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#and have goku actually think to seek out tien because that makes the most sense
duhragonball · 5 years
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Dragon Ball Z 022
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The Saiyans are here!   What do they want?
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Yeah, that’s what they want, more or less.
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I wouldn’t put it past Raditz to destroy a whole city like this within minutes of arriving on a planet, but he landed in a rural area, and he spent most of his time on Earth being irritated that Goku hadn’t destroyed all the cities before he got here.   Nappa doesn’t mind taking out a few cities, though.     I guess it’s a lot easier for him, if nothing else.
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On the other hand, Vegeta is more calculating with his mercilessness.  He could give a shit less about East City, but if there had been a Dragon Ball down there, Nappa might have destroyed it before they even had a chance to start looking.  For all his easy brutality, Nappa apologizes for his sloppiness, because that’s how much he respects and fears Vegeta.  
And that’s what defines the Saiyans as monstrous villains.   The past villains might have talked about occupying and controlling a city.   King Piccolo destroyed a city, but only to get the rest of the planet to capitulate to his rule.   The Saiyans destroy cities because they get paid for it, or because it’s fun, or because they’re in the way.   For them, it’s a chore at worst, or maybe a fun way to kill some time.   The only reason the Earth is still in one piece right now is because there’s something on it that Vegeta wants.
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And even then, Vegeta isn’t exactly keeping Nappa on a tight leash.   If he really didn’t want Nappa to destroy East City, he probably could have stopped him.
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At Master Roshi’s, the gang watches coverage of East City’s destruction on TV, and Bulma wants to head out to help the others.   Her scouter can help track down the Saiyans, after all.
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But Roshi tells everyone to stay put.   Even he would be useless to the others in this battle.   There’s simply nothing they can do.
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Besides, the Z-Warriors don’t need to find the Saiyans, since they’re going to be coming after them.   Vegeta’s plan is to locate the strongest fighters on the planet, since one of them would probably be the guy who killed Raditz and spoke of the Dragon Balls.   They detect more power signatures than they expected to find, but he’s not terribly concerned about that.   The impression I get is that this is a pretty standard tactic for the Saiyans.    Identify the biggest threat and eliminate it before proceeding with any other business.  
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At East City, Yajirobe shows up and tells the authorities about the Saiyans.   He milks the whole story for all it’s worth, claiming to be the leader of the team that’s been training to fight them.   No one believes him until he challenges them to investigate the spacecraft, and the lab boys confirm is isn’t of this earth.
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Then all the reporters start begging him for his story.
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Yajirobe plans to spend the cash on food, but don’t let his selfish attitude fool you.   He takes the Saiyan menace seriously.   He just doesn’t seem to eager to actually try to stop them.   I guess he’d rather die eating than fighting.
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The Saiyans head for Piccolo and Gohan’s position, since that’s apparently the strongest signal they get.    All the animals in their training ground start running away, because they can sense what’s coming, I guess. 
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But Krillin goes to the battleground, because Krillin’s more badass than all the animals pictured above put together.   Like, you take a lion and a wolf, and a rhino and an elephant, and like a bunch of cartoony looking dinosaurs, and Krillin is tougher than all of them put together.
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Piccolo’s even happy to see the guy, even though he hides it behind a bunch of gallows humor. 
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Krillin asks Gohan how he’s been this past year, and he actually says it hasn’t been so bad.   Gohan’s come a long way.
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Then the Saiyans show up.   When Piccolo starts talking to them, Vegeta recognizes him as the man who killed Raditz, and they realizes that he’s a Namekian.
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Vegeta has heard of the Namekians, and how they’re said to have powerful warriors, as well as those who specialize in magical arts.   He reasons that Piccolo created the Dragon Balls, and he’s not that far off.
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And this satisfies the Saiyans’ curiosity on how Raditz could have been defeated.   At least if a Namekian was involved, it might not be so unthinkable.   They still refer to him as wimp, though.    Piccolo may have survived Raditz, but that doesn’t mean squat in their book.
