#tagoma

[bliss-wily]

Including Nappa because he was Vegeta's in a sense but...what's a villain without their henchmen? Or other employees... (presuming paid roles but who knows hehe!)

Just an appreciation post for those who tend to get lost amongst such a wide cast of characters y'know? I understand some are more popular than others but still - they all have their own charm.

[jogremyogre]

Putting together some designs from my Piccolo story's 4th arc, Infinite Kingdom. Timeline wise, this would be roughly early Z, thus their younger ages. The idea is that after the death of Lord Slug, Piccolo takes up his mantle and eventually reforms a new Slug Clan. Shisami and Tagoma were a pair of weak losers pretending to be members of the Ginyu Force, and they end up becoming Piccolo's loyal followers after he saves them and Cheelai from some trouble. Believing Piccolo's false identity as Lord Slug, Shisami and Tagoma find the fact that Piccolo killed all the Namekians "Totally rad", and "Badass", much to Piccolo's personal shame and anguish.

The arm on Piccolo's back is actually Lord Slug's, given to Piccolo as a parting gift and imbued with the last of his life force, but Piccolo lets people believe that it's some war trophy from some powerful Namekian he killed. (Piccolo is very edgy and depressed in this arc, being an angsty teenager).

[universe2snumber1fan]

This started as a "what if Vegeta never killed Tagoma!Ginyu" thought and I just ran with it

(And of course I had to make it about them somehow hehe)

[sundove88]

DBZ: Waves of Freedom Chapter 5: Ebb And Flow

A smile crossed Vegeta’s face as he made his way through the halls of Empire Oil Drilling Corps, making his way to Frieza’s office with the letter in hand, he knew exactly what he was doing. It was only early morning, so Frieza wasn’t in his office at the time, but he knew this was the perfect opportunity to get the letter there and then out of there. As he took the first steps into the office of his cruel boss, he left the letter there and wiped the sweat off his brow. He almost felt finally free- all that was left was to become a merman and he would never have to be restrained again. As he took the first steps into the office of his cruel boss, he left the letter there and wiped the sweat off his brow. He almost felt finally free- all that was left was to become a merman and he would never have to be restrained again. But then… he saw it. Something chilling. Something unnatural. Something… that could be used to take a life. A harpoon, made with whaling grade steel, lay on his desk. Next to it, there was a note that read the following: “Harpoon that savage fish and you shall be free.” -F. Vegeta was livid. He knew that Frieza was doing this to make him reinforce his loyalty to him. “No… why would I harm someone who has shown me so much?!”, he said to himself, the metal weapon trembling in his hands. He turned to Frieza’s portrait, and then to the ocean… and saw his chance. But instead of throwing it at someone, he slammed it into the water cooler, piercing it and sending water gushing out onto the floor. Vegeta breathed a sigh of relief. “Good riddance, you hellhole of a company.” Mere moments after Vegeta left the office and hurried down to the beach, he was more confident than ever, and he approached Goku, who was holding the crystal shell in his hands and was ready to take him to someplace where his transformation could be initiated. “Ready to go, Best Buddy?”, asked the merman as he placed the crystal shell in Vegeta’s hand. The young employee just smiled and nodded gratefully. “Yes, Kakarot. More than anything.”, he said, immediately following Goku into the water, followed by one last look at the city he had been confined to for years. Swimming in his office clothing with his swim trunks beneath them felt strange, but it was nothing compared to what would happen next.

Just mere moments after they left for the secret place where Vegeta could be changed into a merman, Frieza had already read through the resignation letter and was fuming with anger. “WHAT?! WHERE DID HE GO?! EXPLAIN!” He screeched as he crumpled the letter in his fist, the paper crunching loudly in the tense silence of the office. The normally timid Appule approached his boss, pointing to the open window near his desk. “Maybe he drowned?”, he asked, hoping that Frieza would believe him, but to no avail. Frieza’s glare intensified at those words, making Appule shrink back in fear. “Do you take me for a fool, Appule? Find him or else. Now.” His words seethed with anger and rage. In the break room, the atmosphere was thick with unease. The usual chatter was replaced by worried whispers as employees gathered, sipping their morning coffee. Zarbon and Dodoria stood near the coffee machine, their expressions mirroring the tension in the air. “Have you heard about Vegeta?”, questioned Zarbon as he sipped his coffee. Dodoria stood by Zarbon. “Yeah, he didn’t show up to work today. That’s not like him at all,” he answered. Sorbet, Tagoma, and Shisami joined the conversation in the break room. “Do you think something happened to him?”, started Sorbet. Shisami nodded in response. “It’s possible. He’s been under a lot of pressure lately.” “I heard Frieza found a resignation letter. Can you imagine the fallout?”, added Tagoma.

