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Masako X - Dragon Ball What-If
(aka: What If)

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Masako X's Dragon Ball What If is a series of discussion videos on YouTube headed by Lawrence Simpson aka MasakoX of TeamFourStar fame as part of his Dragon Ball Discussion series of YouTube videos.

As the title states, the videos are generally a series of "What If?" scenarios in which certain events play out differently from what happens in the main canon and explores the consequences of paths that weren't taken as a result. The series started off with What If DBZ Movies Were Canon and spiraled from there, with What If Raditz Turned Good? being the first of the more popular topics. Eventually, Masako decided to dedicate a week of these theories on the first of every month, but once Dragon Ball Super ended, it turned into two What ifs per week on a Tuesday and Saturday. They covered a wide range of topics. You can find the playlist here. The full list of episodes is also available on the Recap page.

He has also done five lightning rounds, where he goes over smaller stories where changes are too minimal and/or end badly too quickly to justify a full length video, an FAQ, some What Ifs he will never do, and the occasional Round Table dicussion.

Another You Tube creator by the name of Damonwhatif has taken a number of these stories and combined them into a Merged Reality story called DB: What Ifinity.


Masako X's Dragon Ball What Ifs contain the following tropes:

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    General 
  • Adaptational Heroism: Raditz and Nappa, and not just in their respective titular “Turned Good” What Ifs. In other stories they are kinder and more caring. In some one or both join the Z-Fighters, in another they are True Companions with Vegeta of all people, in another Nappa raised Kakarot as if he was his own son, mentoring him and protecting form the likes of Vegeta and Frieza. And in that same story a Raditz is separated from Kakarot and spends a long time hoping to find his long lost little brother, and values mercy, chastising his time displaced daughter for killing Android 17 and 18 when they haven’t even left their stasis tubes.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: Vegeta, in most of the What Ifs. Even in the ones where he still performs a Heel–Face Turn, he does it either much later or at a slower pace.
  • Adaptational Upbringing Change: The series has several discussion videos about a character receiving a different upbringing than in canon, such as Goku being raised at Capsule Corp by the Briefs family rather than by Grandpa Gohan, and how this changes the trajectory of the character(s) involved.
  • Adaptational Wimp: Much like with Adaptational Jerkass above, Vegeta reaches his higher levels either much later or not at all.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Quite a few What Ifs see King Cold be promoted from a minor villain into a full on main antagonist or at least prominent side villain.
    • Due to his nature as an Outside-Context Problem that no events on Earth will change, Raditz tends to get more time in the spotlight (usually as an event similar to Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies.)
    • The Kaioken technique often ends up this, with many of the Dragon Team besides Goku learning it. The Instant Transmission also gets this treatment several What Ifs.
  • Adaptational Badass: Even in What Ifs where they're not the main character, a great many characters turn out much stronger than in canon.
  • Adaptational Heroism: The "..turned Good" ones naturally see certain villains now fighting on the side of good.
  • Alternate Continuity: More or less, considering the Dragon Ball series works on the Multi-verse theory.
  • April Fools' Day: Has made it a tradition to start a new what if each time it comes around. These stories usually involve more out there and bizarre premises than the usual stories.
  • Beef Gate: Raditz is a league far above the threats shown up until his appearance. If the overall power is worse than that of Goku and co. in the original Saiyan Saga, then there will be heavier losses, if not a downright Downer Ending.
  • Butt-Monkey:
    • If a story takes place before Dragon Ball and then to the Saiyan Saga, or towards it, expect Vegeta getting a receiving end of an ass-beating by someone. Especially against the likes of Bardock, Gine, Raditz, and Nappa.
    • Yamcha never gets Bulma, even in stories where they are closer together. The current exceptions are What if Nappa Turned Good?, What If Goku Was Female?, What If Gohan Went Super Saiyan First and What If Hercule Trained Like Goku.
    • Vegeta often winds up dying in his stories, at least the ones that cover the Saiyan Saga. Ones that start later tend to be lighter on him.
  • Breakout Character: Raditz, Nappa and Gine. Bardock to a lesser extent as he gets plenty of revisits in canon. As for the latter three, Masako loves expanding on these characters, giving them a case of Spared by the Adaptation and in Raditz and Nappa’s case, Adaptational Heroism. Out of all the characters these three get the most Adaptation Expansion.
  • Canon Immigrant: If the situation calls for it, he may use characters/plot points from the non-canon Dragon Ball movies. Current examples include Cooler, Androids 13-15, and Tapion.
  • Demoted to Extra: Vegeta tends to be less relevant if a What-If starts before his first defeat in the Saiyan Saga, as he's usually killed off instead of allowed to escape as in canon. If he's lucky, he'll be revived later on.
  • Fix Fic: Consistently glosses over the filler arcs, usually with the Running Gag below. Usually also changes the ending of the Goku Black arc to a less bleak one, as well.
  • Game Changer: Raditz, surprisingly. Since Raditz is so much stronger than everyone on Earth at the time of his appearance, Raditz usually changes the game as soon as he appears. As nothing that changes the story on Earth affects things that happen in space, he will always appear and throw a wrench in the plans of everyone (assuming the change happened on Earth, rather than something in space, of course). For example, in the case where Pilaf gets his wish to rule the world, then he then starts a world war with the Red Ribbon Army. When Raditz shows up, he's much, much stronger than Goku was when he defeated the RR. As a consequence, both sides are obliterated with ease.
