Stream of consciousness DBZ posting time. I been waiting all day for
that Bad Ronald this.
Big Pete 's original DBZ post in the other thread and
🤯 's epic post with the pics earlier today brought back so many half-forgotten memories. I'm definitely more of a DBZ casual compared to the rest of you DBZ smarks.....other than PI. I'd almost certainly beat him in a DBZ trivia contest. But I don't remember individual battles or many plot twists, and was even a little iffy on whether Frieza or Cell came first. PI's post with the pics got me to remember A LOT of characters though. So that's a good thing.
Agree with Pete on DBZ being a well booked territory. He also slipped in a Theon Greyjoy reference which made me realize (obviously not for the first time) that Westeros is a total heel territory. DBZ was also good at coming up with strong heels to be vanquished in the end by "Golden Boy" Goku, or perhaps "Golden Child" Gohan in a not-so-unexpected "swerve."
So I started watching DBZ around mid 2000 due to my friend Bryan. I can't really do DBZ posting without also doing at least a little bit of Bryan posting. For Bryan was solely responsible for my DBZ fandom. Our mutual friend Jeff and I went to Bryan's house about 5 nights a week for years.
Bryan was a huge DBZ/Vegeta fan and a fountain of information on all things DBZ. Anyway, watching DBZ was a regular part of the schedule. Sometimes we'd watch an episode in real time. But more often than not we'd binge watch a week's worth of taped episodes. This went on for maybe 2 or 3 years. At first it sort of like eating your vegetables (vegetas?). Just a thing we
had to do if we went to Bryan's. But both Jeff and I soon got into it. Jeff was a Goku fan. I was a Vegeta fan like Bryan. But nowhere near his level. I'm sure he even smokes
Lony in Vegeta fandom. To this day Bryan could probably recite a bunch of Vegeta promos word for word. He used to just sit in his basement drinking, or working out, while watching the same Vegeta promos over and over again. He dyed his bleach blonde and spiked it in honor of Super Saiyan Vegeta. Sometimes, when drunk, which was often, he would take off his shirt and "Hulk Up" like he was trying to go Super Saiyan. He was honestly a very weird dude (allegedly voted "Most Likely To Go To Columbine" in a high school poll that never made it into his school's yearbook). I have LOTS of Bryan stories. Not all of them pleasant. But he was also my best friend for a few years, and we were pretty much inseparable from about 2000-2006 when his self destructive, edgelord ways, coupled with my own admitted... issues finally caused us to part ways. I have neither seen nor heard from him since about September 2006.
Anyway, DBZ was all about the build. I think it's general consensus nowadays that there was too much build? Yet I remained invested from some point in the Frieza Saga until some point in the Buu Saga. That's literally years in real time. So they had to be doing something right.
Pete: I never even think of JJ beating Hogan. It's a tainted victory. Jacques Rougeau's win, house show though it may be, is more impressive to me. JJ beating Hogan was simply The Hulkster laying down for JJ. It would be like if Cell just laid down for Gohan. Weak sauce. And not really putting the guy over. I did understand your comparison of a character to early/bad WWF Jericho though.
Also agree with Pete about the Hercule name change working, though Bryan was definitely the type of edgelord who would have bought a Mr. Satan shirt....if Satan/Hercule wasn't one of his least favorite characters.
PI: Hercule's whole gimmick was basically a "jump the shark" character. He was intentionally obnoxious. He was basically a shouty pro wrestling stereotype. That's one reason he was great. Bryan hated Hercule. I loved him. He was the strongest man/best fighter on Earth until all these freaky aliens came to town with their energy blasts. He was also a great bullshit artist and master propagandist who had the ability to spin things in his favor no matter how inept he might be in reality. I don't remember the exact details, but didn't he make some major sacrifice to save the day? I remember him being revealed to be a "good guy" underneath all the bluster in the end.Â
Pete is probably right about Cell. But I don't care. He was my favorite of the 3 lead DBZ heels I experienced. Plus his Perfect Cell form kind of looked like Wrath Amon's human form in Conan The Adventurer. Another point for Cell. I don't really remember Frieza much and Buu was basically a superpowered baby going through his "terrible twos" stage.Â
I can buy Pete's Vegeta=Savage analogy. It also gels with my long-held Goku=Hogan viewpoint.