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Piccolo remains defiant.   He’s grateful to find out he’s an alien, but he denies creating the Dragon Balls, and he dares the Saiyans to find out just how strong he really is.
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Kami, on the other hand, has a very different reaction to this revelation.   Like Piccolo, he had no idea he was an alien, though it certainly explains some things.   He always felt like an outsider, and when he created the Dragon Balls, the process felt “familiar” to him, so perhaps he was unconsciously repeating a tradition passed down by his ancestors. 
I tend to think that a lot of Kami and Piccolo’s backstory on Earth can be explained by their not knowing who and what they really are.   When they were a single being, he probably felt very alone, but he was also very powerful, which led him to seek the position of Kami.    Unlike Goku, who wanted nothing to do with such a solitary job, he probably thought it was a noble thing to do, a way to give purpose to his loneliness.    And the evil part of himself that he cast off, Piccolo, was born of his resentment towards that loneliness, I think.   Piccolo wanted to rule over and torment the people of Earth to feel better about himself.   
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A bunch of news helicopters show up, including a shuttlecraft from one of the Star Trek Movies.   I’m gonna say Star Trek V, because there was a shuttlecraft featured in that movie, and it came out around this time.  Nappa blows a bunch of these guys up, and the rest clear out.  
The Ocean Dub, which provided the English voices for the Saiyans and Namek Sagas back in the late 1990′s, had to work around heavy editing by Saban Entertainment.   So when Nappa attacked the news choppers, they had some of the reporters cry out “He destroyed the cargo robot!”   I think there’s a later scene where he does it again, and Tien observes that no one was hurt because he could see their parachutes.   
Oh, also, no one was hurt when Nappa blew up East City, because it was Sunday, and nobody was in town when they arrived.   The Ocean Dub was wild. 
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Nappa starts taking readings on Krillin, Piccolo, and Gohan, and while they’re all a lot stronger than they were a year ago, he’s amazed that they would dare to stand up to him with such low stats.    But Vegeta reminds him that these Earth warriors know how to raise and lower their battle powers during the course of a fight, which makes the scouters useless in this situation.   Raditz put too much stock in the numbers, and it cost him dearly. 
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Nappa even refers to Raditz as a “wimp”, which spooks Piccolo because he fought the guy and barely survived.    I was about to say he barely made it out in one piece, except he really didn’t.   He lost an arm in that fight. 
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Then Vegeta decides to have some fun with their enemies.  He orders Nappa to grow some Saibamen.   These are just little seeds that Nappa puts in the ground, and when he adds some green liquid, they suddenly sprout humanoid creatures who can smash boulders.   So now our heroes don’t even have a numerical advantage anymore.   Tough break.
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animeride-blog · 7 years
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Dragonball Super Episode 106 Review [ RANT ] https://animeride.com/blogs/6307/dragonball-super-episode-106-review-rant/ #Beerus, #DragonBallSuper, #Gohan, #Goku, #MasterRoshi, #Piccolo, #Tien, #Universe7, #Vegeta, #ZenSama
New Post has been published on https://animeride.com/blogs/6307/dragonball-super-episode-106-review-rant/
Dragonball Super Episode 106 Review [ RANT ]
Hey guys, How are you today  If you want to find a way to absolutely shit on a fanbase then look no further than this pile of manure right here. The way they managed to bury Tien was magical with so many details and layers you would think he had killed one of the writer’s Grandmas.
