#saiyan-combatant

Dragon Ball Minus is fine, always has been fine, and the fandom (mostly men what do ya know) grossly exaggerates the changes a ten page bonus chapter to a gag manga makes to the story and characters.

Let’s break this down:

>”Goku’s 3, so he remembers his parents and it makes his relationship with his grandpa less important!!”

The movie pretty nicely fixed this one by leaving his age ambiguous so ?

You people really overestimate the attention span and memory capacity of three year olds. Just. As someone who has worked with young children in the past.

He still lands on Earth as a feral little monkey baby, something which was already an inconsistent thing in the original so?

Again, you people REALLY overestimate a three year olds ability to NOT bump his head on shit.

>”They made him too much like superman!!!”

That’s....not new?

Superman’s origin story isn’t original to begin with. Both Superman and Goku are archetypes of and take their origins from....Moses. Yes, Moses. 

>”They made Bardock SOOOOOOOFT”

Not really? Again, combining this with the movie, he was still a mercenary who pretty blatantly slaughtered populations of aliens. The movie didn’t NEED to show this explicitly because you, the fans, have been consuming this media for decades and know it by now. He admits to it. I would go so far as to say this not only makes him a more well rounded character by giving him more emotional depth, but also gives him more of a motivation to care about the fate of his son beyond revenge.

Oh, and him caring about his kids isn’t new. It’s been in supplementary material for like. Over 20 years. And it’s not like he’s super lovey dovey open about it-- Gine fucking comments on how odd it seems for him to be openly (OPENLY) caring, but we just gonna ignore that I guess.

Again, it expands on his motive to both external (revenge on Frieza) and internal (after a lifetime of slaughter and destruction, he wants to save at least one person and that person is his son. Which is explicitly said. For those who need the movie to hold their hand for them, lest they throw a fit over it.)

Him figuring out Frieza’s plan through his own deduction skills and intuition is way better from a characterization pov than random psychic powers imho

If you think him showing the tiniest bit more emotional sincerity somehow makes him less of a badass or cool character, then I don’t know what to tell you other then I’m sorry your macho man power fantasy was ruined by feelings.

>”IT MEANS THERE’S NO FINAL STAND AGAINST FRIEZA!!!”

Okay this criticism of the original bonus chapter always made me laugh because it was shown that there was still a solid month before Frieza destroyed the planet, but people still flipped out because the fact that Bardock wasn’t explicitly shown flying off toward Frieza meant it totally didn’t happen. Because the 10 pages bonus chapter of a gag manga didn’t show it happening means it totally retconned it, guys. 

I hope I don’t need to tell you guys that DBS Broly cleaned that up nicely anyway, leaving a lot up to the imagination (which I know a lot of fans hate. Show us things explicitly or it’s ruined bwuhh). Notice how Bardock’s armor was in tatters, by the way? Almost like it was...implying to the audience there was a lot of shit that went down before hand or something. Funny that.

>”BUT BUT BUT SOLID STATE SCOUTER!!!”

“I believe you.”

It wasn’t surprising that Aries would point out his sword, as it typically tended to be the first thing that caught most people’s attention. He had learned accept that it’d bring attention if he brought a weapon nearly everywhere he went.

What was surprising, was when the other saiyan asked if he could teach her how to use it.

The result would end with the time traveler blinking a few times, surprised by the sudden request. After a few moments of weighing his options, he’d give her a nod, as he couldn’t see much harm in it.

Sabs snorted.

Badwrong. Badong....

That was cute and hilarious.

So! I've been talking a lot lately (when I can) about Trunks getting stronger and climbing the Saiyan Transformation Ladder, and that's still very, very relevant. It covers some parts of her character that I've touched on before but never really delved into.

Trunks, first of all, hates being recognised as a saiyan. She's human too, and considers herself more human than saiyan. By embracing the other half of herself (even if it makes her feel even more like an alien on her own planet) and kind of getting over herself, she'll begin to accept and like herself even more.

Next, Trunks considers her Super Saiyan transformation as proof of her failure to save her world with Gohan. She only got powerful enough to help him once he was already dead. I've given Trunks SSJ3 through yet another traumatic death (though that moment might have been retconned... But the transformation remains). Trunks is afraid of getting new transformations. A new transformation means someone else is dead again and it's her fault. That's how she sees it in her head, and she tries to convince herself that she's strong enough as is, or that time travel can solve any problem she finds that she can't handle. I want her to let go of that fear and find new ways around training and transforming so she can propel herself forward rather than staying in place and feeling restless and scared.

There's also a mentoring aspect to it; my Trunks doesn't mentor, nor does she take training mentors, because she doesn't consider herself particularly helpful or anything that people can't get from anyone else, and because she can't face a repeat of what happened with Gohan. She needs to let go of that fear and that low opinion of herself as well.

And I think climbing the transformation ladder is the way to get her on that path.

“I suppose I am. Well, at least half of me is. Not sure whether that still counts or not.