A Dragon Ball Fanboy vs Akira Toriyama and Toei part 5: The Right Way To Power a Character Up! (round two)

This post is a direct continuation of my last post, part 4 in A Dragon Ball Fanboy vs. Akira Toriyama: http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-dragon-ball-fanboy-vs-akira-toriyama.html.

In the last part, I ran with the theory of all the Z fighters including all the human protagonists getting serious about protecting the Earth after Frieza's last invasion.  To that end, I had included Piccolo and Tien training on King Kai's planet and mastering several levels of the Kaioken.  Piccolo took the training and used it as a basis for the rest of his training and Tien did the same.

Now also in that last scenario, I had other humans train with Tien.  My list of humans that trained with King Kai were Tien, Yamcha, and Chiaotzu but this time they were joined by Krillin, #18 aka Lazuli, and Master Roshi for some good ol' fashioned perverted comic relief and cuz it'd be cool to see two of Goku's old masters getting together and recollecting the journey that the Saiyan fighter has blazed throughout the years.

Now for this to work, I'll have to move forward in the timeline a bit from my last post a few weeks ago.  Dragon Ball Super has changed the catalyst for all my powerups by having Piccolo get revived instantly, thusly he doesn't go training on Kai's planet in the afterlife right after his death.  However, that's not to say that the humans have no motivation to seek out Kai.  So I'll say that this power boost happens during either the few months timeskip between RoF and the U6 Tournament or it happens after the U6 tournament.

Krillin  

Motivation: To be his wife's equal in protecting their family and to make a difference in defending Earth.

The battle against Frieza changes something in all of the human Z-Fighters, especially Krillin.  Things change when the bad guys start bringing thousands of soldiers to the party.  In order to be of more use and better prepared for similar invasions in the future Krillin and Tien meet and have a discussion about Earth's protection.  What should happen if Goku was stuck in space like he was with Frieza latest trip to Earth.  Tien and Krillin agree that it can't be helped if some monster like Frieza comes.  The wise old perverted Master Roshi overhears them, as does #18 and there is a tense frustration within the group.  #18 gets upset that the men have abandoned their fighting spirits in the face of powerful opponents.  It sparks a fire in everyone, Roshi included.  Tien mentions that he never completed his training under King Kai, despite being there for who knows how long.  Krillin tells him that he never trained with the North Galaxy ruler.  Tien mentions Kai's training regiment and the 10x gravity on his planet.  Roshi, Tien, Krillin, and even 18 all agree that they need to train hard.  They telepathically call out to King Kai and he agrees to train them all again.  They tell Yamcha about it and of course Chiaotzu learns about it as well.  They leave Marron with Gohan and Videl for a while, while they go off to train.  They go to the lookout and Dende takes them to the start of Snake Way.

Now let's get to the training.  The experience of high gravity is new to Krillin so he initially has to adjust to that.  We see in an earlier saga that Piccolo, being stronger than Goku when he first arrived, has no trouble at all with the gravity.  But later on Gohan, whose power blows them both out the water at the time, still struggled with the high gravity.  So I think Krillin would struggle for a bit too.  After he gets used to the gravity, he begins to spar with Yamcha.  He also notices that Tien is doing some advanced stuff over with King Kai, including a move he saw Goku use a few times, the Kaioken.  Krillin and Yamcha get a lot stronger and they watch as Tien goes one on one with #18 while trying out his new technique.  Krillin wonders how Tien has always been so strong, how they've been neck in neck in power even when Krillin had gotten much of his potential unlocked.  He even curses himself for slacking off, guessing that Tien has already surpassed him.  He asks Tien to spar with him and Tien proves that he is the superior fighter even still.  Krillin continues his training and sees that Tien's boosts in power are getting even greater.  It's something to do with the technique that King Kai has taught him.  Even though he still loses to #18 Tien still puts up a much better fight than he did before, even surprising her at a few points.  Krillin is now motivated to learn the Kaioken.  He remembers when Goku used it against Nappa.