Story
This episode begins with the exciting new character Dr. Rota who apparently has a special ability that will destroy Gohan and Piccolo. But before he can do so is quickly destroyed by a blast and squashed making his character absolutely useless which I have to admit Super is very good at doing. Realizing they are out in the open both our heroes begin to discuss a strategy against this apparent Sniper. But before they can really do anything are hit by one of his shots thanks to a reflective red orb and Piccolo has his arm taken off. We soon see that these red orbs are shot by this huge red tub of lard and the Snipers blasts go through him and the orbs which our heroes soon realize with teamwork. Creating a smokescreen Gohan and Piccolo slowly put together the pieces of this puzzle but are attacked as even with the smokescreen can be seen with heat seeking eyes. Even after this the two still continue to stand there and get shot at once again which transitions to more repeat Animation starring Zeno and The Grand Priest repeatedly.
Finally we get the star of this episode Tien who quickly warns Goku and Vegeta to get down to which the latter brushes off before nearly getting his ass blasted to oblivion . Back with father and son Piccolo now knows what it feels like to lose both his arms because him and Gohan didn’t dodge. Having a brilliant idea Piccolo and Gohan heat up the area around them to fool the red fuckers sight but immediately becomes useless as he now just shoots everyone all at once. Seeing the red guy is causing the reflections Goku and Vegeta go to stop him while Tien runs through the area like he’s Rambo. Blasting at the red ogre both Saiyans are surprised that he can reflect Ki even though they saw him do it 10 seconds ago. Guess Goku isn’t the only one to have brain damage. Lardass then proceeds to explain why he has trapped them and instead of using that time to run up and simply punch him or use a Kiai instead Goku and Vegeta go. “Damn we sure ran into that trap.”
We then learn the name of the Sniper Hermila who looks like a green Howard the Duck as he shoots out another wave of Ki. Seeing Hermila Tien creates four clones of himself and instead of using any protection or trying to sneak up on him as he hadn’t been paying attention to them. Tien instead decides to just run at the guy out in the open like he’s a main character and gets his ass destroyed tanking the attacks instead of actually trying to dodge them. Hell even FUCKING GOKU uses better strategy which simply amounts to chucking rocks at his opponent. Getting close enough to Hermila Tien uses a Tri-Beam and now has him dead to right. Now of course a smart fighter would still keep their guard up and take down their enemy quickly before they can try anything else. What does Tien do? Walks right up to the guy and gives him a chance to fight back which ends with Tien and Hermila eliminating each other.
And the episode tries to hide this burial of Tien who let me remind you is a master strategist and Martial Artist who has fought for decades and has his own school yet got eliminated like a fucking amateur yet the show tries to hide this by having Beerus be impressed which just devalues the Roshi moment from last episode as it just makes the guy look like he would respect you if you managed to wipe your ass. Hell even Vegeta basically sums up Tiens worth in this Arc in three words when Goku comments on his elimination. “It doesn’t matter.” And then both Rota and the red guy who never got a name reveal are eliminated ending this shit episode. This episode managed to ruin any goodwill I gained after Episode 105.
The story was absolute filler, offered no development for any character, and only managed to waste everyone’s time and effort who bothered to watch this shitty episode or make this episode. For the writers who made this episode you deserve to be fired for this travesty in every sense of the word. It feels like someone came up with this episode then after throwing it in the garbage because it was obviously an awful idea Toei dug it out of the trash and then decided to make it into an episode without creating a second draft to iron out the problems. Everything in this episode amounted to less than nothing and I can say with all my heart this episodes story manages to get my first a 0/10 it has no positives only negatives and if anyone has a problem with my rating than I challenge you to tell me what was the point of this episode besides nothing.
Characters
And if you believed the characters would fare much better oh ho ho ho boy are you wrong. This was apparently supposed to be Tiens crowning moment in this Tournament. That finally Tien one of my top 5 characters in this Arc would get his moment in the sun. Instead I watched Tien get sucked into a Black Hole as Toriyama is saying. “Lol you thought Tien was going to be portrayed well fuck that!” And then proceeded to kick me in the balls. Everything Tien did in this episode was as stupid. He charged at the Sniper of Universe 2 then proceeded to let his guard down and got eliminated like a chump. Somehow this episode about Tien had more screen time for Piccolo and Gohan who did nothing of value than the actual focus!
