In the early 2000s, I got into fanfiction through DBZ. At the time FFN may not even have been active yet. AO3 didn't exist. One of the most popular authors at the time was Lisalu. She wrote several epics that were widely agreed upon to be the crown jewels of the Vegeta/Bulma pairing: A Glad Day, World Enough and Time, and The Red Dragon Tetralogy. She was a master of worldbuilding and character development and redemption arcs. She wove together her own multiverse as the heroes across each timeline prepared to fight for the continued existence of the universe against a space-time-devouring enemy. And just as the conflict was kicking into high gear in the 4th story within the Red Dragon Tetralogy, she stopped writing in the fandom. She never came back to DBZ and moved on to Lord of the Rings, where she wrote another amazing epic called the Price of Freedom.
As a young reader back then, I was devastated that my favorite fic series of all time was left on a cliffhanger. I had written a few emails to her (back when fan interaction happened over email or in forums) praising her work and letting her know how much I looked up to her as a writer, and asking for her advice on how to write better. I felt very frustrated with my own writing. I thought I had a clear line of sight into what I wanted my writing to be (basically anything like Lisalu's caliber) and yet I could not produce it for the life of me when I sat down to actually write. I had all these ideas for multichapter fics that always sputtered out when I lost inspiration or hit a roadblock. In hindsight I should not have expected any different of myself. I was only a teenager. Lisalu kindly wrote back and encouraged me. She told me the only way to get better is to read a lot, and write a lot. Keep writing.
While I feel less shy about my involvement in fandom these days, I still feel self-conscious sometimes when people ask me who my favorite authors are. I wish I could say something fancy like Cormac McCarthy or Marilynne Robinson. But undoubtedly Lisalu is one of the first authors to pop into my mind, and that's only her DBZ alias. I don't know her real name, where she is right now, what she's been up to all these years, or if she's become a published author of original fiction (I hope she has). But if I could talk to her today I would thank her for her incredible contribution to the DBZ fandom and how she inspired countless young fans like me to keep trying and improving at our craft. Teenage me had never imagined that one day I would have written a 30 chapter Mozenrath fic in the Aladdin fandom (and ended it on a cliffhanger too, unfortunately...maybe one day!) or that now I am close to completing a 50+ chapter Spy x Family fic. Even all these years later, Lisalu's influence persists in my descriptive style, dialogue, and themes. The themes of revenge and forgiveness and slaying one's metaphorical dragon have never left my imagination.
On the small chance Lisalu is able to see this post one day, thank you from the bottom of my heart!
*I took the link out, someone was butt hurt that I provided a source - If you want to read the fic its pretty easy to find on the usual fan fiction sites.
I spent the past week reading this monster of a story. Just out of curiosity I copied and pasted the text into pages to see how long this thing is and it is 250 pages without formatting. That was not what I was expecting when I began the fic and saw there were only five chapters to it! Beware spoilers, my thoughts are below!
Ok first thing is first, this story was phenomenal! Each chapter could have been a story in itself, and the amount of plot and character development in even the most “inconsequential” of characters was astounding. Lisalu’s vision of Vegeta-sei was incredibly well rounded. It is obvious that this is something that 1. She does/did full time (a writer, teacher, English major something) and 2. this was a labor of love. I will not say that each chapter had a different writing style/feel to it, but definitely the third chapter forward had several writing styles in them, mostly because of the narration changes occurring. I loved the fact that you get the story from Vegeta and Bulma’s POV, and that the writing style changed between the two to show differences between narrators. It is nice to see how clouded Vegeta’s judgement is in the beginning of the story throughout the literary use of Vegeta as an unreliable narrator. I think it is safe to say that Bulma’s POV is damaged by her hate dungeon dragon, but it is nice to see the flip side of the coin. Lisalu was ingenious in how she slipped in seemingly fluffy adjectives that were later explained through the differing POV’s. The first two chapters almost read like an epic poem, think Illiad/Oddesy, and I would like to imagine this was intentional because of the narrator being Vegeta. At this point in his life he still believes himself to be the savior of worlds, a hero to be worshiped and pleased. Untouchable and Godlike. After his first defeat with Jeice (BTW so glad this was not another Frieza story) the writing softens, showing how Vegeta is beginning to crack. Then again after Vegeta is tortured and brought back to Vegeta-sei, the writing style is changed yet again. The words that are picked give the feeling of timidity and unease. After Vegeta regains his memories the style is a nice blend between the two, symbolizing Vegeta’s broken self melding with his