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Heatth (X-Troper) Relationship Status: In Spades with myself
#14601: Oct 14th 2015 at 1:14:58 PM

[up][up][up]There was still some humor. Piccolo's and his minion's names are all quite silly. Yajirobe is overall a comedic character and the mafuba sealed Piccolo in a rice cooker. It is true the story became considerably more serious at that arc, but Toriama still found ways to goof around.

wanderlustwarrior Role Model from Where Gods Belong Since: Jun, 2009 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
Role Model
#14602: Oct 14th 2015 at 1:18:39 PM

[up][up]That's still the point at which the series went from being Dragon Ball to Dragon Ballzed. Past tense and plural.

Zelenal The Cat Knows Where It's At from Purrgatory Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
The Cat Knows Where It's At
#14603: Oct 14th 2015 at 1:19:34 PM

[up][up]

There's basically no humor there[...]

It also featured Krillin, Roshi, and Chaozu dying, the Eternal Dragon being killed, a lot of other people we've seen at the Bodoukai dying, Goku almost dying (again), an entire city being leveled, and whatever the hell was going on with the Ultra Divine Water in the anime.

edited 14th Oct '15 1:19:46 PM by Zelenal

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Heatth (X-Troper) Relationship Status: In Spades with myself
#14604: Oct 14th 2015 at 2:12:22 PM

[up]Basically no humor still means almost no humor. But that arc still have some fairly humorous scenes and characters (every villain had some humorous touch).

Also, you can list as many deaths as you want, it doesn't actually have anything to do with the discussion. I already agreed that arc was considerably more serious. But death and drama doesn't erase the humor, and the whole saga actually had plenty, just by all the death and sadness.

JonnasN from Porto, Portugal Since: Jul, 2012
#14605: Oct 14th 2015 at 2:30:19 PM

While I still think it was a gradual thing (RR was mostly silly, 22nd Budokai was half-half, King Piccolo was mostly serious), I do agree that Krillin dying was the moment the line was crossed and the doors were open (and it wasn't even the first death in the series). The stakes were higher than ever.

Still, no arc was ever without comedy or silly moments. Even the Saiyan arc had King Kai.

Saiga Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: Getting away with murder
#14606: Oct 15th 2015 at 1:03:56 AM

The names weren't part of the humour, they're just part of the Theme Naming present in Dragon Ball that is only rarely referenced for humour. And they're funny to English speaks, but Japanese readers wouldn't know where most of the Demon Clan's names come from.

The Rice Cooker wasn't played for laughs, and Yajirobe isn't as humorous here as he is in later arcs.

edit: The Saiyan arc has the gags at Kame House, gags right after Raditz's defeat, basically everything in Otherworld (Salaryman demons, Yemma, Bubbles and Kaio) some Yajirobe humour at the tail end of the Vegeta fight and more gags after Vegeta leaves the planet. It's just that the arc was pretty short and most of it was about the Nappa-Vegeta battle which was very grim.

edited 15th Oct '15 1:07:35 AM by Saiga

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
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#14608: Oct 19th 2015 at 7:12:20 AM

Bardock Abridged happened in the space between seasons 1 and 2. They hadn't quite grasped the more deft writing style they pick up in season 2, so having to introduce an entirely new cast from whom they couldn't reliably draw throwback gags or build comedy from established characterization was not to their advantage.

That said, there were a lot of bits I really liked.

  • Bardock being shamed into giving Kakarot attention because of Raditz, as well as the brief foreshadowing of Broly.
  • Given that this was the character's first appearance, introducing Frieza by taking a potshot at the dub's Genkai voice was perfect.
  • Making fun of the confusion over the crowd of people surrounding Bardock. Many of us who saw the flashbacks in the main series assumed that to be Bardock's Saiyan army rebelling against Frieza, but the movie had them be Frieza's soldiers trying to stop Bardock, who Frieza still murders just 'cause. "This man does NOT speak for us!"

And one bit that really demonstrated their lack of experience and foresight at the time: during Dodoria's legitimately chilling murder of the Saiyans, the character explicitly identifies male, undercutting the later reveal that Dodoria is female. "I'm more of an in-the-now kind of guy."

edited 19th Oct '15 7:12:54 AM by TobiasDrake

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randomness4 Ghost '11 from The Land of Inconvenience Since: Sep, 2011
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#14610: Oct 19th 2015 at 12:07:31 PM

That wasn't in the special...

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#14611: Oct 19th 2015 at 12:24:10 PM

To be fair, "guy" is sometimes used gender-neutrally nowadays. Probably just an inconsistency, though.

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Zelenal The Cat Knows Where It's At from Purrgatory Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
The Cat Knows Where It's At
#14612: Oct 19th 2015 at 12:29:49 PM

[up] Correction: It's often used gender neutrally nowadays. I've seen a girl refer to a group of girls as "guys" before.

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TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
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#14613: Oct 19th 2015 at 12:32:54 PM

It's plurally used in a gender-neutral fashion these days but it's rare to see a girl use "guy" as a singular term to describe herself or another girl.

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#14614: Oct 19th 2015 at 12:34:40 PM

I never understood why 'guy' caught on while 'gal' didn't.

Zelenal The Cat Knows Where It's At from Purrgatory Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
The Cat Knows Where It's At
#14616: Oct 19th 2015 at 12:41:50 PM

I believe you'll find Americans with Southern accents are more likely to use the word "gal."

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#14617: Oct 19th 2015 at 12:45:05 PM

[up] Actually we mainly call them "bitches" now.

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TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
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#14618: Oct 19th 2015 at 1:17:28 PM

I never understood why 'guy' caught on while 'gal' didn't.

Because male terminology is more positively received and often given more positive connotations than female. "Have some balls and quit being a pussy!" Etc.

edited 19th Oct '15 1:18:09 PM by TobiasDrake

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#14619: Oct 19th 2015 at 1:52:09 PM

That needs to change.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
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#14620: Oct 19th 2015 at 1:58:51 PM

Countless people agree. Unfortunately, changing a construct of societal behavior is hard. We're working on it, but it's an uphill battle and the cause slips every time someone goes, "Meh, progress just happens with time, I'm not going to fight for it."

edited 19th Oct '15 1:59:17 PM by TobiasDrake

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BaconManiac5000 Since: Nov, 2013 Relationship Status: Baby don't hurt me!
#14621: Oct 19th 2015 at 2:00:46 PM

I use terms like "dicks" and "pussy" as gender-neutral insults.

Does that count?

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unnoun Since: Jan, 2012
#14622: Oct 19th 2015 at 2:04:16 PM

I'd drop "pussy", personally.

BaconManiac5000 Since: Nov, 2013 Relationship Status: Baby don't hurt me!
#14623: Oct 19th 2015 at 2:05:48 PM

Eh, I almost never use it.

I was just trying to give examples.

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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
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#14624: Oct 19th 2015 at 2:06:06 PM

Clearly, what we need is a positive slang term of female genitals to balance it out. I nominate 'ovaries'.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
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#14625: Oct 19th 2015 at 2:09:52 PM

"Dick" and "Pussy" are both often used as gender-neutral insults but they're differently applied. A "dick" is hyper-aggressive and overly dominant. A "pussy" is simpering and frail. Despite both being offensive terms, the "dick" is still defined by its strength while the "pussy" is defined by its weakness.

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