  • Heel–Face Turn: A lot of the "...turned Good" ones are pretty much centered around these.
  • Japanese Delinquents: His explanation as for why Goku and Gohan would still have black hair in the first Broly movie in "What If The Movies Were Canon? video is because Chi-Chi convinced them to temporarily ease their power levels since in Japan, blonde hair is associated with delinquency in Japan and it could significantly affect Gohan's interview for a prestigious private school.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: Masako enjoys this element with the angels like Whis and points out that the Super writers used it a lot, too.
  • Physical, Mystical, Technological: The trio of storylines where Bulma, Chi-Chi, and Videl are turned into Adaptational Badass Z-Fighters contrast each other in this way. Although all three of them start off on the martial arts training route, they eventually branch off in different ways.
    • Videl is the Physical. Her DNA is altered by giving birth to a Saiyan and being exposed to God Ki, making her a lot stronger in addition to her continuing her martial-arts training with Gohan.
    • Bulma is the Technological. She starts developing training and strength-enhancing tools and gear for herself to fight on the front lines, eventually donning a whole suit of Powered Armor and even a Humongous Mecha.
    • Chi-Chi is the Mystical. She is taken on by Fortuneteller Baba as an apprentice and learns to use magic and ki in concert, and grows to outmatch even Babidi in mysticism.
  • Point of Divergence: Naturally, a lot of the What Ifs occur due to an event either not happening at all or happening differently than originally prescribed.
  • Recurring Element:
    • In general, the what-ifs have a consistent element and in having Gohan have a more protagonistic rule despite the character's pacificism, to the point the character of the video topic (like Vegetto and Broly) serve as an Author Avatar of Masako just to point out about his wasted potential.
    • Raditz radically shifting things when the change is made in the Pre-Z era, due to his (comparatively) immense power level and nature as an Outside-Context Problem.
    • If the story begins before/during the Saiyan Saga, expect Vegeta to wind up dead either during it or the Frieza Saga. As such, a different character winds up traveling back in time to warn the Z-Fighters, since Trunks was never born.
  • Running Gag:
    • When dealing with the infamous filler arcs, Masako tends to say the following:
      MasakoX: There is no *insert saga here*, moving on.
    • There’s also this for when he addresses possible complaints:
      But Masako, *insert complaint here*. UNSUBSCRIBED!
    • Occasionally, his buddies over at Team FourStar will make fun of Masako's videos. The "Deadpool vs. Cell," video had a fake ad for a Masako video called "What is Trunks' Fursona," while the intro to the 2018 DBCember said that Masako couldn't help because he was working on a video titled "What if Chiaotzu was Alt-Right?"
    • From some What-ifs that take place before Z he likes to say:
      MasakoX: That is until Raditz shows up!
    • Masako making an innuendo and then saying "Stop it!" to the viewer or himself.
  • The Stations of the Canon:
    • In most of the stories, Future Trunks and his timeline are completely unaffected by whatever other changes might have taken place. This can create some awkwardness, as seen in the "What If Goku Married Bulma?" series where Trunks has to deal with the fact that he doesn't exist in this timeline. This gets subverted in the "What if Nappa Turned Good," story, though. However, Masako later admitted that he grew to regret this decision because of the missed opportunities it created, and even went back to Retcon the "What if Raditz Turned Good" series to give Future Trunks' timeline a stronger connection to the overall story.
    • More generally, the fact that a lot of the series’ villains are Outside-Context Problems or otherwise out of the main characters’ hands until they actually show up means that most of the sagas happen in some form or another, most notably Raditz, the Androids, Buu, and Beerus. This is generally averted, however, with stories that have earlier Points of Divergence, and thus butterfly away even major arcs.
  • Story-Breaker Power:
    • Given the extremely wide power gap between the original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, any of the scenarios that involve an ability or character getting backported to Dragon Ballnote  usually results in massive Curb Stomp Battles in the characters' favor.
    • As mentioned, Raditz showing up in worlds where Goku wasn't a powerhouse mean that he's significantly stronger than anyone else, and any storylines tend to stop as soon as he arrives.
  • Truly Single Parent: Since we know next to nothing about Frieza's race, Masako decided to allow them to reproduce asexually, though he doesn't specify if it involves cloning, parthenogenesis, or something else. What if Frieza Turned Good? involves King Cold wanting a new son, while What if Frieza Had a Son? is pretty obvious, and both stories have the characters just create a child ex nihilo by themselves, with no mention of a mate whatsoever.
  • What If?: The central premise of all the videos.

    What If Senzu Beans Never Existed? 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/what_if_senzu_beans_didnt_exist.jpg
  • Downer Ending: One of the alternate scenarios Masako presented was that Goku is killed in his final fight with King Piccolo who then proceeds to take over the Earth... until the arrival of Raditz who kills Piccolo himself and then gives Earth to Frieza. So it's a double-whammy downer ending.
    What if Buu didn't fall asleep? 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/buu_4.jpg
  • Death by Adaptation: Buu, in anger over not being able to hit Dyspo, lets out an angry explosion with his ki, killing him. Downplayed, since after the tournament concludes, Goku promises to use Earth's Dragon Ball's to bring him back to life.
    What if Future Trunks was you? 
  • Downer Ending: The story ends with Trunks and his time machine being utterly destroyed by Goku Black.
  • Formula-Breaking Episode: Unlike his other What-Ifs, Masako puts the viewers in Future Trunks' shoes for this video.

"But that's where we'll be leaving things for right now."

Alternative Title(s): What If

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