former arrogant self. I loved Vegeta’s POV because of the subtle changes Lisalu made to signify the narrator’s journey. Quite impressive writing on her part. As for Bulma’s POV, I thought it was a nice addition to show her views, and it was nice to her “in her own words” her feelings and motivations. I loved that nod to the fact that Bulma would 100 percent want her story and part of her to live on for the memory of her peoples and for her kids. However, I had some issues with the diary. First, I find it hard to believe that Bulma would want to give an account of her time at Vegeta-sei and not detail the cultural and political histories of her home world. During the story it was so important to her that the children were told legends and sang Madrani songs, so I can imagine that she would want to put some of that in her diary. Although, for plot device of getting her story to Vegeta I can completely let that slide. One other big issue I have with it is, if I am writing a diary, I would not write (or speak) the way Bulma chose to tell her story. I am not going to give the types of details that Bulma gave. I would probably use the damn this to let my feelings out into the void. So some of the believability was dampened for me in this aspect. I will argue with myself again and say that this narration issue begins when Bulma starts to break. At the beginning of the diary (when she is still with Raditz) the story telling is way more believable, and as the diary continues it becomes more detailed and almost like she is trying too hard to tell each aspect of her story. Perhaps this is a side effect of her own madness that is taking hold? I don't know, honestly, but this particular it was not as successful as it was with Vegeta for myself.
Even the antagonists have incredibly plausible reasons for being bad. Shit Bulma creates weapons of mass destruction and you can’t blame her for her reasoning. This story is ultimately about shades of grey, not everything is black and white. No one in this story is a good person. No one is a bad person. They are like Bulma states several times just people. People with their own thoughts, feelings, agendas and lives. Jeice is a horrible monster for this story, he nukes whole planets, deploys what is a killer virus onto a whole galaxy (pretty much), takes survivors of the attacks and places them in torture chamber designed for the entertainment of others, yet I can’t say that what he did was inherently evil. Ok so he was a total ass and went way overboard, but he went completely mad with his wife being raped to death and his kid being killed in an equally terrible way. He went overboard and let the “hate dragon” take hold. He is not really evil, mentally unstable is more like it. His ACTIONS are pure unadulterated evil, but he is not. We see this throughout the story of how the narrator will paint people or races of people as total monsters, only to have them redeem themselves. Zarbon, befriends Bulma and pays with his life trying to protect her. His love for Scopa really drove him to the edge of madness when Scopa was killed, but his redeeming moments were all done out of love for his fallen lover. Horda, who is a “Red Demon”, the same race of people as Jeice, shows his distaste for the treatment of the Sayians, even though they are responsible for the brutal death of his daughter (Jeice’s mate). He even teaches Vegeta how to overcome the block of his Ki sickness (the side effect of the Virus). Granted he did not know Vegeta was Sayian, but this is yet another insight to how people are only good or bad through the eyes of whichever narrator is speaking. If I stretch a bit here, maybe LisaLu is trying to tell us something about our own prejudice's? I can say a lot about this fic, it can be taken at face value, it can be a tale of heroism and its faults, it can be a tale of rebirth and redemption and it can be a warning about racism and the effects of hate and prejudice.
This is another tale I almost wish would have ended sadly. A huge part of me wanted the story to be over when Vegeta died in the Circus. It is plausible for Dende to have created and used the dragon balls to raise Vegeta, and ultimately these characters really fucking needed a break, so I can let it slide. This story is described as dark in its authors notes, and kami-dammit is it ever fucking dark. There are graphic descriptions of rape, mental illness (although you may not realize the illness as what it is), suicide, torture, war, violence, illness. This is not a story for the faint of heart. Although I do think this story says something about culture and society. I really think that while Lisalu wanted to write a story about a “What-if” Bulma was taken to Vegeta-sei, what he actually wrote was a story about hate. What hate does to your heart and soul. In the end of the story, Bulma has transformed into an angel who delivers the universe from hatred. She is the Jesus figure of this story. She had several moments when she was being broken down, and ultimately she “died” when her mind broke in MedCenter. She was resurrected through love of her Children. She became the savior by designing true protective gear for the galaxy and entrapping “evil” on Shakaji. Those who could not look past their own “hate dragons” were dammed, and judgement rang down on them from Bulma. She rescued those who were good hearted (notice, not pure hearted) and dammed those who let hate fester.