Goku somehow comes off smarter yet even him and Vegeta are idiots as they blasted at the guy who they saw reflect Ki and then didn’t try to punch him or use their other attacks but instead throw rocks. Gohan and Piccolo act both smart and incredibly stupid and any plan they came up with turned out to be absolutely useless making their presence in this Episode pointless. Hermila and the red tub of lard are nothing but fodder with no character and only serve to drag down the already piss poor characterization. Also Rota served no purpose and was just a waste of a possible cool ability. None of the characters are portrayed well and the only reason the antagonists get anywhere is because seems to act like morons instead of actual smart fighters with decades of experience. There were at least one or two neat points as while his plan failed Piccolo did come up with a pretty genius plan and I got a kick out of the rock throwing. So i’ll be a little generous and give this a 2/10.
Animation
Finally we come to the Animation as there was no Fighting in this one just people running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The Animation was laughable at best with characters being off model a good amount and them at times looking like circus freaks instead of actual people. Need I remind you of Vegeta’s Big Hands Mode or their faces looking just weird. It’s obvious not even the Animators care about this shitfest of an episode and that they just wanted to get it done. For any Animator working on this episode I do not blame you I pity that you had to waste your time and effort on making Animation for such a crappy product. I can only hope that you guys can go on to work for bigger and better things. Back to the Animation the explosions look pretty generic not really giving any feeling when someone gets hit as it just looks like the same damn explosion we’ve seen 300 times. The Animation isn’t bad just mediocre or below average at best which is probably the most positive thing about this episode as it earns a 4/10.
 Final Verdict
This episode was absolute garbage in almost every way imaginable except the Animation which even then isn’t exactly top notch. The story is pointless and only buries everyone in it, The characters look like morons and the antagonists for this episode have no character at all and only manage to come off as boring jobbers who should never have given our heroes so much trouble. This episode is quite possibly the worst Super episode and ranks up there with Episode 5, Episode 24, and Episode 67. I give this train wreck of an Episode a 2/10 it offers nothing of value and only misery.
Comment your opinions below … Did you like this garbage of an Episode ? 
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duhragonball · 5 years
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Dragon Ball 131
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These next two episodes are about the guys getting drunk and trying to fight a volcano.   That sounds pretty incredible, but as Dragon Ball episodes go, this one’s kind of “meh”.  
Let’s get this out of the way first, while Goku’s pals are looking for Korin’s Tower, Goku is training on Kami’s Lookout.   Throughout Episodes 131 and 132, he’s playing tag with Mr Popo.   
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The point of this exercise is to demonstrate that you can use ki senses to detect a person’s position, even when blindfolded.   Also, a person can suppress their ki, making it difficult for another ki adept to find them.   Since Goku hasn’t learned this ability yet, he cannot escape Popo...
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... nor can he catch Popo when it’s his turn to be “it”.   These Popo training sessions frustrated me the first time I watched them, because Goku seems to get absolutely nowhere, and Mr. Popo doesn’t seem particularly concerned about helping him improve.   But now I see that the point here is that we’re only seeing maybe the first couple of weeks of Goku’s three-year training program.    Presumably, if he keeps doing these exercises, he’ll eventually start to catch on.   A year from now he’ll manage to catch Popo a couple of times, and in two years  he’ll be so good at this tag game that they’ll have to move him on to something more advanced.  
But there’s something to be said for hammering home the idea that this was not easy for Goku.    He mastered Korin’s training in only three days, and while Master Roshi’s training was arduous, he still pulled it off without a lot of trouble.   I think Toei wanted us to see just how tough it was for Goku, to emphasize how impressive he is or having mastered all this training at the 23rd Budokai. 
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Anyway, most of these two episodes are about Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu.   Roshi challenged them to train like Goku did, so Tien came up with the bright idea of seeking out Korin’s Tower, since Goku went there and it did wonders for him.  