The Ginyus then entered the room, their faces full of worry and theories about how Vegeta could’ve just disappeared off the face of the earth. Recoome went first. “What makes you think he drowned?!”, he said. “He’s a strong swimmer!” Guldo claimed as he drew out a diagram of Vegeta’s possible escape. Ginyu supported the claim. “There is no way he could’ve just jumped out the window like that!”, he added as he drew the height of the building. “And it’s one long way down to the streets below…” Jeice added. “He could’ve faceplanted!”, yelled Burter. Zarbon shook his head. “This doesn’t make sense. Vegeta wouldn’t just leave without a word. There must be more to this.”, he said. Dodoria agreed with his coworker. “Frieza is going to be furious. We need to stay out of his way.”, he replied as sweat dripped down. The tension in the room was palpable as everyone exchanged worried glances. The implications of Vegeta’s sudden departure are not lost on any of them. Meanwhile, at the office, Appule stood by the open window, staring out at the city below. The sound of the waves crashing against the shore in the distance reaches his ears, a reminder of the nearby ocean. “Maybe he really did drown… or maybe…” he muttered to himself. He then glanced back at Frieza, who was pacing the room with fury over the disappearance of his “best employee”. Maybe he found a way to escape. But how? Appule thought to himself. But little did he know, he was closer to the truth than anyone else.

While chaos was going on back at Empire Oil Drilling Corps, Goku and Vegeta had made it to the secret location where Vegeta could undergo the transformation into a merman, even though it would cost him his life on land and any connections he made on land. They had chosen a secret cove, free from prying eyes and any lingering suspicion that could possibly expose them. Goku smiled as Vegeta held out the crystal shell for him to take. “Are you ready, Vegeta? Once you do this, there’s no going back.” He said as he placed the crystal shell to Vegeta’s chest, its glow beginning to intensify. “Yes. I can’t wait to start my new life, to be honest.”, Vegeta replied as he began to contemplate what color his merman tail would be. “I like the sound of that. Anyways; if there’s a color you’d like your new fins to be, just tell me now before the transformation starts.”, Goku reassured as he held Vegeta’s hand to keep him steady. “Blue… it’s always been my favorite color. It’s been the color of royalty, the ocean, and of course, sapphires- a gem I always connect to the ocean with.”, he said as he fully embraced the shell as he pressed it against his chest, and upon doing so, his body began to contort into uncomfortable poses due to the seemingly crushing water pressure, and a large teal bubble swallowed him whole. “Don’t be afraid, Vegeta. The crystal shell will do the rest.”, Goku added as the changes began as the crushing feeling went away and Vegeta relaxed himself within the bubble.

Wanting nothing more than for his muscles to relax at last, Vegeta decided to let the shell’s magic flow through his human body, with an ethereal golden whirlpool forming around his lower half. As he felt the ethereal forces caressing him and his ebony hair flow freely in the current in the bubble, his corporate office wear disintegrated into gentle flakes of foam, fading away as if the cage of his old life was finally being broken; and was then left in his swimwear as the changes began to continue. Inside the ethereal golden vortex, Vegeta’s legs sprouted scales of ultramarine, cobalt, and royal blue, and as more scales appeared akin to butterfly kisses, his swim trunks disintegrated into foam as well, only for the waistband to remain and change into the transparent light blue belt fin that would adorn his tail. The changes to his legs followed, with them elongating and morphing as the changes took hold, and the same went for his feet- they became webbed with the same transparent light blue material that made up his belt fin, and the webbing between his toes grew until they overcame his feet and became transparent light blue fins, which fanned out and burst from the bottom of the golden vortex surrounding Vegeta. With all of his strength, he formed a perfect arch with his lower half, effectively fusing the two halves of his new tail together into a singular limb, the space between the two halves effectively being reduced to nothing.