By Maffo1989

Krillin learns the Kaioken but quickly learns that his body can only take a certain amount of strain.  Tien seems to be able to boost himself to insane degrees with it, almost like a Saiyan, all thanks to his comfort with life-or-death techniques.  Krillin eventually overcomes his initial x5 limit and is able to max out his Kaioken at x10.  He uses his Kaioken in conjunction with his other techniques like the Scatter Kamehameha to create some devastating combinations.  He challenges Tien again and they have an even match with the x10 Kaioken, with Krillin having a bit of an edge in their fight.  Krillin knows that Tien can push himself upwards to x50 but Krillin is satisfied with being able to use the Kaioken to amplify his own techniques to even greater levels rather than his body.  In this way, Krillin becomes the technique master that he is destined to become in Dragon Ball Online.

#18

Motivation: To protect her husband and daughter from universal threats using the power she was cursed with.

Continuing from Krillin's path, #18 starts her training journey in a bit of a rut.  Because she is so much stronger than the others she doesn't initially gain as much as they do from the training.  The gravity barely affects her movements so she doesn't have to get accustomed to it like Krillin.  Tien mainly uses #18 as a sparring partner to gauge his progress.  Master Roshi tries to cop a few feels under the guise of training with her.  He also teaches her some turtle school techniques like the Kamehameha.  During this training we learn some unique things about #18 source of energy.  King Kai refers to her "ki" as unnatural but states that he can feel it buzzing all around her in an endless cycle.  He has her demonstrate by shooting a ki blast and when she does he notes that her energy source replenishes itself almost instantly.  He then has he use a bigger blast, the Kamehameha that Master Roshi was taught her.  She uses a huge blast and King Kai notices that her energy returns a little more slowly when she expends it on a large ki draining technique.

By OPunkreas

#18 decides to have a spar against all of Kai's students like Piccolo did during the Namek Arc.  She goes through everyone mostly with ease until Tien and Krillin get serious and use their x10 Kaioken.  She commends them for getting so much stronger but tells them that the still have a long way to go until she is nearly defeated by Tien's x50 Kaioken until King Kai stops the fight due to Tien's overexertion.  Now with two suitable sparring partners, #18 can finally increase her physical strength through intense sparring.  After seeing how strong Tien and Krillin have gotten with the Kaioken, #18 tries to get Kai to teach it to her as well.  Kai states that #18 can't learn the Kaioken because it would create an unstable effect with her type of energy.  He teaches her some of the properties of the Kaioken to help her form a version of it that is a little weaker but lacks the ki and body strain.  She learns to at least double her strength with a technique she calls "Heating Up."  She continues her training with Krillin on Earth and they both continue to hone their skills.  There's also potential for #18 to even get an upgrade from Bulma and her dad.  There's literally limitless potential to her character.  We just don't know about the limits of science and her type of energy in Dragon Ball.  Maybe both her and android #17 can come back and get a power up to defend the Earth.

Trunks

 

By EmiyanSaiyan

Motivation: Wants his dad to be proud of him and wants to be able to defend the Earth like Gohan did when he was younger.

In the latest episode of DBS, Vegeta told Trunks that the little warrior couldn't compete in the tournament because he needed to strengthen himself as opposed to relying on fusion.  This combined with the fact that his mother recently told him and Goten about the battle with Cell and the Androids.  Trunks was baffled to hear that his future self was so strong, even stronger than Piccolo and about as strong as Vegeta.  This sparks a desire in him to get much stronger.

Now at this point strengthening up Goten and Trunks goes against what was established with the End of DBZ,  Trunks and Goten are shown to have slacked off, with them being scared of fighting Buu in the tournament.  But since they've already produced a retcon in Super (Goku telling Vegeta about Uub when he seemingly first told him about Uub in the EoZ tournament) I simply don't care.  We're also never told exactly how strong the boys have become so let's go ahead and power them up.

By Cauai-desu

Trunks and Goten are the perfect sparring partners.  Both are Saiyans, both are sons of proud warriors, both are competitive and have a rivalry, and both are the best of friends.  They can and will always be able to push each other to new limits when it comes to training together.  Both boys train amongst themselves in the days leading up to the U6 tournament and after the tournament is over they ask their fathers to train them.  This training lasts for a little while until Goku and Vegeta get caught up in their own training again.  The boys then turn to Gohan, who they notice is getting a lot stronger than he was against the Evil Majin Buu on his own.  Gohan teaches the boys the basics and then spars with them from time to time.  They do this almost daily and all of them benefit from the training.  Goten and Trunks benefit the most and they manage to raise their levels past Gohan's when he fought against Cell by unlocking Super Saiyan 2.  The boy's next goal is to unlock Super Saiyan 3 and get stronger on their own than they were as Gotenks.  They get bored with this however and ask their fathers about Super Saiyan God.  Now here's where we'll go with different paths for the boys to make things interesting.