The thing I don’t get about that is that Korin trained Goku before Tien fought him, and Tien won.    When Goku went back for more training, Korin admitted that he had nothing left to teach Goku, because he had already surpassed Korin.   In other words, I’m pretty sure Tien would meet Korin and find that he had wasted his time.   He’d capture the Sacred Water on the first try, and of course it would do nothing for him. 
That said, I’ve always found it dubious whenever Roshi or Korin says they have nothing more to teach, simply because a student has surpassed them in raw power.   I’m pretty sure both of them know more about ki manipulation than their students do.   Korin can walk up walls like Spider-Man.    Roshi has that trick he used to paralyze Goku in the 21st Budokai.   Maybe those kinds of skills aren’t worth learning past a certain level, but I think Krillin wouldn’t mind knowing some of those tricks.
Anyway, while the boys camp out for the night, Tien hears drums, and Chiaotzu just zones out for no apparent reason.
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Then he predicts something bad will happen. 
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The next day, they head onward, and run into a bunch of guys dressed in Halloween masks.
At first Krillin was like:
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Then one of them unmasks to reveal a cute girl, and then he was like:
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The deal is that these villagers worship a mountain god, and their big annual festial is going on, so that’s why all the drums and the masks and such.
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Spoiler alert: It’s actually a volcano.
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There’s a martial arts competition at the festival, because it’s Dragon Ball, and there’s a martial arts competition in everything.
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The villagers invite the boys to get their drink on.   Krillin says he can’t because he’s underage, but somebody tells him it’s just fruit juice, so he goes for it.   When is it ever really just fruit juice?
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The local champion notices that the visitors look pretty tough, so he challenges Tien to a match, but Krillin drunkenly insists on fighting instead.   Then he finds out that the champion is Mint’s brother.   Krillin sort of horses around, and then he knocks the guy out of the ring with a single blow.
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Then Chiaotzu spoils everyone’s fun by announcing that the mountain is about to explode.   Learn to read the room, Chiaotzu.
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The big idol in the middle of town almost falls on Mint, so Krillin catches it so they can run to safety.   
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The village elder, who is also Mint’s grandfather, refuses to evacuate with the others, because he thinks the solution is to appease the mountain god through prayer.    Well, if he’s angry, I’m pretty sure it’s because he’s actually a volcano god, and you’ve been calling him a mountain god this whole time.   He may not even be that mad about it, but an eruption was the only way to get the message across.
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Tien sees this whole disaster as an opportunity.   He’s gonna use his power to stop the lava flow from destroying the village.
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Yamcha’s like: “Wow, bro, that’s wack!”  And Tien’s all: “Yeah, but think of the sick gains I can make if I pull this off!”    So Yamcha’s like: “I’m in, bro.”
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[Jackass Theme plays in the background.]
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duhragonball · 5 years
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Variations on a Theme
My fanfic is long enough that I start to worry that I may be repeating myself in places.   In particular, I feel like the villains sort of run together, although that’s arguably true for any long-running story.   Lots of people get the Joker and the Riddler mixed up, for example.   Your standard Batman villains are all going to play off the same themes: fear, chaos, power, dual-identity, genius, etc.   Some of them are bound to overlap eventually.  
I thought about how this works with Dragon Ball’s villains.   In general, I feel like the major bad guys manage to be pretty distinct from each other, even though they’re basically all doing the same things.  I guess I should make a list.  Note that I don’t really have a firm definition of “major bad guy,” so if your fave didn’t make the cut, I wouldn’t read too much into that.
Emperor Pilaf: Wants to use the Dragon Balls to wish for world domination.   He seems kind of lazy and unfocused at first glance, but when you think about it, he puts a lot of time and effort into his goals.   It’s like he thinks Dragon Ball hunting is the quickest, easiest way to get what he wants, but it never actually works out that way, and he never seems to notice.  
