That's correct too, honestly this timeline needs as much happiness as it can get

I'd love it if Bulma got all stressed and/or excited over meeting Trunks's girlfriend, only for that 'girlfriend' to turn out to be #16 coming over to introduce Trunks to birdwatching or something like that (would be quite wholesome too). 1 Replie(s)

Just been thinking - King Piccolo is released by the Pilaf Gang in Age 753 in U18 isn't he?

With this page occuring in U3 in Age 752, I see three sets of possibilities:

a) King Piccolo was somehow released earlier here and is already causing havoc. The saiyans' arrival will force Kami to fuse with him.

b) The saiyans spend a year trashing Earth. Pilaf releases King Piccolo around the same time as in canon for his own ends. The King later fuses with Kami to defeat the saiyans. Kami hopes his influence will temper King Piccolo's subsequent rampage.

c) Someone or a group releases King Piccolo early specifically to combat the saiyans, hoping Piccolo is more amicable. Kami, knowing King Piccolo won't be enough, fuses with him afterwards. Perhaps Kami himself is the one who released Piccolo, as not many people know Piccolo was a real figure and not myth, that he's imprisoned (or even still alive), let alone that he could trounce the saiyans if fused with Kami. That rules out a lot of people. 2 Replie(s)

I wonder if this is when Kami voluntarily fused with King Piccolo - he may have seen him as the lesser of two evils here in a villain-on-villain war. The saiyans upon arrival may try to systematically eradicate human life entirely within days or weeks, whilst King Piccolo at least takes his time sadistically culling humanity for his own pleasure akin to the cyborgs - he values the planet and its inhabitants as his only source of (twisted) entertainment. That's not to mention the positive influence from Kami building up within King Piccolo either. Kami might recognise that the demon taking his sweet time with slaughter may result in some of humanity surviving long enough to see Piccolo be 'corrupted' enough by Kami's essence to reform or at least stop killing.

So this version of Goku may have more experience with casual fights that the U18 one in 761, assuming he's become a turtle school master and therefore trained more over the last 5 years. Also, the lack of Piccolo Jr. at the 23rd tournament means the 24th may not have been delayed for such a long time as the arena was likely never destroyed - Goku may have won that (and possibly faced Mr. Satan in the process). That being said, he would likely have never taken the ultra divine water or trained with Kami - now he's killed King Piccolo he may never do so.

Let's hope nothing bad happens for a while, because the team are now without dragon balls and don't know what Namek is (plus Goku doesn't really have experience fighting foes stronger than himself excluding Tao and Roshi at this point). Unless Gohan, Chichi and other turtle school recruits are massively competent, I'm not sure the group could take out Raditz if he arrived later in 761, let alone any of the stronger villains unless they just spammed the Mafuba. 1 Replie(s)

Possibly, but considering how close Buu's glowing head tentacle is to the XXI chess piece I'd say it more represents how these two impossibly skilled magicians could quite easily eliminate if not kill each other if given the chance. With XXI's 'hand' threatening to crush Buu's chess piece and Buu's head tentacle preparing to point-blank obliterate XXI's piece, they essentially have the other tournament 'chessmaster' in 'check'. I think strategy is going to be extremely important here, as it will determine who will be able to make that winning strike first and 'checkmate' the other.

I love the extra details of this cover, such as the clusters of their previous opponents' figures next to Buu and XII. If every other fight in the tournament could be described as a series of maneuvers on a 2-dimensional chessboard (like with the upcoming Bra vs. Gast), the fact that XII and Buu's figures are floating above it goes to show that they, even if no-one else notices, aren't playing by the tournament rulebook here (or perhaps even any laws of physics in Dragonball). They're the masterminds - every rule and law, be it devised by a sapient duck for a tournament or fundamental to our understanding of reality, bends to them.

Are you confusing XXI with Dr. Raichi or Gast? As far as I'm aware, XXI hasn't actively fought anyone so far. 1 Replie(s)

I think the crystallised remains of the opponent stick to them, weighing them down and leaving them wide open for a counterattack