 Nighty: I watched the first video you posted. That is exactly how I remember Piccolo lol. Standing alone in a secluded area is a very Piccolo thing to do. Vegeta & Goku are brothers?!? Mind blown! How did I not know that?? But wait! A quick search reveals they are most certainly not brothers. Yet Vegeta said they were in the video you posted. I am confused....
Lony: I'm with you on Vegeta being the GOAT, but you misspelled Ric Flair when you got to the other GOAT.
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Character Time thanks to PI's post with the pics
Goku- The Golden Boy. Best fighter. Almost always won. Nicest guy. Kind to everybody. Utterly boringÂ
 The Hulk Hogan of DBZ.
Vegeta- The Man. Classic edgy 90s antihero. Bryan may be able to recite dozens of Vegeta promos word for word. "Woman, fetch me a drying cloth." was a particular favorite of his that he slipped into normal, every day conversations more than you would ever think possible. Yeah, Bryan was definitely what they'd call an Incel nowadays. Then again, that is literally the only Vegeta line I remember. So....
My lasting memory of Vegeta will always be his epic pink BADMAN shirt. Vegeta was also the funniest character imo. His surly straight man gimmick made his interactions with
the wackier characters pretty much everybody else hilarious (Face it. Vegeta stole every scene he was in). It was similar dynamic to Attitude Era Stone Cold where the most humorless character actually provided the most humor. Vegeta was also the underdog. I always wanted him to get the better of boring Goku. I'm pretty sure another friend called Slothman actually gave me a Vegeta shirt one time. It was definitely a DBZ shirt. I didn't wear it much though. Sad. Now if it had been a pink BADMAN shirt.....
I missed Vegeta's days as the top heel, but did hear much about it from Bryan. I also remember him going "Majin" during the Buu Saga so he could finally become more powerful than Goku. But I think he ended up sacrificing himself to save his friends in the end? Something like that anyway.
Random Stuff-Â Tails! OMG! Wasn't there a storyline where Goku's (or Vegeta? Maybe both?) tail started growing back? I'm like "What? Saiyans have tails?!?" And Bryan had to embarrassingly explain that, yes, they did indeed have tails. And then he told me Vegeta once had the ability to turn into a giant ape! Bryan was not a fan of any of this stuff. I sadly(?) missed DBZ: The Weird Years.
Let's talk about the Dragonballz themselves. For the longest time I had no idea why the show was called Dragonball Z. For I did not know what a Dragonball was! I think the ballz were more important in the early years? I'm still not 100% sure what they did lol. Granted you a wish, I think? Maybe 3 wishes? And I think a dragon was involved in this wish granting?
The "Hyperbolic" Time Chamber! (intentional misspelling as that's how I misremembered it) Didn't Vegeta (or Goku? Maybe both...again?) spend like 20 episodes in that damn training chamber one time?
Gohan- Goku's son. The Golden Child. Defeated "one of the big villains" (I now know it was Cell but couldn't remember if Cell or Frieza until yesterday). Went to school in his spare time. Nice. But boring.
Raditz- Remember the name from Bryan's stories but don't think I ever saw. Oh wait. I thought Raditz was a weirdly drawn/early Vegeta in @nighty 's videoÂ
 Whoops. Ignore that earlier confusion about Vegeta & Goku being brothers.
Frieza- Only really remember as a rather generic lead heel. He was alright, but Cell stands out much more in my memory.
Piccolo- The Man 2.0. Actually 1.0. As I was a Piccolo fan even before I was a Vegeta fan. He was "my guy" when I first started watching the show. Everything PI wrote about him being a stoic badass gibes with my memories of the P Man. As with Vegeta, I missed his early heel run, but did learn about it from Bryan.