Red Ribbon Army: I’m sort of lumping General Blue and the other RR officers into this one.   They’re all cruel and ruthless in their search for the Dragon Balls, but they’re only doing it in service to a larger cause.   For most of the Red Ribbon Saga, it’s assumed that the Army wants to wish for world domination, just like Pilaf, because what else could they possibly want?    But you have to figure that a guy like General White wouldn’t be much better off before or after that kind of a wish.    He’d still be assigned to some Red Ribbon outpost, carrying out the will of his superiors.   He’d probably be richer and more powerful in a world ruled by the Red Ribbon Army, but in the end he’s doing it all for espirit de corps. 
Mercenary Tao: He’s just in it for the money, and I suspect the money is really just a way for him to keep score, since his rates are so high that he’s he’s probably already a rich man.   Besides, he never pays for anything, so what does he need with money anyway?  Tao’s the first bad guy who’s so strong that he can just do whatever he wants.    He’s like a one-man Red Ribbon Army in that sense.   As an individual, he doesn’t have to worry about angry superiors or unruly subordinates.   I suppose his only real overriding motivation is his pride, as he refuses to accept defeat at the hands of Goku, even though he has no particular reason to keep fighting him.
Commander Red: The big twist of the Red Ribbon arc is when Staff Officer Black finds out that Red only wanted the Dragon Balls to become taller.   You’d think he’d rather have his right eye healed, but nope.   This is where we find out all the RR guys have been fighting for a completely meaningless objective.   The Army is already rich and powerful, and one could argue that they practically rule the world anyway, since they can more or less do as they please.   I think Red’s quest to become taller demonstrates that they’ve already peaked as a world power.   With nothing else to accomplish, Red’s applying his accumulated power on selfish desires.  
Tien Shinhan: Essentially, he’s just a patsy for the Crane Hermit, who in turn is out to avenge the death of Mercenary Tao, who in fact isn’t even dead.   I suppose Tien’s character arc in the 22nd Budokai is really just him waking up to the fact that his whole life is pointless.    He’s just stealing and killing for other people’s benefit, not unlike Tao’s mercenary career.    His power was impressive, but his victories over Yamcha and Jackie Chun were empty, and his victory over Goku would have been empty as well if he hadn’t repudiated the Crane school during the fight.  
King Piccolo/Piccolo Junior: I guess the big difference with King Piccolo is that he already ruled the world fifty years ago, and now that he’s been unsealed, he’s going to pick up where he left off.   Also, we eventually learn that he’s the evil side of Kami, and if one dies the other will cease to exist.   That puts an interesting spin on his villainy, since his greatest enemy can never truly be defeated.  Not unlike the Biblical Satan, his plan is to just to defile creation as much as he can until his inevitable end.   Like Tien, there’s a certain pointlessness to his brand of evil, which probably contributed to his reform.   I like to think that when Piccolo Junior became a martial artist, he began to appreciate the discipline and sportsmanship of it, to the point where he began to think of Goku an company as peers to be respected, instead of enemies to be destroyed.   And, as Kami observed, training Gohan was a way for Piccolo to leave a legacy behind, something he could never do as a Demon King.
Raditz: Really, Raditz only came to Earth to recruit Goku for a battle on some other planet.  What sets the DBZ villains apart is that they don’t even care about the Earth at all, and only see it as a stepping stone to some larger goal.  Upon learning about the Dragon Balls, he believed that his comrades would use them to bring him back to life.
Nappa: Not unlike Raditz, in the sense that he probably would have used the Dragon Balls to wish him back to life.  Nappa’s thought of breeding a race of Saiyan-Earthling hybrids suggests that he had some lofty dreams of his own for the future, but he was happy to put them aside when Vegeta suggested something more selfish. 
Vegeta: The first guy to think of wishing for immortality.   The key difference between Vegeta and past villains is that he’s not just looking for a way to conquer a particular empire, or to kill lots of people.   He’s thinking ahead to battles he wants to fight in the future (i.e. Frieza), and he wants to keep conquering and killing forever.   I don’t think Vegeta ever truly wanted to be immortal for its own sake, but he saw it as a way to hedge his bets, in case he ever bit off more than he could chew. 
