s time to show that tree who’s boss! Look at Chiaotzu. He’s literally lying on top of the table just to reach the others.

Then Gohan tries to join in, because hell yeah. Gohan can help. He fires some really good hand lasers, especially for his age.

But his mommy said no, so he’s gotta stay home. Better luck next time, kid.

Krillin notes that his wish to restore the forest was a total waste, since this stupid Tree of Might wrecked it all over again. I think the whole point of that forest fire was just to give the characters a reason to use the Dragon Balls early, so that way they wouldn’t be able to wish their way out of this situation. I’m not sure Shenron could remove a tree this huge, but it’s a moot point now. The Dragon Balls won’t work again for another year.

So they shoot their finest energy blasts at the base of the tree, and it does nothing. Krillin suggests another try, but Yamcha points out that if they use too much power they could destroy the Earth instead.

Then these jerks show up. Okay, so this is one thing that’s always bugged me about this movie. From here on, much of the action takes place on the Tree of Might itself, so you end up with a lot of indistinct backgrounds which are probably meant to be super-giant tree bark. It just makes it hard to tell where anyone is in relation to anything else. What exactly are they sitting on here? Why does the Tree of Might have all these convenient ledges and horizontal surfaces for people to stand on?

Yamcha demands vengeance for his dearly departed car. Uh, yeah... Whatever gets you in the zone, buddy.

The boys square up for a fight. You know, I remember watching parts of this movie on Toonami back in 1999, and scenes like this, and Yamcha’s appearancs in the Frieza Saga, were really my first introduction to the character. What really stood out for me was that he looked almost exactly like Goku. Kind of like how Flash Thompson was a big fan of Spider-Man, and one time he dressed up as Spidey for a Halloween party, and the real Spider-Man had to trick Green Goblin into thinking that Flash was the real thing. It just really looks like Yamcha is this jock who decided to dress up like Goku because he loves Goku so much.

Anyway, these two guys do some dumb shit. I really hate Rasin and Lakasei. Just... everything about them sucks. They sound terrible in every dub, they look like inflamed hemorrhoids, and they do absolutely nothing to move the story forward.

Tien blinds them with the Solar Flare, and that’s about the only effective offense the Z-Figthers manage in this whole movie.

It’s really a shame, because this is one of the few movies that actually bothers to use Yamcha, Tien, an Chiaotzu, and they get jobbed out. Would it have been so bad to have Yamcha use his Spirit Ball on Cacao and actually hurt him? Krillin’s Kienzan is one of the more serious techniques in the series, so I might have been cool to actualy see him kill somebody with it. I’m pretty sure Chiaotzu has never won a fight in Dragon Ball up to this point. Would it have been so bad to just let him kill Rasin? But no.

I always wondered why they included Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu in this particular movie, but now that I’m watching them in sequence with the anime, it makes some sense. Around this time, the TV series had just revealed that they were training with King Kai in the afterlife, and one could certainly speculate that they would get resurrected later on, and play a role in the final battle with Frieza and/or Vegeta. I think “Tree of Might” was trying to play along with that idea, except it never actually pays it off.

Chiaotzu is in trouble for a while, until Gohan suddenly shows up to help. Turns out Icarus managed to bring him to the forest where the battle was going on, so now he’s here to turn the tide. Or something.

This attracts the attention of the boss alien, who recognizes Gohan as a Saiyan.

So he goes out to meet the kid, and realizes that he must be Kakarot’s son. He introduces himself as Turles and...

Yeah, he looks like Goku. That’s the big twist.

Only it’s not much of a twist at all. Turles explains that it’s not even that big a deal that he and Goku look alike, since they’re both “disposable, lower-class warriors.” According to Turles, low-class Saiyans “only come in a few types.”

I’ve seen this line interpreted in many different ways. Some fans have suggested that the Saiyans cloned their low-class warriors. I think a lot of fans prefer the idea that Turles an Goku might be related somehow. Bardock and Goten’s close resemblance to Goku seems to support this. Hell, Gohan looks a lot like Goku if you don’t take the hair into account.

