"Bulma then calmly said, 'The truth is, I am awesome.'"
What If Bulma Trained Like Goku? is a Dragon Ball What If? fanfic by Lawrence Simpson aka MasakoX of Team Four Star fame as part of his Dragon Ball Discussion series of Youtube videos. This particular topic started on August 10th, 2019, and is the thirty-seventh entry in the overall series.
As the title suggests, he explores his interpretation of an alternate version of the story where Bulma is inspired to put herself on the front lines in her own special way. As of late August 2020, this series has covered all of the original Dragon Ball saga and has gone up to the start of the Android Saga.
You can find the playlist for it here
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See also Masako X - Dragon Ball What-If which explores other possibilities in the Dragon Ball verse.
What If Bulma Trained Like Goku? has the following tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion:
- Because Bulma takes an active role in fighting here, she plays a larger role in the battles.
- Thanks to being saved from being killed by Nappa, Yamcha and Piccolo get to play a role in Namek.
- In canon, Ginyu switched bodies with a frog, and aside from some non-canon filler, that was the end of it up until Super. Here, he switches with Bulma's armor, transferring his mind into it and becoming its AI.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Bulma opts to begin training after witnessing the 21st World's Martial Arts Tournament. She's later able to defeat Chichi in the 22nd World's Martial Arts Tournament. By the time Raditz shows up, her armor puts her on the same level as Goku and Piccolo. After getting to Namek, her base power is 2,000 and her suit multiplies that by 8x. She becomes even more powerful after Guru unlocks her potential.
- Yamcha is also stronger than canon thanks to training Bulma and surviving the Saiyan assault, getting gravity training alongside Bulma and Goku and also learns Kaio-ken. He also gets his potential unlocked by Guru.
- Piccolo, Krillin and Gohan get gravity training on the way to Namek, as well and also get their potential unlocked. Piccolo in particular manages to easily kill Recoome, then later a tag-team of Jeice and Burter. When Piccolo fuses with Nail, he's significantly stronger than his canon counterpart, since Nail was at full strength and wasn't severely injured as well as Piccolo having had his potential unlocked and kills off Second-form Freeza with a couple Special Beam Cannons.
- Adaptational Intelligence: While Bulma was already very smart, Guru unlocking her potential makes her even smarter than in canon.
- Adaptational Wimp: Goku doesn't get Super Saiyan or the zenkai boost after getting to Namek.
- Amazonian Beauty: The story is Bulma doing martial arts training and being much more muscular and utilizing Power Armor.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Piccolo easily defeats first Recoome and then Burter and Jeice after getting his potential unlocked.
- Later, he first beats down and then easily kills Freeza.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- Nappa is killed by Bulma and the Z Fighters, rather than Vegeta.
- Guldo, Recoome, Burter and Jeice are all killed by Piccolo.
- Freeza is killed by Piccolo as well.
- Dr. Gero gets killed rather abruptly by Krillin.
- Enemy Mine: Bulma convinces Ginyu to work with her as the suit.
- Genius Bruiser: Bulma possesses a genius level intellect and is a strong martial artist.
- Humongous Mecha: Realizing that the other Saiyans might be able to go Great Ape like Goku, Bulma builds a giant robot called the Saiyabuster to combat it. While not enough to defeat Oozaru Vegeta outright, it is enough to hold her own against him and buy Goku enough time to hit him with the Spirit Bomb.
- Kid from the Future: A time-traveler arrives to defeat King Cold with a superheated blade and nanobot-composed armor called the Androbuster. In part 10, he reveals his name to be Kombu, and he is confirmed by Piccolo to be Bulma and Yamcha's son.
- Must Make Amends: Piccolo was shaken by Guru's disapproval when he and Nail fused, especially as they were the elder's last words. It's why he joins Bulma and Yamcha in a preemptive strike against Gero, as he wants to go for the safest option rather than take the risk by waiting and training for the androids.
- My Future Self and Me: The time-traveler has a portable version of Ginyu within his wristwatch. The future and present versions of Ginyu get along quite well.
- Powered Armor:
- Bulma develops a prototype suit by the 22nd Worlds Martial Arts Tournament. It makes her strong enough to defeat Yamcha, match old King Piccolo and Drum.
- The version she uses in the 22nd World's Martial Arts Tournament is strong enough to match Piccolo.
- Her suit she uses in the Nappa Vegeta fight is roughly on par with Nappa, though no match for Vegeta.
- Her armor eventually integrates the Dragon radar and a scouter in the sensors. It also starts at multiplying her base power by first 3.5x, then 6x and 8x by the Namek saga. She upgrades it further after coming back from Namek so it can at least put up some resistance against post-Namek Vegeta, without Bulma inside it..
- On Namek, it eventually gains an Artificial Intelligence that can eventially control the suit on it's own in the form of Captain Ginyu.
- Shout-Out: Several to Ultraman and Iron Man, with the Humongous Mecha design and it being named the Saiyabuster. What's implied to be Bulma's son from the future has a nanomachine suit, like Tony Stark's armors from Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Yamcha and Piccolo survive the Saiyan saga.
- Transhuman: During the Android Saga, while Goku and Vegeta train in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber in order to unlock Super Saiyan, Bulma follows through on her canon intention to go kill Dr. Gero. She takes his research and uses it to turn herself and Yamcha into cyborgs.
- Trapped in the Host: Ginyu tries to possess Goku, but Bulma gets in the way. However, instead of taking over her body, Ginyu ends up taking over her armor, leaving him unable to swap back out. While he initially freaks out, he eventually gets over it and becomes the armor's Artificial Intelligence.
- Villain Takes an Interest: After hearing Raditz's defeat from their scouters, Vegeta and Nappa decide to head to Earth to meet Bulma, who gave Raditz so much trouble, with the plan to either recruit her or kill her.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Bulma forgot to waterproof the armor, thus Raditz is able to short-circuit it.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Tenshinhan manages to seal Piccolo away with the Mafuba, only for Goku to smash the rice cooker so he can fight King Piccolo. Bulma gives him a verbal thrashing for it, then refuses to speak to him until Goku arrives at Kame House with Gohan.
- Guru is not very pleased that Nail made in his thoughts a rash decision to fuse with Piccolo. It's also Played for Drama, as they were the last words he said to the fused Namekian before he passes away from grief.