All of Frieza’s henchmen: In a nutshell, they serve Frieza because they see that as the only way forward in a universe where Frieza is the strongest mortal in it.   There’s no freedom from Frieza, only freedom through Frieza, and your Zarbons and Captain Ginyus thrive in the organization by doing their jobs very well.  They think the universe is an extremely simple equation because of this, and they’re always shocked and horrified to learn that they’re mistaken. 
Frieza: Basically all of the previous bad guys rolled into one.   He already rules the universe, by virtue of being the strongest guy in it, so he’s a lot like Red, Tao, and Piccolo on Earth.  He seeks immortality like Vegeta, but it almost feels like Red’s wish to become taller.    Frieza doesn’t really have anything else to wish for, you know?   He also planned to destroy Namek after getting his wish, just as Piccolo did when he got his youth restored, and he became a revenge-obsessed cyborg like Tao. 
Garlic Junior:  Okay, he’s filler, but I still think he’s cool.    Garlic sort of doubled down on the whole “evil-for-evil’s-sake” gimmick that King Piccolo represented.   Unlike Piccolo, he’s not the evil half of anybody, and he’s not just looking to torment everyone on Earth.   Instead, his plan is to convert everyone on Earth to his cause, using the Black Water Mist.   I get the sense that none of this was really headed anywhere specific.    He spoke of resurrecting his dead father, but I have no idea what the purpose of that would be when he had already conquered the Earth and overthrown his enemies.   He reminds me a lot of Pilaf, and I almost wonder if Garlic is supposed to represent what Pilaf could have become if he’d tried a little harder, or stooped a little lower.
Dr. Gero: Revenge personified.    Akira Toriyama later established that Gero lost his son in the destruction of the Red Ribbon HQ, and that’s why he wanted revenge on Goku so badly, and that’s fine and all, though I liked the original implication that he just really, really liked the Red Ribbon Army as a concept, like a middle-aged wrestling fan who really misses WCW.   You could argue that Gero is the most nihilistic villain of the set, as his revenge plot involves multiple long term schemes, some of them arranged beyond his expected lifespan, and none of them were particularly concerned about the fate of the Earth.  
Androids 17, 18, and 19: I’m assuming that 19 had some semblance of free will here.   None of these three had any stake in Gero’s plot, but they didn’t really have anything else going for them either.   I’m pretty sure 19 stuck with Gero because he wanted to be on the winning side, and maybe because Gero was the more powerful of the two.    By contrast, 17 and 18 turned on him at the first opportunity, and wandered around for a while before turning good.   Their counterparts in the Future Trunks timeline never reformed, which I always assumed was they were driven mad by boredom.    Of course, they were always designed to be fodder for Cell, so in a sense they were trapped in Gero’s vendetta whether they wanted to be or not. 
Cell (The Best Villain): He’s a lot like Frieza if he had actually wished for immortality.   What would Frieza have done next?   Well, he’d probably sip wine and gloat for another hundred million years, so maybe this analogy doesn’t hold up.   The point is that Cell was designed to fulfil a very specific set of objectives, making him stronger than everyone, and then he just sort of had nothing else to do.    It’s very similar to Tien and Mercenary Tao’s lack of purpose, but since Cell is an inhuman monster, there’s no guarantee that he’d eventually  get sick of killing and destroying everything.  