I think there’s always been a desire to make something more out of Turles than what the movie offers. The fact that he looks like an evil Goku is easily the most intriguing thing about the character, and this movie does absolutely nothing with it. Turles himself acts like it doesn’t matter, and Gohan is the only character who even seems to notice. So why did they bother making him look like Goku in the first place?

I feel like part of the idea here was to explore the idea of what Goku might have been like if he hadn’t hit his head and turned good. Turles could be a glimpse into what Kakarot might have done as a villain, although he’s so different from the real Goku that it doesn’t seem all that convincing. They could have made him look like another Saiyan, and it wouldn’t really affect anything.

Turles’ main personality trait is that he seems to want to recruit Gohan and Goku to his cause, saying that Saiyans should stick together. I’m not sure if he truly believes that, or if he just thinks that his gang could use a couple more Saiyan lackeys. He talks up the space pirate life as an endless romp around the universe, taking whatever he wants and enjoying food and drink as he pleases. Again, I don’t know if that’s a genuine sentiment, or if it’s just his recruitment pitch.

Piccolo shows up and tries to save Gohan, but Turles makes short work of him, and goes back to tormenting the kid.

Turns out he can make one of those fake moon things just like Vegeta.

He forces Gohan to look at it, and then he destroys it as soon as Gohan turns into a giant ape.

He says it’s because he doesn’t want to turn into a giant ape himself, but why wouldn’t he? Why did he turn Gohan into a giant ape? He doesn’t need any help to beat the Z-Fighters. Is he trying to prove a point? Gohan won’t even remember anything he did in ape form. Also, shouldn’t the transformation wear off once the fake moon is gone? Turles accounts for this by saying it’ll stick for a little while, even after the power ball is gone, but that doesn’t sound right. When Piccolo blew up the moon, Gohan changed back immediately.

For that matter, what good is the fake moon technique if it can be dispersed so easily? Krillin could have attacked it during the Goku/Vegeta fight instead of trying to cut off Vegeta’s tail.

So now Goku has to fight his own son in giant ape form. To the movie’s credit, this is a big highlight, because it’s the only DBZ movie to feature a giant ape transformation. And that’s all well and good, but it seems kind of empty to me because I have no idea why Turles set this up. Does he want Gohan to kill Goku? Is that supposed to make Gohan more eager to join him?

The fight ends up in a cavern, which I think turns out to be the same cave Goku used as a home for Icarus. That, or Icarus just happened to be here. Either way, just seeing Icarus calms Gohan down.

This is cute and all, but it seems odd that Oozaru Gohan would react so strongly to Icarus when he didn’t even recognize his own father.

Irritated, Turles tries to attack Icarus, which turns Gohan against him. Turles tries to kill Gohan with a laser donut...

But Goku cuts off Gohan’s tail before it can hit him, and he shrinks back to little kid size just in time to fall through the donut. I guess it’s lucky that Turles relies on donut-shaped attacks.

Turles then offers to spare Goku if he pledges to join him, but Goku refuses. He came her to whip a tree’s ass, and if Turles is pro-tree, then he can get wrecked along with it.

Then all of these creeps show up to fight Goku first. See, this is dumb. They not only made a clean sweep of Goku’s teammates, they didn’t even defeat them on screen!

Here’s a shot of Tien passing out from the hypothetical beating he took from Amond or some other guy.

Well, at least this sets up a cool scene where Goku has to fight them all by himself, right? Not really, Goku squashes them all in matter of seconds.

Meanwhile, Piccolo tries to take on Turles, but he’s just no match for him.

Boom, roasted.

I mean, why couldn’t Yamcha take this guy out? What was the point of having Yamcha in the movie if Goku was going to beat all the bad guys by himself?

With the rabble cleared away, Goku finally gets down to business. Turles panics when he sees how strong Goku is, so he runs away...