As the bubble finally burst in a flash of light and the golden swirl faded away, Vegeta forgot that he could breathe underwater, and started panicking and flailing, oblivious to the fact that he had obtained gills. Goku, being supportive as ever, swam over and helped him to the surface for his first breath of air as a merman. “It’s ok, Vegeta. Anyone who’s been turned into a merperson doesn’t know they can breathe underwater, but they’ve got someone to help them through it.”, he said, before gesturing to Vegeta’s submerged lower torso. “And guess what? You have a tail! You’re a merman now!”, he shouted excitedly, causing Vegeta to snap out of his panic attack and look down in awe, letting out a wordless gasp as his fins swished in the water around him, alongside scales that glimmered in the sunlit water, while the remaining sparkles and a few wisps of golden mist from the transformation on the tip of his tailfin faded away into the water surrounding him. “I… I can’t believe it. It’s real.”, he said to himself. He swished his tail experimentally, marveling at the power and fluidity it gave him. As he gazed towards the sunlight from where he was in the ocean, tears of joy filled his eyes, as proof that he would never be confined again. The sensation of freedom was overwhelming, and for the first time in a long while, he felt truly alive. But more than anything, he had found his true voice- one that not even Frieza could silence. He checked his whole body, and saw that his clothes, the very shackles that were condemning him to life on land, were gone. Thrilled, he noticed the Empire Oil Drilling Corps button backed pin on the seafloor, the last clothing item he ever had of his old life, picked it up, and threw it into the depths of the ocean, where he’d never see it again. Farewell, Empire Oil Drilling Corps. He thought as the pin splashed into the water and straight towards the sandy bottom of the sea.

“Let’s take this baby for a test run!”, he said before diving underwater. In a moment, he leapt out of the water in a perfect arch akin to a whale breaching the waves, the sunlight dancing off his scales and making it look like a waterfall of sapphires. He landed back in the ocean with a splash that sent up water droplets that glistened in the light, thrilled to be free at last. “Haha, now that’s what I’m talking about! You’ve suffered and endured so much on land, but look at where you are now! With that being said, let’s get you settled in.”, Goku replied, but not before Vegeta tackle hugged him, his royal blue tail intertwining with Goku’s orange fins. “Thank you, Kakarot. For everything. For bringing me home.”, he replied, tears of joy filling his eyes once more, as they floated up to the surface via a stream of silver bubbles, bidding the world above farewell. “You’re more than welcome, best buddy. There’s so much more I wanna show you, and learning how to swim like a merman is the first amongst them.”, Goku said. “That sounds perfect. I could really use the lesson,” replied Vegeta as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Race you to Atlantis, best buddy!”, Goku shouted as he took off across the coral reef. Vegeta immediately tried to catch up, his royal blue tail cutting through the water like a sailfish. “Wait up, Kakarot! You know I can’t swim like you just yet!”, he replied playfully before doing a spinner dolphin like leap out of the water to try and best his friend, and he accidentally scattered a conga line of multicolored fish when he dove back in. Luckily, the fish immediately went back into their positions, as if nothing had happened. “See how peaceful and gentle life is down here?”, Goku said excitedly. “Yes, and I’ve never felt so alive!”, Vegeta laughed, followed by him doing a corkscrew through the water.

They were now off to explore the vast ocean and get Vegeta settled into a new life beneath the waves in Atlantis. It was everything he had always wanted, and he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

The End

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 019

Oh great, we’re doing Res F.

Okay, so this is often regarded as the low point of Dragon Ball Super, probably because of the same slipshod animation seen in the previous episodes, but this arc also has the hurdle of adapting Resurrection F, which wasn’t nearly as good as Battle of Gods.  Frankly, the plot of the BoG movie was the only thing going for Episodes 1-14, and here, Episodes 19-28 are trying to do the same task without that advantage. 

I wouldn’t call this the worst of Super.  My personal least favorite still lies ahead.  I’ll say two positives about this arc.

1) It’s nice and short.  At ten episodes, it doesn’t have time to be too offensive.  Then again, I might have said the same thing about GT’s Super 17 arc, but it was pretty vile when I rewatched it recently.