Babidi: He’s a lot like Commander Red, Frieza, Garlic, and Dr. Gero, in that he relies on others to do his dirty work.   You know, that’s actually a pretty long list.  All five of these dudes use different forms of manipulation to control their underlings.    Babidi uses mind control, and I suppose Garlic does too, though the Black Water Mist isn’t quite so well-defined.   Gero seems to be able to program his cyborgs to varying degrees of complaince.   Frieza uses on intimidation and cult of personality, and Commander Red seems to rely on military hierarchy and a sense of “we’re all in this together”.       Babidi is more direct about it.   If he wants someone on his team, he just uses his magic and makes them join his team, whether they would have shared his objectives or not.  He also wants revenge like Dr. Gero, and he has dreams of ruling the universe like several other past villains, but all of that seems to take a back seat to reviving Majin Buu.    That seems to be what makes him stand out.   Mind control is a bit cliche, but the real hook to Babidi is what he’s trying to use it to accomplish.   Each guy he brings to his side is just cannon fodder for winning the next guy, until he can finally get Buu on his team.   I’m pretty sure he could conquer the universe and kill the Supreme Kai with Dabura and Vegeta alone, but he can’t stand the thought of not having Buu on his team.  Except Majin Buu’s the one bad guy he can’t control.   If he had just left that one go, he would have been unstoppable.  Instead, he pushed too far and lost it all.
Majin Buu: This guy gets a lot of criticism for being short on personality, but I think that’s the point.   He’s a weapon, like Cell, and he’s even more devoid of purpose than the Crane School guys, King Piccolo, or the Androids.   He’s basically a walking natural disaster, practically begging the universe to stop him.   I never really thought about it before, but he’s a lot like Tien’s run as a villain.  Like, Tien met Majin Buu in the middle of that arc, and you’d never make that connection during that encounter, but it really is a similar kind of situation.  They both needed somebody to slap some sense into ‘em.
I thought about moving on to the villains from GT and Super, but this is pretty long already, so I’ll just call it here.  I think I’ve seen what I needed to see anyway.   A lot of these guys have similar power-sets and motivations.   Babidi and Dr. Gero are very similar in the sense that their revenge plans end up summoning an unstoppable weapon and unleashing it upon a defenseless Earth.  
But the difference lies in the details.   For Gero, Perfect Cell was Plan C or D, a failsafe he never expected to live long enough to see in action.    Plan A was to tackle Goku in person by becoming an android himself, and everything else that happened was because of his initial failure to accomplish this.    Majin Buu, on the other hand, was Babidi’s first and only goal.    As much as he wanted to get revenge on the Surpreme Kai, he seemed much more fixated on Buu.   Killing the Kai was just a way to clear a path to Buu, or a fun thing to do with Buu once he got him. 
This also puts some parallels in stark contrast.   When 17 kills Dr. Gero, it’s superficially similar to Buu killing Babidi.   The difference, though, is that Gero never trusted 17, and he was only activating him out of desperation.    Babidi really thought he had Buu figured out, and then he lowered his guard for just a moment and paid the ultimate price.    Which is ironic when you think about it, because we don’t usually think of Buu as being treacherous or sneaky.    17 comes across that way sometimes, but he’s pretty up front about his intentions.   Gero wasn’t exactly surprised when 17 turned on him.
And this is why I get pissed off when people who don’t watch the show try to dismiss it as the same thing over and over.   It’s not the same thing over and over, but the only way to be convinced of that is to take the time to sit down and experience Dragon Ball in depth.    I don’t like football, but I’m not gonna buy into the tired old joke of it being a bunch of guys running around in tight pants.   I have no idea how football works, but I’m not gonna pretend that there isn’t some deeper appeal, or that there’s no tactical or athletic contest going on, simply because I don’t like it.  A lot of people enjoy it, so there must be something to it, even if it’s not for me.   I just haven’t taken the time to study it.
Anyway, I’m concluding from this that I should probably take the time to study my own work, and maybe that would help me to shake some of these confidence issues.    I can talk myself into believing that my writing is better than I think it is, but maybe I need to analyze that in detail, and actually write the analysis down instead of letting it swirl around endlessly in my head.    I’ve always resisted this sort of thing because it feels like an ego trip, but maybe it’s been the opposite all along...
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