...and picks a piece of fruit from the Tree of Might. Why does he stick his tongue out to eat it? That just looks kind of weird.

Basically, the fruit of the Tree of Might ramps up a person’s battle power, which allows Turles to overpower Goku with ease. This is the core concept with Turles, I think. The challenge with this movie was to invent a new villain who could challenge Goku in the same manner as Vegeta and Frieza. Well, that’s a tall order, because Frieza was hyped as the strongest guy in the whole universe. A Saiyan villain would have made sense, except Vegeta was the strongest Saiyan, and the only one left. To introduce a new Saiyan, you’d have to explain why he’d be strong enough to rival Vegeta or Frieza.

The solution is the Tree of Might. I can’t find the line now, but there’s a part of the movie where Turles or one of his crew mention that the Tree of Might will make Turles strong enough to defeat Frieza. It’s pretty clear, then, that he’s a renegade from Frieza’s organization. They have their old uniforms, but instead of working for Frieza, they just roam the universe looking for places to plant their Tree of Might seeds. They grow a new tree, eat the fruit, get stronger, and then repeat the process. Turles started out as a weakling like Goku once was, but he found a way to cheat the system, and now he’s on his way to becoming the strongest in the universe.

Turles leaves Goku when he refuses to surrender, and then Goku’s friends speak to him telepathically. I’m not sure when they learned to do that, but whatever. They beg Goku to get up and try a Spirit Bomb, and Goku finally musters the strength to try it.

While he does that, the Z-Fighters assemble for one last stand against Turles. I guess this is supposed to buy time for Goku, but I’m not sure he needs it. Turles isn’t actually doing anything at the moment.

But it doesn’t work. The Spirit Bomb relies on borrowng life energy from everything on the planet, and that’s been drained away by the Tree of Might, so Turles thwarts Goku’s attack with ease. Oh, he also clobbered the Z-Fighters, so they’re down too. Triumphantly, Turles looks at his fruit crop. Where exactly is this that he’s standing right now?

But Goku isn’t beaten yet. He drags himself back into the fight, and confronts Turles one more time.

See, this time, Goku has a way to make the Spirit Bomb work. If all of the Earth’s energy is in the Tree of Might...

... then he’ll just draw the energy from the fruit instead of the planet, and make a Spirit Bomb from that.

There’s this tense standoff, and then they both attack each other in a single instant, and Goku’s Spirit Bomb wins out. I always have trouble remembering how this movie ends, and I think it’s because the climactic moment is so quick. I’m pretty sure they tried to imitate a gunfight from a western.

Turles gets consumed by the Spirit Bomb, and it drives him up through the trunk of the Tree of Might. Really, this makes a lot of sense as a finale. Turles’ trump card was to eat one piece of fruit from the tree, but Goku drew power from all of the fruit, so naturally his Spirit Bomb would be stronger than anything Turles could handle. And it’s an elegant solution to the problem posed by the tree. It was completely invulnerable to Goku’s own power, so he ended up using the Tree of Might’s own energy against itself.

All of this causes the Tree to glow yellow and disintigrate into sparkles of light, which rejuvenate all life on Earth.

So this dying deer is okay again, and presumably so is everything else.

Later, everyone celebrates with another camping trip. Launch got snubbed again.

Oolong tries to praise Icarus for his role in the battle, but Icarus nearly bites him.

And Piccolo sort of chills out by a waterfall somewhere, and that’s the end of the movie.

So it’s a pretty decent entry in the movie series, but I find it to be a mixed bag. The highlights are things that don’t quite get developed enough. Yeah, you have Turles, Great Ape Gohan, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu, but for my money, merely having those things in the movie isn’t enough. It’s what you do with them that counts. I find it particularly frustrating that the Dragon Ball Wiki has all this lore on Turles’ gang, but none of it ever made it into the movie itself, which is their only appearance. What’s the point in having a backstory for Daiz if it never comes up anywhere? His entire character arc was blowing up Yamcha’s car, and then getting decked by Goku.

