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PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#71376: Dec 10th 2017 at 6:58:20 AM

This arc feels, to me, like the establishing arc of the expanded multiverse's characters. Like, once this arc ends and all the universes are wished back, there will be arcs involving all of these fighters in various combinations. Kind of like how Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu were introduced in a tournament arc, and they joined the main cast of characters once it was over.

BlackYakuzu94 CHADhan Player. from Easy Coast/NY Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
CHADhan Player.
#71377: Dec 10th 2017 at 7:40:34 AM

I highly doubt we're going to spend time with half these characters once this is over.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.
HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#71378: Dec 10th 2017 at 7:42:27 AM

Yeah. Tournament characters just tend to be fodder. That doesn't seem to have changed.

I'm thinking Toriyama just isn't good at using large amounts of characters, especially in tournaments.

One Strip! One Strip!
VeryMelon Since: Jul, 2011 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#71379: Dec 10th 2017 at 8:07:33 AM

The classic tournaments were better because everything being one on one made it easier to highlight the non-protagonist opponents in some way. Making this a Battle Royal just exposed Toriyama's inability to deal with an inherently chaotic format, especially one where the arena is small enough to be observable to the stadium audience.

TyeDyeWildebeest Unreasonably Quirky from Big Rock Candy Mountain Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: How does it feel to treat me like you do?
Unreasonably Quirky
#71380: Dec 10th 2017 at 8:08:07 AM

So... who's hyped for the Megazord fight next week?

No beer?! But if there's no beer, then there's no beef or beans!
Sigilbreaker26 Serial Procrastinator Since: Nov, 2017
Serial Procrastinator
#71381: Dec 10th 2017 at 8:19:14 AM

It also has about 50 times the characters of the old tournaments. Usually he'd only be introducing about 3-5 new contestants. Heck, in the 23rd Tenkaiichi Budokai, every character except Piccolo Jr. (our Piccolo <3) is previously established in one way or another.

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"
BlackYakuzu94 CHADhan Player. from Easy Coast/NY Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
CHADhan Player.
#71382: Dec 10th 2017 at 9:57:32 AM

@Saiga: well for one, it'd be easier to care about these universes beyond just being fodder for the main characters.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.
Moth13 Since: Sep, 2010
#71383: Dec 10th 2017 at 10:18:01 AM

Someone leaked the finale of the Tournament of Power.

Arha Since: Jan, 2010
#71384: Dec 10th 2017 at 10:24:29 AM

Noooo Bulma why did you have to mention Mai, now I remember that this arc also supports the super creepy Mai/Trunks ship.

HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#71385: Dec 10th 2017 at 10:26:26 AM

...

THAT. FUCKING. SHIP.

Burn. Burn forever.

Hate it so much. Why did you even do that Toriyama? What possibly made you think that was a good idea? Seriously!? What the hell?!

One Strip! One Strip!
MightyMatilda Mr. Clueless from New Jersey, USA Since: Jan, 2015
Mr. Clueless
#71386: Dec 10th 2017 at 11:00:08 AM

How old was Trunks when he fell in love with Mai? Sometimes, it's hard to tell if characters are teenagers or adults.

De Romanīs, lingua Latina gloriosa non fuī.
HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#71387: Dec 10th 2017 at 11:03:58 AM

How old Trunks is is irrelevant.

Physically, they are the same age since they wished themselves back to youth around the time of the Android saga (when Trunks would have just been born), but chronologically, she's older than Bulma, and she still remembers being an adult.

So Trunks / Mai is dumb.

One Strip! One Strip!
LordVatek Not really a lord of anything Since: Sep, 2014
Not really a lord of anything
#71388: Dec 10th 2017 at 11:35:12 AM

I'm okay with Future Trunks/Future Mai. They're both adults physically and mentally so it doesn't matter.

The present pairing should indeed burn though.

This song needs more love.
Shlugo_the_great King of Burgers from Far Far Away (On A Trope Odyssey) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
King of Burgers
#71389: Dec 10th 2017 at 11:44:50 AM

Funny things about kid Trunks, he's supposedly as old as Future Trunks was when Gohan died. I guess living in a post-apocalyptic future is like a growth hormones for sayians.

agent-trunks IHE from Every-where, but there Since: Apr, 2015
IHE
#71390: Dec 10th 2017 at 11:52:20 AM

You know what they say, Misery Builds Character which apparently also applies to their height as well.