By Immateengohan

Path 1: Goku and Vegeta see that the boys are making some major gains in strength and decide to take them under their wing and teach them about SSG (Super Saiyan God) in order to prepare for a looming threat.  Together Goku and Vegeta teach Trunks and Goten how to control their ki in order to harness God Mode.  The boys attain SSB (Super Saiyan Blue) and are right under Goku and Vegeta's level.

Path 2: Half Saiyans can't become SSG.  Goku and Vegeta tell the boys this and they are forced to go back to their original Super Saiyan 3 training.  The boys easily become SSJ3's because their bodies remember the feeling of the form from being fused.  They consider it a dumb form because it makes them tired to quickly and so they fused into Gotenks in order to get some better ideas about transforming.  As Gotenks they discover a form similar to Super Saiyan 4 that powers them up greatly.  The boys keep this a secret until the next big villain where they reveal their new form that they called Super Omega Gotenks.

By hddragonballafhd

Path 3: Gohan teaches the boys the path he has taken to Godhood.  He teaches them Elder Kai's method of gaining god ki and they power up tremendously with relaxed "base forms".  They can then power up in Super Saiyan form though the multiplier isn't the same since they can already access most of their power in base form.

Path 4: The boys give up once they master SSJ2 and start relying on Gotenks again, but he's a lot stronger now, able to keep up with God Level fighters.  At this point they start slacking off, slowly becoming their End of Z selves.

Goten 

By Vicdbz

Motivation: Wants to be able to defend the Earth without fusion like his older brother did and father did.  Wants to train with Trunks.

Goten's training journey is the same as Trunks'. Also, it would be cool if he decided to mimic Yamcha's fighting style as he grew older, since he looks similar to him and chases girls like him at the end of Z.  That's the closest we'd get to a Saiyan Yamcha lol.

Yamcha

Motivation: Wants to be able to lend a hand when the Earth is in danger.  Training with Tien, Krillin, and Chiaotzu reminds him of the old days reigniting old rivalries.

I don't have much for Yamcha.  I used to believe in the guy but he seems to fade away more and more with each new arc.  Continuing from the Krillin powerup, we have a Yamcha who is determined to get stronger no matter what.  As always, however, he still greatly lags behind both Krillin and Tien.  His gains will be great, just like theirs.  I believe he can master the Kaioken very well but I don't think his mastery will approach the same levels as Krillin or Tien, neither will his application of the technique to his other techniques.  I can see Yamcha maxing out his Kaioken at a x5, which is half of what I had for Krillin.  So Yamcha can get pretty powerful, but I can't see him catching up with the other two especially Tien who never stops training and Krillin who had his potential unlocked and who spars with a Super Saiyan level opponent in his wife.  It would be cool if Yamcha focused on his speed more so that he would be the fastest Earthling fighter, you know, something to call his own.  Imagine a high speed wolf fang assault from the master of the Wolf Fang Fist.  T'would be baddass!  Maybe afterwards he can train Goten, like I alluded to above.  It wouldn't make a ton of sense--well no it would--since Goku seems more interested in training foreign children who are the reincarnation of ancient demons anyway.  Yamcha and Goten could be like a bro version of Gohan and Piccolo.  I'd watch that spinoff.

Chiaotzu 

Motivation: Tags along with Tien and wants to be of use to him.

I really don't have much to say for Chiaotzu.  Maybe I shouldn't have even added him to the training, but we all know that wherever Tien goes, Chiaotzu follows.  Chiaotzu should also be fairly above Master Roshi so it'll be interesting to see if Roshi can catch up to him at least.  Chiaotzu may secretly be a badass though.  He was on Kai's planet almost as long as Tien was, but Tien usually leaves him behind during hectic encounters.  IDK this one's tough.  Chaiotzu does get much stronger but I don't see him learning Kaioken.  He seems rather delicate when you get right down to it.  But I do think he can at least get strong enough to wipe the floor with Ginyu level goons, if he's not already.

