Dragon Ball/Headscratchers/Original Series: Difference between revisions

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== Emperor Pilaf Saga ==

*** Very, very loosely based on, and quite rapidly abandoned.

*** Goku still shapeshifts. Take a look at the moon. Hell, he does it "at the finale" of the introductory first arc.

** It was definitely based on Journey To The West (originally), but by no means was it a retelling. In fact, in the Chinese version of Dragonball, Son Goku is actually called "Son Wu Kong". Some more similarities include the flying cloud and the extending rod, 2 of the Monkey King's SIGNATURE items, not to mention super strength. Further more, lots of the story elements are borrowed from the Chinese legend, such as the story of the Ox King and the Bansho fan (not named so, but still in the legends). Rabbits living on the moon is also borrowed from a classic Chinese legend. In DBZ, they quickly changed Goku's story so that he was actually an alien, and ditched his cloud and rod, removing his connections to Chinese folklore.

** Oolong is clearly Zhū Bājiè (pig, requiring tributes from commoners, several vices). Yamcha could be Sha Wujing, but it's less similar. What strikes more is that no one is searching to atone their vices.

** It's also fair to say the Electric Shock attack would have gone the same way as the Wolf Fang fist - devastating to ordinary humans but completely outclassed by anyone stronger than King Piccolo.

*** I doubt it, Wolf Fang Fist was shown to be a pretty weak that could only beat enemies weaker than the user. While we only saw that electric attack once we know Roshi and Goku were about the same strength, and the attack nearly made Goku surrender, I think from that we can gather that it was much better than the Kamehameha.

 

 

** Simple math. Goku was a little bit better than Tao, which is why Tao was resorting to the trickery with the grenade. Why would Tao expect a grenade that can't even kill him to kill someone even better? So obviously he had one hell of a grenade. Plus, Tao is totally [[Immune to Bullets]].

*** Dragon Ball tech is all over the place, with police in hover-cars equipped with energy guns who carry around apparently normal revolvers and a military that flattens a mountain using a short bombardment of artillery and hand held weapons fire. Besides, Tao has access to someone who can turn him into a super-powerful cyborg (maybe Dr. Gero, if they met before Red Ribbon had hired him?), so its quite plausible for him to know where to buy a sickeningly powerful grenade. And Goku was almost immune to bullets in his first appearance, and Tao (in addition to casually throwing pillars across continents and brainstabbing a guy who was barely scratched from crashing a jet into a mountain at full speed ''with his tongue'') easily punked a Goku who was orders of magnitudes stronger and tanked a Kamehameha as well.

 

* What happened to Arale and company before the Saiyans arrived? When she first meets Goku she's stronger than him, and I'm sure she's been training since then. Surely she'd put up some kind of a fight.

*** Almost. He's descended from an alien race.

* Why didn't Jackie Chun/Roshi use any of the moves he used on Goku during the previous tournament against Tien?

 

 

**** But it worked out so well in the end! If it wasn't planned it might as well have been.

** Namekian powers generally have an aura of mystery. Since I've seen Kami Sama create Dragon Balls and appear in human form, and seen Guru doing God knows what, I'm fine with Demon King Piccolo creating non-Namekian spawn.

*** The current generation of Namekians are all the offspring of the Elder, and they come in different shapes and sizes, so it's not that strange that King Piccolo could have weird kinds of offspring.

*** Plus, it's implied by Guru that Piccolo has some kind of special lineage.

** It should also be pointed out that neither King Piccolo or Kami are ''true'' Namekians in a real sense - they're copies of the original Namek that crash landed on Earth. The story goes that the Nameless Namek approached the Guardian of Earth (along with Garlic Junior's dad) to try and become his successor, however the Guardian decided they were both too impure for the job and turned them both away. The Nameless Namek decided to split himself into a Demon and Pure of Heart side which became King Piccolo and Kami - thus its not inconceivable that they both would have developed powers that fit along this theme. Piccolo gained the ability to pervert his reproductive organs to the extent he could create monsters and Kami gained the ability to transfer his mind into the body of another. Note also that Piccolo Junior isn't a true Namekian either; he is the reincarnation of King Piccolo. (You have to wonder if Piccolo Junior could actually concieve a normal child seeing as he appears to have absolutely no desire to reproduce despite being a healthy adult.) When the Nameless Namek was reborn during the Cell Saga, no mention is ever made of these incredibly useful abilities ever again - implying that he lost them. I admit its a bit of a WMG, but it does fit the available facts.

 

** Because [[Stuff Blowing Up]] is [[Rule of Cool|cool]]?

 

 

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[[Category:Headscratchers]]

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