BlackYakuzu94 CHADhan Player. from Easy Coast/NY Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
CHADhan Player.
#71391: Dec 10th 2017 at 11:56:22 AM

Or Toriyama being lazy as usual.

I'm over Trunks/Mai tbh, though I'm more receptive to their adult selves than their younger selves.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.
HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#71392: Dec 10th 2017 at 12:01:47 PM

No.

It's dumb no matter what.

So says Rob!

One Strip! One Strip!
Shlugo_the_great King of Burgers from Far Far Away (On A Trope Odyssey) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
King of Burgers
#71393: Dec 10th 2017 at 12:02:47 PM

When I think about it, Mai has one the weirdest careers out of any character in anything I ever read. It's weird to think that she started out as a henchwoman of the villain of the first arc.

BlackYakuzu94 CHADhan Player. from Easy Coast/NY Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
CHADhan Player.
#71394: Dec 10th 2017 at 12:05:44 PM

I admit, being the love interest of the rival's son is the last role I ever thought she'd be in. Like father, like son I guess...

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.
KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#71395: Dec 10th 2017 at 12:35:52 PM

This arc feels, to me, like the establishing arc of the expanded multiverse's characters. Like, once this arc ends and all the universes are wished back, there will be arcs involving all of these fighters in various combinations. Kind of like how Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu were introduced in a tournament arc, and they joined the main cast of characters once it was over.

I could see that happening for a small handful of characters (the U6 Saiyans, for one), and I do expect the next arc to be a multiverse adventures arc, but it's doubtful we'll be getting an extensive amount a lot of exploration of the ones featured in the tournament: this arc mainly establishes the multiverse as being full of fodder, and cuts off a lot of what could've been used in arcs by having it flipped through as backstory (if that).

It's like, they dealt with the opportunity for scores of worldbuilding via a vast multiverse by blowing two thirds of it at the same time, and most of the time not in a particularly creative way. It's relatively safe to say that unless they have completely different perspectives on most of these characters hidden in their notes (doubtful) we'll never see most of them again.

We should be looking more to the unexplored universes not featured in the tournament.

edited 10th Dec '17 12:36:16 PM by KnownUnknown

slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#71396: Dec 10th 2017 at 12:36:18 PM

Odd how the Pilaf gang keep making appearances when I think most people don't really care about them one way or another.

Toriyama sure has a special spot in his heart for his first main antagonists.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#71397: Dec 10th 2017 at 12:41:00 PM

This is true.

They didn't get completely wiped out by Goku and company despite lacking any of the firepower to challenge Goku during his absolute weakest state, and yet, up until Toriyama got on his Frieza bandwagon, they were the only recurring antagonists in the series.

Well, there was Tao and Crane Hermit, but that was just one single time.

One Strip! One Strip!
KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#71398: Dec 10th 2017 at 12:42:12 PM

I actually rather like them as supporting characters. My main issue with their use right now is that they can't seem to decide whether they're going to actually be using them for stuff, or just have them be walking gags, and its starting to get really noticeable that they're just... there.

edited 10th Dec '17 12:42:57 PM by KnownUnknown

Saiga Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: Getting away with murder
#71399: Dec 10th 2017 at 12:43:29 PM

@Yakuzu Yeah, but that's not related to making them strong/weak enough. Unless you're arguing that they should make people care by making them stronger instead of developing them which is shallow. Also, I wasn't saying that people should care about them, I meant if you can care about the non-Goku/Vegeta cast members then the weaker universes can serve a purpose by dealing with those characters.

Moth13 Since: Sep, 2010
#71400: Dec 10th 2017 at 12:47:01 PM

The problem is that they are not willing to have episodes where Goku doesn't do stuff.

Anyway, I expect a Planet Sadala arc or mini arc after this. Vegeta and Cabba will have nice master/student bonding moments and Goku will spar will Caulifla a bunch and she'll get Super Saiyan 3 and maybe a villain will show up and cause huge problems, who knows.

edited 10th Dec '17 12:47:26 PM by Moth13


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