Master Roshi 

Motivation: Even though his fighters have long since left him in the dust, he wants to be able to better defend his planet against the likes of ruthless aliens like Frieza's soldiers.

Roshi is training again, what more can I say?  Roshi reveals that he's been secretly training this whole time on Earth to which Yamcha, Tien, and Krillin all go "duh" collectively after his good showing against many of Frieza's soldiers.  Master Roshi has a difficult time with the gravity since he's so old and he still wears his weighted turtle shell.  He gets to Kai's planet later than the others since he still can't fly.  He gains a lot of strength just from running down the entirety of Snake Way.  His power jumps from the mid-hundreds to the mid-thousands like the boys' did when they first trained with King Kai.  Roshi also helps the boys refine their technique, teaching Yamcha and Krillin the buff form as a way to release massive amounts of their own power.  He also teaches #18 the Kamehameha Wave.  Even with this training session, the master isn't able to surpass his students and he is unable to learn the Kaioken thanks to his old body.  Roshi does take what he's learned from Kaio back to Earth to advance his Turtle School style.

Welp, that ladies and gents is my list of how to power up some fan favorite characters.  What I really don't like about new Dragon Ball, from the Buu saga onwards, is how they neuter so many fan favorite characters just to progress the plot and a handful of Saiyans.  Goku and Vegeta need powerful allies and even if their allies aren't quite as strong as they are, these warriors should not just stop their quest for martial mastery and perfection.

Well anyways, thanks for reading my ramblings my glorious readers!  You all have a great weekend!

Dragon Ball Super and Team Universe 7: Piccolo and Buu (Gohan) part 2

Spoilers ahead for those who haven't read the latest chapters of the Dragon Ball Super manga by Toyotaro.  Read at your own risk.

Welp, it already looks like a few of my predictions were wrong.  To see those and get some giggles out of my lack of foresight, go ahead and check out this link http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2015/12/dragon-ball-super-and-team-universe-7.html.

Included was my idea that Buu would actually make it to the tournament.  He didn't even pass the written exam.  It was so predictable that even I didn't think Toriyama would go for it.  He did and sadly there's no Buu in the tournament despite the hype of him on the promotional materials.  So the poster should look more like this.

Nothing to see here, move along...

Yup, just four U7 fighters, as it always was. Good ol' Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, REDACTED, and Monaka *whistles and slowly walks away.*

Now with what he know of the end of Super's Fukkatsu no 'F' arc, let's see if we can figure out Piccolo's role.

Resurrection no 'P'

At the end of the Dragon Ball Super anime's Fukkatsu no 'F' arc, Piccolo is resurrected with the Namekian Dragon Balls not long after his death at Frieza's hand.  As you all should know at this point, he stepped in and took a blast from the tyrant that was aimed at his protege Gohan.  At the victory party, Gohan apologizes and earnestly asks Piccolo to retrain him so that he can protect his family.  Piccolo seems to agree, but tells Gohan that he'll have to properly retrain his weak body.  So now it seems that these two have a proper motivation to train.  Like many of you, I'm stuck wondering what will come of these results.  I did a post about ways Akira can power these characters up in an interesting way http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-dragon-ball-fanboy-vs-akira-toriyama.html but he's missed the window for the powerups I had for Piccolo in the after life.  So now what will he do?

More than 5 days to train

I'm relieved that my concerns about the manga and Piccolo's mere 5 day training window for this tournament seem to be old news now.  The anime presents us some evidence that a nice chunk of time has passed since the end of the FnF arc.  Krillin has had enough time to grow his hair back and Gohan has even changed hair styles.  So maybe some months have passed.  It's seemingly so since Goku and co. can use the Earth's Dragon Balls again.  So does this mean that Piccolo and Gohan have been diligently training in that time?  As is now shown in the preview for next week's episode, if they have been training with the sort of intensity shown in this gif then they both might just jump by several levels.  They are fighting like bitter enemies it looks like.  Look at how aggressively Piccolo is attacking.  I don't think he's holding anything back.