2) Resurrection F wasn’t great, but it wasn’t that bad, either.  It lacks the complexities of BoG, Broly, and Super Hero, but if you judge it by the standards of the 20th Century DBZ films, it holds up just fine.  One thing that works to the arc’s favor is that Res F doesn’t spend a lot of time on fluff, so there’s not like an episode and a half about a party, or pointless cuts to check in on Oolong or Ox King to see what they think about what’s happening.  And while I hate to say it, Frieza has the star power to drag both the movie and this arc out of the bottom tier. 

Having said all of that, I’ll repeat my critiques of the movie.   Bringing Frieza back was a mistake.  This franchise doesn’t do rogues’ galleries like Batman and Spider-Man, usually because the bad guys get killed once they lose. And I think Resurrection F pretty well illustrates why that is.  Frieza comes back, but he just makes all the same mistakes that got him killed the first time. 

Indeed, this story seems to be about Frieza’s utter refusal to change as a character.  The reason Broly was such a success was that they brought back the Broly concept, but retooled him into a more sympathetic character, one audiences could get emotionally invested in.  Super Hero saw the revival of the Red Ribbon Army, but that worked because it came back through new characters instead of re-hashing the old ones.  Commander Red is replaced with Magenta; Dr. Gero is succeeded by Dr. Hedo.  Carmine is the new Staff Officer Black.  The Gammas are the new androids, and Cell Max is the new Cell.  Everything is familiar, but different. 

In Resurrection F, the only real difference is that Frieza’s soldiers are weaker, and Frieza himself is a lot stronger.  But so what?  Frieza’s soldiers were always cannon fodder, especially compared to Frieza himself.  And the original conceit of Frieza was that he was the strongest being in the universe, so making him stronger doesn’t really change him as a person.  All it really does is re-calibrate him to the top of the power scale, and he was already at the top before.  And when he was on top, he still lost.  It raises the question: Why would anyone bother reviving him in the first place?  His enemies certainly don’t miss him, and even his most loyal henchmen have to accept that he lost, so what good is he?

To be fair, the movie at least tried to tackle that problem through their depiction of the Frieza Force.  Their commander, Sorbet, was a minor administrator during Frieza’s lifetime, but he’s spent the last eighteen years trying to keep the organization running, doing everything he can to hold on to their remaining territory.  It’s to his credit that he’s managed to keep the Force alive as long as he has, but it’s an exercise in futility.  In this episode, he’s informed that sixty percent of his troops have been lost, and the only sensible orders he can give are “retreat” and “withdraw”. 

The only way out he can see is to bring Frieza back with the Dragon Balls, which is literally wishful thinking.  He’s had teams working on this, but they can’t locate the Namekians’ new homeworld, so that’s not an option, and the only other set of Dragon Balls are on Earth, the home of the Super Saiyans who defeated Frieza in the first place.  It’s too dangerous, but Sorbet’s position has now become so desperate that he sees no alternative. 

And that’s what makes him so interesting to me, because Sorbet does have an alternative, but he refuses to see it.  He could dissolve the Frieza Force and accept defeat.  Much of their best talent have already left, because they understood that the Force was nothing without Frieza to back it up.  That’s how Sorbet wound up running things.  It’s not that he’s untalented or unfit for command, but the important thing that keeps him in charge is that he’s the only one left willing to do the job. 

This refusal to quit is both Sorbet’s greatest strength and flaw all rolled into one.  He’s capable enough to run this organization, but all he’s really done is delay its inevitable collapse.  A better leader would have enough vision to let the Frieza Force die, or at least repurpose it into something more productive, but Sorbet’s best bet is to try to turn back the clock and relive the good old days.  

So this makes Sorbet a pretty fascinating character, but this all gets overshadowed by his own plan.  Once Frieza returns, he barely matters, and he gets killed off unceremoniously during the final battle.  The big problem with Res F if that it brings up a lot of interesting themes-- failure, second chances, the futility of revenge-- but it refuses to explore any of them.