Still, if you like Spirit Bombs, this is one of the best Spirit Bomb finishes ever. And the Tree of Might is a pretty cool idea. And the visuals are a big step up from World’s Strongest.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #movie 3 #tree of might #goku #gohan #krillin #yamcha #tien #chaiotzu #piccolo #chi chi #icarus #turles #amond #cacao #rasin #lakasei #daiz #dbmovieliveblog

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duhragonball · 5 years

Text

Dragon Ball 102

Last time on Dragon Ball... OH FUCK KRILLIN’S DEAD

He had gone back to the arena to fetch Goku’s Nyoibo and Four Star Dragon Ball, and then Goku found him and the World Tournament Announcer laid out on the floor. The Announcer, at least, is okay. He explains that some monster barged in and took the Four Star Ball and a copy of the Tenkaichi Budokai roster. Krillin tried to fight the creature, but it was just too strong.

Goku is livid. A lot of people have asked why Goku didn’t just turn Super Saiyan right here. Personally, I think there’s more to turning Super Saiyan than the emotional shock of your best friend getting killed. For one thing, Goku wasn’t there when it happened. I think there’s a difference between finding Krillin’s dead body and watching him get slaughtered while you’re powerless to stop it. Also, Goku isn’t nearly as strong now as he will be on Namek, and I think that has a lot to do with it.

Nevertheless, this scene has a lot to do with Goku being a Super Saiyan. It’s all well and good to talk about Goku “transforming” into a Super Saiyan, but you can argue that he always was a Super Saiyan, since he eventually figured out how to tap into that form. And this righteous fury we see from him is what sets him apart from most of his species. Nappa and Raditz never felt this way in their lives, or they never allowed themselves to feel this way. Goku has this capacity throughout his whole life, and so when he’s finally strong enough to cross the threshold, he has the emotional intelligence to carry him to the other side.

He grabs his Nyoibo, asks Bulma for her Dragon Radar, and rushes off to hunt down Krillin’s killer. Roshi tells him to wait, even orders him to stop, but to no avail. After all, Goku’s hungry and tired, and any monster who could beat Krillin so easily would probably be too much for Goku while he’s less than 100%.

Oolong finds a piece of paper on the floor with a mark on it.

And once Roshi sees it, he realizes that he knows who’s behind all this.

King Piccolo.

Okay, so here’s my perspective on this. I watched DBZ first, and it was pretty clear from casualy watching the early episodes around 1998 or so that Piccolo was the bad guy before Z got started. All we really knew about him was what little the edited dub revealed in flashbacks or exposition. Goku said that he wanted to take over the world, though he never understood why, and it was pretty clear that Goku had been the only thing standing in the way of that goal. While the early sagas of DBZ involved the good guys having an uneasy alliance with Piccolo, it was clear that no one really trusted him, and they were terrified of what he might do if left unchecked.

All of this led me to wonder just what Piccolo had done as a villain. I think he struck me as a sort of Dr. Doom or Skeletor archetype at the time. He wanted to conquer the planet, which suggested that he probably pulled some schemes that might have almost worked if Goku hadn’t come along and punched him in the face. Yeah, he was super strong, but he must have been fairly restrained if the world was still in one piece.

Then I finally get to the first episode of the King Piccolo Saga, and it turns out to be way, way worse than I ever imagined. Krillin’s dead, and that’s just for openers. Piccolo had once terrorized the world a long time ago, and he had a horde of demonic creatures helping him kill innocent people right and left.

This is one of the best filler scenes I’ve seen so far. While Roshi tells the story of King Piccolo’s first reign of terror, we’re treated to this horriffic sequence of scaly green monsters flying around, blasting energy beams out of their mouths, stalking frightened humans, and crushing any and all resistance.

This monster was about to descend on an innocent woman, until some guy tried to beat him up with a pipe. But the pipe just bent around his body like it was nothing, and then the monster mauls him instead. Now imagine that the entire world is like this, and you start to understand the horror of King Piccolo.