This fucking story was amazing. The more I think about it, the more I see in it. I liked it while I was reading it, but it wasn't until I sat down and began thinking about what all I wanted to say that I realized just how fantastic this story truly was. I can honestly say I have not read another story quite up to the level of this in the world of fan fiction (and I have been reading fan fiction on and off since the late 1990′s). I am new to DB fandom, but I have to say that I am so impressed with the artists/creators in this fandom. It seems as though every day I am introduced to another stellar artist.
With that being said shout out to @brinker-hadley for suggesting one of LisaLu’s fics. I found a website with a few more of hers that I will peruse a bit. But if there is a fic out there that any of you wonderful people think I need to read - let me know!
If you liked this review, after you check out this fic, head over to my A03 and check my stuff out too!
Last year I wrote a tribute post to Lisalu, a DBZ fic author I idolized as a young fan. Today I got this comment:
This feels like running into a high school classmate in a random place hundreds of miles away from our hometown.
I'm also dumbstruck that someone else can actually notice Lisalu's influence on my writing style. I read her works when I was in middle school all the way to college when she moved on from DBZ and abandoned the Red Dragon Tetralogy on a cliffhanger. I was heartbroken, and some part of me still is decades later, knowing that this beloved series will never be finished. Her writing captured my imagination like few pieces of fiction ever have since then. I wanted to write like her, to be capable of thinking up massive multiverse-type plots and master each character's voice and so many other things she was great at. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that my sentence structure and other elements of my style must take after hers.
Any other fans of Lisalu out there? (Shouting into the void) I'm no longer active in the DBZ fandom but it has an irreplaceable place in my heart. I would love to connect with anyone from that era of DBZ fic.
#Repost @candinielove with @repostapp ・・・ Candinie girls w the legendary award winning actress, producer, n first Chinese Oscar The Academy Judge, Lisa Lu. So honored to meet n having good moments w her at the @worldfesthouston. We look forward to meeting you again Lisa. #✌️ #lisalu #celebrity #legendaryactress #honour #actress #producer #houston #worldfest #filmfestival #awards #guests #thankful #veteran #respect #chineseactress #joyluckclub #awardwinningactress #💞 #☺️ #🙌 (at George Bush Intercontinental Airport)
Son Gokuko aka “Go-chan” from the Lisalu fanfic Series “Red Dragon Tetralogy” from the early days of fandom.
in the fic she’s the last child of Goku and Chichi, concieved after Goku uses the dragonballs to make “all those who are or will be mated to those of saiyan blood to be given a lifespan equal to that of their mates’”. Unfortunately, Frieza’s son/child Gurasia (who does exist and yet does not exist) takes advantage of this wish by tipping the emotional and mental facet of the bond in Go-chan’s mind so that he will mature in time to fight a multiversal war.
the fic says that she has her father’s windmill spikes but I wanted to make it so that she has more of her mother’s hair. The Blue vest is a cllback to both Goku’s childhood Gi as well as the outfit Chichi wore in the Budokai Tenkaichi tournament in Dragonball
Fan art of Son "Go-chan" Gokuko from the old Lisalu fanfic series "The Red Dragon Tetrology". I know it says in the fic that she has "her father's windmill spikes" but I decided to make it so that the left side has a tendency to lie flat while the right side sticks up; I also added little side lengths similar to what Chi-Chi had during the tournament
A PERSONAL IMAGE VIDEO by #lisalu for #wompromoeurope #makeup #hairstyle #stylist #wardrobestylist #carltonbar #zürichcity #fashionblogger #fashion #marlenedietrich #bürkliplatz #paradeplatz #belle (hier: Carlton Restaurant)