Training gains in Dragon Ball have always been wildly inconsistent.  Most of them are largely based on the plot.  But if a character is getting some screen time dedicated to intense training, usually they end up with a decent role in the the upcoming or current arc.  So with Piccolo and Gohan being the "B Team" of Dragon Ball Super, will something come of this?  That's the question many of you want to know, I suspect.  And the answer to that is yes in my opinion.  I don't think this nicely animated and well drawn action scene was just added to pad anything out.  I believe that this training session between two series favorites, who are the main defense Earth has behind Goku and Vegeta and who are leagues upon leagues behind the two in strength, will ultimately result in a substantial powerup for the both of them.

But how strong will they get?

That's definitely up in the air.  It wouldn't make a ton of sense for them to reach Goku and Vegeta levels in only a few months of training, especially when Goku and Vegeta are still constantly training.  I think this training will put both Gohan and Piccolo in a realm of power where they can both be recognized by Beerus and Whis.  As idiotic and crazy as it sounds, I think Piccolo will reach Super Saiyan 3 Goku levels.  I don't really know what's going on with Gohan though.  He should have already been way ahead of Super Saiyan 3 Goku, so is this training meant to get him back at that level?  Will he surpass the Vegeta who pushed Beerus to use 10% of his power?  I just don't know.

Predictions

My guess is Gohan will unlock something new.  It won't be Super Saiyan God or the blue haired form though.  It'll be something just for him and he'll be back in the second arc or whenever the hell sh** hits the fan in this arc to show off his new power.

Piccolo will maintain his role of outclassed badass, kinda like the Tien role in late Dragon Ball Z.  Though Tien is still a boss too for going hand to hand with the freakin' God of Destruction!  But I don't think Piccolo will reach the realm of Goku and Vegeta by any means and I also don't think he's being set up for it in a later arc.  I think AT just wants to make him a little stronger so that he can tag along with Goku and Vegeta and make some smart observations about their battles while also being able to lend a hand every once in a while in some small way.  It's a disappointing role to see for a Piccolo fan, but at least he's being utilized.

Anyways, that's my predictions about this latest arc and Piccolo and Gohan's role in it.  No, I don't think Gohan will fight in the tournament, but I do think he's being pushed for something later on.  Who knows, I've proven to be wrong before on calling the obvious.  But please, share your own thoughts, opinions, and theories below or just comment on mine.

As always, thanks for the browse, my glorious readers!

Indie Book Corner: Wick: The Spark Form Chronicles book 1 by Matt Doyle

Highly original, well written fusion of disparate ideas. Ties for the most creative book I’ve read this year along with Exurbia, by Alex McKechnie. 

Wick is what happens when you take wrestling...

...esports... 

...cyberpunk... 

...and of all things, Yugioh... 

And mix it in a blender on the highest setting. You’d think you’d get a mess with such a mix, but instead you get something quite rare and even a tad beautiful.

Wick starts in a very confusing way as we’re dropped right into the action with no explanations given. And the action we’re dropped into is...a beauty pageant...no it’s a setup for a wrestling match or something? Oh, it’s...a card game?

Though not clear at first, it’s soon revealed that all the POV characters are a part of some vast and very popular tournament style eSport called Spark Forming. This futuristic eSport uses digital cards as a medium to summon impressively dangerous and beautiful looking beasts and humanoids that do battle in digital arenas. Each of the tournament combatants has his or her own POV, with the exception of two or three characters. And there are certainly some memorable POVs and other characters in the book.

The Plot 

Here’s hoping that I succeed in not ruining or spoiling anything here. The plot revolves around several different mysteries as each character has his or her own reasons for participating in the tournament. Though what each character presents on the surface is not always their true intentions. On the surface everyone is in the tournament for fame, glory, and prize money. Though most of their goals seem to be for things outside the arena. It’s revealed that there is much more going on behind the scenes and Spark Forming may not be as innocent and fun as the world thinks it is. I think that’s all I can say without spoiling too much. It’s vague, I know, but each reveal in the plot was major to me so I reeeeeallly don’t want to spoil anything for anyone else. I’ll just add that there’s some really good character drama that heats up from the middle to the end and the plot comes together nicely as each character’s earlier behaviors are given more light.

