Dragon Ball: Super Saiyan (A Prophecy Done Right) - Detail Diatribe

"Most people don't remember Nappa, he's not that important." Lies, Nappa was the most fleshed out and fully realized character in all of Dragon Ball. He had a degree in child psychology with a minor in pain, had an interest in entomology and insect reproduction habits, enjoyed playing Pokemon, and after the events of the Namek Saga went on to become a successful movie producer. i may have watched too much DBZA

The "pure heart awakened by fury" is basically "a good man gone to war" trope which sounds like an excellent topic for a trope talk.

Red: "Most people don't remember Nappa, he's not that important." Nappa: "I am hilarious and you will quote everything i say."

"People don't wish for immortality cause that would be game breaking." I can hear Garlic Jr. screaming bullshit in the Dead Zone from here.

I am disappointed. I wanted a whole hour of Red talking about DBZ. Now we will forever be 4 seconds short.

"Maybe if we kick Frieza in the nuts we can beat him" The true horror of Frieza's final form: The reveal that he has no nuts.

Every time Red says “that’s right... FRIEZA!” I can still picture vegeta’s stupid shit eating grin - the one which precedes existential panic after abject failure. Fucking champion video my dudes.

This moment was immortalized for me by the TFS abridged version. "Im going to break you." "What?!" "Like a kit-kat bar..." "...WHAT?!"

I appreciate Red's blunt honesty. "Or... Finally an excuse to make a sideshow about DBZ".

"Most people don't remember Nappa, he isn't that important." - Red "I am hilarious and you will quote everything I say." - DBZA Nappa

Regarding "Everyone is Super Saiyan Now"; I'm reminded of the 4-minute mile. It was long supposed to be impossible. However, once Roger Bannister showed it could be done, it became a realist target for top middle-distance runners.

"they were setting [Piccolo] up yo be a Vegeta-type villain, and then they introduced Vegeta." is such a great sentence

The best part is everything weird on DBZ’s earth can easily be explained by the Dragon Balls themselves. Someone wishing real animal people were a thing, someone wishing for dinosaurs to be revived, etc.

"That's right, Frieza. You're not dealing with the AVERAGE Saiyan Warrior anymore!" - Vegeta, every Namek Saga episode of DBZA

The thing to understand about Toriyama is that he's a born serial author. He doesn't plan ahead, but what he's very very good at is throwing a whole lot of details out and then picking and choosing which ones he wants to bring together to make the next chapter satisfying. He's dancing, not marching. The android and cell arcs are really interesting to examine for this very reason because when you know what was going on in the background (Toriyama getting playfully bullied by his editors to keep changing villains), you see that there was just no rhyme or reason to that whole set of arcs, and yet what do we get? It starts with the ghosts of Goku's past, things that can at least be loosely attributed to his deeds coming back to haunt the world, fatherhood and passing generations as a theme with Trunks, Gohan (compare and contrast), and all of Dr. Gero's creations (basically brainwashed to carry on his grudges). And so Cell is this melting pot of all the previous generation's abilities, and he wants to get stronger just like them. He's a monster made out of everything that they are, so they can't beat him and Goku becomes cognizant of this leading into Gohan, who doesn't want to fight at all, having to be The One True Foil to Cell. Solid indicator for all of this being intentional too is that Goku stops doing the hurt-yourself training, and basically just says it's self destructive. He knows the old tricks aren't going to work because Cell has them all. All with basically zero planning. Toriyama just throws a ton of stuff at the wall and assembles the pieces he likes chapter by chapter, and it all works out because he has a good instinct for theming. As an aside, I like the fact that Goku doesn't get that Gohan doesn't like fighting because it shows that Goku was really pitching over the horizon. He knew Gohan was the one to do it, sensed a sleeping power, understood that there was something different there, but he didn't know what made Gohan different or why.

Crazy thing is, Goku typically always starts off his fights using only martial arts. He only slowly slides into the Saiyan form of brawling later in most fights or if he needs to change things up. At his core, he is a martial artist, not a Saiyan warrior.

Red talking about Vegeta: "He develops a bit of a complex about this." That's an understatement right there XD

Ironically-- Making Dragon Ball Z into a funny abridged show is more in keeping with the original spirit of Dragonball.

"Get out of death free card" and "Chekhov's Seafood dinner" are now my new favorite terms ever.

44:25 I never thought Goku regretted killing Frieza. I always thought Goku felt true pity for him, because unlike Yamcha, Krillin, Tien, Demon King Piccolo, and to varying extent Vegeta, Goku couldn't level with Frieza on an emotional, humane level. The "you fool" is more like Goku coming to terms with Frieza's character and his disposition, and it saddens him.