Master Roshi- PI's pic isn't showing on my computer. This was the horny old guy who trained Goku? Or was that King Kami or something like that?Â
Nappa- Don't remember. Don't even really remember from Bryan's stories. Take off his attire and he'd be a dead ringer for Soda Popinski from Mike Tyson's Punchout. So that's a point in his favor.
Pilaf- Who the hell is this jabroni??
Tien- THAT guy! Forgot all about him. Cool look. But wasn't he more of a comic relief jobber? Krillin's friend, perhaps?
Krillin- Goku's little jobber buddy. Krillin was the aforementioned Slothman's favorite character. That was so weird to me. Sloth explained that he liked Krillin for comic relief reasons. I didn't find Krillin funny, but humor is subjective. So I could now at least understand where the Slothman was coming from. I did a little bit of DBZ googling earlier today. Turns out Krillin was human. I was not aware of that.
Trunks- Vegeta's son from the future. Half "cool" kid. Half emo. I liked Trunks. He might actually be my 5th favorite character. But it's a HUGE drop from 4 to 5.
Yajirobe- Epic comic relief look which seems to back up Pete's even more epic posts about the DBZ World's resident drug dealer. I remember the beans. But I somehow do not remember this sure to be awesome character. Shame on me.
Chiaotzu- Who the hell is this jabroni 2.0?? I'm not even sure I spelled his name right. That's how much I care about Shih Tzu.
Yamcha- Bizarro World Goku? Don't remember this guy. But he looks like he could have been a threat. Maybe in the early days?
Babidi- A sort of evil wizard who controlled Majin Buu. Babidi was a far better heel than Buu imo.Â
Hercule- The Man 3.0. Don't believe me? Just ask him.
Buu- I only remember Fat Buu. Not the alien looking creep in the pic PI posted. I know he had other looks beyond "Fat" though.
Fun Fact- It took me a full day to remember what a Mewtwo was. You kids and your Pokemon....
Garlic Jr.- Looks like a total badass. Wish I remembered this guy. Is there a Garlic Sr?
Cell- GOAT DBZ villian. Suck it BigPete! Cell was psycho and suave in his final form.
Mr. Popo- I loved this guy. Top 3 favorite character. My DBZ Mt. Rushmore goes Vegeta-Piccolo-Popo-Hercule. He wasn't on much. So a Popo appearance was a rare treat. Had the coolest sounding voice in the series. He lived....up high somewhere. Perhaps in the clouds? Or atop a big ass tower? With....
The Old Man Who Lived In A High Place And Hung Out With Mr. Popo- I don't remember this guy's name. He was....maybe Goku's trainer? Or, like, the guy who created the Dragonballz? I don't remember. But he was important. And powerful. And cool. Mr. Popo was his assistant.
Main Androids- The ones I remember were a guy and a girl. Both appearing as older teenagers. They were cocky pricks who remind me of Jaime & Cersei Lannister lol. The guy stayed heel and got killed....I think. Whereas the girl turned babyface (a staple of DBZ) and married.....Krillin, I think.
Other Android- I honestly forgot all about this guy until he popped up in a search this afternoon. He turned babyface but got killed by Cell or one of the other androids.
The Mad Scientist- Forgot about this guy too until a search. And I have already forgotten his name. He created the androids and Cell. The Androids came first. Then Cell.
*That's enough for now. Maybe I'll be back for more DBZ posting tomorrow. Either that or I'll move onto other cartoons.
EDIT
Ginyu Force- Legends! Loved these guys. They knock Trunks out of my Fave Five for sure. They were basically comedic heel jobbers...The Mean Street Posse of the DBZ World. They had these ridiculous/awesome taunts. And I think a catchphrase too? Perhaps "Ginyu Force, mount up!" Oh wait. That was Warren G's Regulators. Whoops. My bad.