One other interesting idea was the way Sorbet’s crew don’t really understand what Frieza meant to the Frieza Force.   Either they’re too young to remember what it was like back then, or they were too far-removed from Frieza’s person to understand just how powerful he was.  Sorbet tries to explain it to them, accompanied by flashback of Frieza destroying Planet Vegeta, but he can’t communicate it with words.  He shows them a computer projection that says Frieza’s power would give them control over 70% of the known universe or something, but that doesn’t convince them much.  Tagoma just asks if the numbers are accurate.  In the end, Sorbet’s men are more accustomed to Sorbet as their leader.  For them, Frieza is just a legend, while Sorbet is the trusted commander working tirelessly for their cause. They only go along with his scheme because it was his idea.

So they go to Earth, but Sorbet insists on going in person, without Shisami or any other powerful warriors, since the Saiyans can sense power levels.  A guy like Shisami would give away what they’re doing.  Thanks to their spy drones, they track down the Pilaf Gang as they collect the Dragon Balls, then Sorbet and Tagoma swoop in to jump their claim. 

Basically, things play out like they did in the movie, except for two differences.  First, Shenron offers three wishes instead of just two.  I’m not sure what that means, but apparently someone thought it was important enough to add a third wish to this story for the second go-round.  Mai uses it to wish for gourmet ice cream. 

Second, Captain Ginyu is somehow there to bear witness to this event.  We’ll get to him later, but for now all that matters is that he’s a frog and he’s very interested in this development.

Meanwhile, Goku and Vegeta are off training on Beerus’ planet in their dumb Res F costumes.  Whis is so much faster than they are that he dodges all their attacks and even has time to write his name on their titties without them even noticing. 

Whis also takes a moment to discuss their weaknesses in battle.  He says Vegeta is too high-strung, and his inability to relax causes him to overthink during battle, which holds him back.  On the other hand, Goku is too relaxed, to the point where he gets overconfident and lets his guard down.  These aren’t new problems.  Goku nearly whizzed the 23rd World Tournament when he assumed Piccolo Junior was defeated, and then looked away during a ten count and gave Piccolo a chance to maim him with a ki blast.  Meanwhile, pretty much every decision Vegeta has ever done in this franchise has been clouded by his misplaced priorities.  He first invaded Earth to wish for immortality, but then he kept fighting long after victory and his prize were denied him.  He trained to defeat the androids and Cell, then kept passing up chances to win because he was more interested in getting bigger victories that never materialized.  I think his run as “Majin Vegeta” pretty much speaks for itself.

And while that makes for some interesting character analysis, the problem I have with this arc is that it spends more time on Goku and Vegeta’s development than on villains, who are sort of the focus of the movie.  There’s no exploration of Frieza’s character flaw, no quiet moment where Frieza realizes just how pointless life and death have become for him now.  The bad guys just show up to attack the Earth and die. 

Anyway, getting back to Frieza, Shenron can resurrect him, but he can’t restore his body, which was cut to pieces and vaporized by Trunks.  I’m not sure if this is because of the time that’s passed or the sheer extent of the damage Trunks did when he killed him.  Oh, wait, maybe it’s because of Frieza being a cyborg at the time?  Anyway, he comes back as chunks, but the Frieza Force has greatly improved their medical technology over the years, so they think they can stitch him back together, even when Shenron can’t.

And it works, which is kind of scary in itself.  Right before he died, the best his doctors could do was to rebuild him as a cyborg.  Now, they can put pieces of him in a tank of goop and regenerate his entire body.  I mean, part of this is owed to Frieza’s incredible resilience.  He survived getting cut in half (horizontally, anyway) and he survived multiple blasts from a Super Saiyan, and he survived Namek exploding in his face.  I’m not sure you could toss Guldo’s head in the modern medical machine and perform the same miracle on Guldo.   But still, this is a frightening level of advancement.  If Sorbet had been a smarter leader, he might have reorganized the Frieza Force into a network of hospitals, but no. 

Meanwhile, Goku’s spider-sense goes off, but he doesn’t know how or why.  “You don’t have a spider-sense, you idiot!” Vegeta tells him. 

[dragonsballsz]

vegeta on namek: ok fine kakarot i’ll spare ginyu

vegeta, 17 years later: hello naughty children it’s murder time

[good-frieza-pictures]

[adrpostsrandom]

more art of sorbet

😍🥚🐨💖🏔