And through it all, King Piccolo’s just enjoying the whole thing. Why did he do all of this? Why turn the whold world into a charnel house? We never really get an answer to that.

Piccolo’s monsters eventually came after the dojo that Master Roshi and the Crane Hemit used to belong to. He doesn’t really mention why this conflict happened, but my guess is that that Piccolo’s creatures were just going after everyone. There was probably no strategy to it at all.

I’m pretty sure these are Roshi and the Crane Hermit, although I have trouble telling which one is supposed to be which. The one on the left looks a little more like Roshi, though.

I’m not sure when this was supposed to have happened. I’m pretty sure the Funimation dub established it was fifty years ago, but that doesn’t make much sense. For one thing, of all the characters Roshi is telling this story to, only Tien has even heard of King Piccolo, and he hasn’t heard much. If King Piccolo had been around only fifty years ago, then Bulma’s parents would probably know about him, since her grandparents would have surely lived during that time.

Also, Roshi is well over 300 years old, so if he looked this young fifty years ago, he must have aged really badly since then. So I’m pretty sure Funi goofed, or I’m misremembering something. It makes a lot more sense if the King Piccolo crisis happened a lot longer ago. Two hundred years, minimum.

Whatever the chronology, Roshi and the Crane Hermit were only able to beat back Piccolo’s minions, and never King Piccolo himself. Not even their master, Mutaito, could stop Piccolo, although he swore to oppose him with all his power.

Piccolo wounded the guy, but he managed to survive, thanks to his superhuman vitality. Only, he left Roshi and his other students before he was healed, and he promised to return one day.

Roshi thinks that the magnitude of the Piccolo crisis was what turned the Crane Hermit into the villain he is today. That’s pretty heavy stuff. Piccolo is so evil that he inspired other evildoers to turn to evil.

Getting back to the story, one day, years later, Mutaito returned, having finally mastered a technique that would save the world from King Piccolo.

So he went right up to King Piccolo and zapped him with the Mafuba, also known as the Evil Containment Wave. It didn’t kill Piccolo, or even hurt him...

Instead, it directed him into a vessel, which could be sealed with a sacred talisman. I don’t know why he picked a rice cooker, but his options may have been limited in those days.

The only downside to the Mafuba is that it kills the user. So it was up to Roshi to deal with the imprisoned King Piccolo.

So he dropped it into the bottom of the sea. The only way King Piccolo could possibly have returned would be if someone found the jar and opened it. Tien and Chiaotzu wonder if the Crane Hermit might have done it, but Roshi says that he never would have dared to unleash such horror again. So the question is: Who would be dumb enough to find King Piccolo and set him free? What sort of colossal idiot would... oh, who are we kidding? It’s Emperor Pilaf.

Worse, Pilaf told Piccolo about the Dragon Balls. He thinks King Piccolo would want to wish to rule the world...

But no. Conquering the world is easy for him. What he wants is eternal youth, so he can have the vitality and longevity to rule the wold forever!

Pilaf tries to suggest that Piccolo should share half the world with him in exchange for all of his help. It was Pilaf who found Piccolo’s jar, released him, set him up in this cool airship, and he told him about the Dragon Balls and the Tenkacihi Budokai. Piccolo replies that he’ll think it over.

As for the Dragon Balls, Piccolo has one of his goons named Tambourine looking for them, and he’s on his way back with one right now. What the Pilaf gang doesn’t understand is why he had Tambourine steal the tournament roster while he was at it. Piccolo explains that it was a martial artist who sealed him away for so long, and so he considers martial artists to be the only possible threat to his plans. Any one of them might possibly know or reinvent the technique that sealed him away, so he plans to kill them all, and the Tenkaichi Budokai roster makes a nice list of strong fighters to kick off his purge.

Back at the arena, Roshi has reached the same conclusion.

Meanwhile, Goku, who knows none of this, has finally caught up to Tambourine.

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