The Arena Battles 

The futuristic eSport known as Spark Forming has several unique components to it that made it very unique to me. The first has to be the player entrances. Some of my favorite scenes in the book came from these entrances, which were reminiscent of professional wrestling to me. Each player would have their own music that was presented in this way:

“Song: Came Out Bruised (But Still Breathing) 

Band: Addicted to my Rut 

Genre: Grunge” 

And then once the player is out and ready to start the match you have EPIC summoning descriptions for the Spark Forms like:

“His scales, rippling gently as he breathes, glow a deep, fiery red, Punctuated only by the curious black markings adorning his back and tail. Dark as a starless night, they run the length of his body, forming a line of symmetry for the scimitar-like patterns that trace paths out from the spine.”

Then there are the battles themselves which are far faster, more ferocious, and bloodier than I imagined they’d be. The players themselves experienced some sort of fatigue from the battles along with their Spark Form creatures as each battle required them to be “plugged in” and to use much of their own fortitude along with physical and mental dexterity.

I liked the strategies formed for these matches and thought that the play-by-play by the announcers was a clever way to teach the reader how the game is played. I will say that this is where the book’s lack of exposition hurts it the most. These battles would be much more enjoyable if the ground rules were laid before many of these battles took place. Since I didn’t know how the game was really even played, I never had any sense as to who would win or lose until the very end, so I was never on the edge of my seat for any of the battles. It was more like watching a laser light show until the end and finally going “that was neat,” at the end of it. So I hope more is explained about the card game itself in future books. Maybe even a card list so that we can take note of potential strategies ahead of time. Even with that said, the creativeness of the battles was enough to enthrall me and those were some of the chapters I read through the quickest.

The Characters. 

Going hand in hand with the book’s uniqueness is the strength of each of Wick’s characters. As I said before there are many POVs in Wick, about five or seven if my memory serves and each character brings a unique perspective and rationale to the story. There were a few that I thought I’d dread reading in the beginning, but by the middle I must say that everyone had chapters that I looked forward to. It was mostly to unlock further mysteries in the story which everyone had fragments of, but I was surprised that a book with this many POVs didn’t really offer any weak links for me. Even A Song of Ice and Fire had those Sansa chapters that I freaking HATED, and many of the POVs in A Feast for Crows felt dry and pointless to me, but here, even with so many characters, I had a good time. If you’re anything like me you’ll really become a fan of John Forrester who’s just a fun character in every sense of the word. I kind of want to say more, but I prefer to leave some surprises.

The Quick and Dirty 

Dislikes: 

-Confusing beginning. A lot is being said without much context. You don’t know if you’re reading about a pageant, a card game, or wrestling.

-The extra POVs in the beginning only added to the confusion.

-Could use some better explanations on the cards and the game mechanics to get you more invested in the card game. -The game isn't explained clearly enough in the first few matches forcing you to pay close attention to each match to understand how its played.

Likes: 

+Cool mix of wrestling and Yugioh or whatever combat card game you like. I really liked the on-camera dramatic “promos.” It felt like the 80’s all over again.

+Highly imaginative.

+Cool characters.

+Loaded with intelligence at every turn including characters, dialogue, plot, and much more. +The wrestling references are too good.

+Brilliant creature design and fight choreography.

+eSports taken to the next level.

+Solid characterization.

+The announcers are a clever source of exposition.

+Spark form action is bloody brutal fast and intense. +In depth ideas and concepts, very well thought out, with great execution.

+John Forrester is a brilliant character. So are many others, but he is by far my favorite.

All in all, I have to say that I absolutely loved this book.  It was one that I had received by the author for review, but I have to say that it's a series that I look forward to reading more of.  My interest has been piqued with the mysteries, I have come to like the characters very much, and it's a unique world that I am interested in seeing more of.  I'll definitely be reading the sequels.  Don't just take my word for it.  Check out the book for yourselves with the links below.

Author's website: http://mattdoylemedia.com/
eBook: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011SG7TYO
Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Wick-Spark-Form-Chronicles-1/dp/1517128714/