Dragonball Re-watch with the Kids

[TheMikado]

Background
I typically refrain from posting personal information but after starting a re-watch with my kids I realized how valuable their impressions were. So to preface this, my kids are 7 (boy), 5 (girl), and 3(boy). The have a bit of experience with Pokemon and really enjoy the XY series. Thus they have familiarity with serialized formats as well as the “monster of the week” format. When I began watching with my kids, I was actually re-watching part of the Buu saga and they seemed to love the tournament aspect. Especially the junior tournament. When I noticed that their interest I decided to start them back at the beginning of the Funi-Z dub. All series we watch are the original Funimation dubs on their streaming service.
I will give some partial notes on this since I didn’t think to chronicle it:
My daughter loves Gohan. I her words: He’s sweet and nice and really strong. She likes the wilderness training and the robot filler and really likes the interactions between him and Piccolo. I found it interesting because she picked up on exactly how the character is intended to be portrayed.
My oldest son loves Goku. He thinks Goku is really cool and the personality of my older son and Goku are actually pretty similar so I can definitely see the connection there.
To make this more interesting the Z filler of Goku interacting with Gohan really hits home as my older son is the protective “big brother” of his sister. Thus them seeing both themselves and the dynamic they share between each other probably is what really brings this home for them.
My youngest son seems to like short powerful characters, so Krillin, saibamen, and then finally Vegeta. Probably because he is 3 and that’s the way he sees himself at this stage. As a short(small) but still capable. He doesn’t really seem to process much beyond the characters fighting and small characters beating up bigger characters, but when he does see it he will sit and watch a whole episode and will actually get really excited and root for those characters. As such I probably won’t be writing much about his reactions.
Before I get into the Z re-watch too much I decided to take a break recently and explore the other components of the franchise to gauge their reactions and tried each equally.

Super:
This was the first one I tried because I was also checking it out. I trying this one a long time ago with the first episode premiered. I figured they would enjoy it as it would be similar in art quality to Pokemon XY. My son’s fight impressions were asking why Goku was acting so lazy. He was referring to the radish crop. They were also incredibly confused by Goten/Goku and Gohan. I decided it was probably a bad idea to through them in here with little context. That’s when I decided to start the re-watch from Z.
I recently came back to it and tried them on Episode 32. I figured that would be a good introduction and jump off point for the tournament. Things they immediately noticed were the “fart” jokes of Buu. They also referred to Goku and Vegeta with beards as “Old Man Goku/Vegeta”. They didn’t seem amused by it… While they had no real context for the characters they did understand the interactions. One the things that rubbed my son the wrong way was watching Goku punch Monaka in the face “for no reason”. To which my daughter asked why Goku was being “mean”. I explained that he was testing him and accidentally hit him. Also the nipple jokes weren’t doing it for them either.
At the start of the tournament we have Goku against Botamo. Now remember my kids have been watching Z and developed expectations on Goku’s approach to fighting. Super had a sequence where Goku is doing “exercises” to prepare for the fight. The first thing my son asks is, what is he doing exercises for and why is he so happy all the time. My son was referencing the n n eyes. It isn’t really noticeable unless you are watching Z and immediately switch to Super like we did. I actually counted from that point forward and he did it like 3 more times. It was definitely overused. Anyway we watched two episodes with the Botamo fight and Frost. My son asked if we could watch something else after the 1st episode and my daughter asked for “regular Dragon Ball Z” after the second. I ended up testing my next one which was the Dragon Ball anime. I did attempt to return to Super following introducing them to GT. I even let them pick the episode and they chose episode two which is the Vegeta-resort episode. They seemed to enjoy it more but splice of life episodes were always Super’s strongest points. This is the series I dedicated the most episodes to out of the other series in order to counter my own bias against it and I really made and effort to present episodes which I thought may appeal to my kids. My intent was to allow to draw their own conclusions of the show on its own merits.

Original Dragon Ball:
So I hadn’t seen this at all since I was in middle school. I remember watching it when it was airing but not enjoying it as much as Dragonball Z. Recently I rated it as the lowest rating of all the series. Upon re-watch especially with my kids I gained a new appreciation for it. I’m actually really sorry I didn’t do this re-watch sooner. So the series opens with kid Goku rolling a giant log and carrying a huge saw. My son’s reaction to this is, “OMG that’s so dangerous, look at what Goku’s doing!” My daughter, who had been around when I screened the first 5 minutes of the episode said he should wait to see what else Goku can do. Sure enough Goku rolled the log to his house and then proceeded to push the log into neatly stacked firewood. My son was incredibly impressed. Next Goku enters his empty home and again my son is in disbelief. “He’s just a kid and he gets to live alone by himself?” I explained that his grandfather died and Goku has to take care of himself. Which is when we see Goku doing his daily chores of hunting/fishing etc. I could tell both my kids were impressed by that idea. This was a real contrast to what my son considered Goku in Super to be lazy and incompetent. Goku of course meets Bulma and my kids find that whole exchange hilarious. They were shocked that Bulma pulled out a gun on Goku, and more shocked that Goku survived it. The gun scene happens repeatedly so watching this makes the idea of a bullet hurting Goku even more bizarre when he’s older. This also brings up a good point on my struggle to decide to let my kids watch Dragonball, it has a ton of questionable scenes and nudity. In the first and second episode Goku does a number of things completely naked, and its frontal nudity. I decided it was best to allow it because it is natural, not sexual in nature. The Roshi stuff is still cringeworthy and I had to talk to my kids about appropriate behavior later, so I took that opportunity as a teachable moment.
As far as the nudity in general, kids obviously get a kick out of that idea. Goku was doing a number of things in the nude and the prospect of doing that would be entertaining. Continuing on, Goku saving Bulma was a great scene and the first few episodes introduced a number of different concepts. Number one, Goku likes thrills and rides. 2, Goku is not an idiot, he figured out how to work a motorcycle to the point where he chased down the monster who kidnapped Bulma. 3) The power pole is a cool weapon. 4) Flying Nimbus and how it works. 5) The Dragonballs 6) Emperor Pilaf and Roshi as recurring characters.
My kids loved it and didn’t really want to stop. They even commented that it looked more like “real” Dragon ball and they immediately picked up the difference in art style and seem to like that grainy look.
But alas I wanted to get good impressions so I moved on to GT.

Dragon Ball GT:
Now this was a tough one because I already knew they would be missing a lot of context. One of the very first things my kids noticed was that Emperor Pilaf was really old looking and so were Shue and Mai. To which again I explained it was because this show was much later. “But Goku doesn’t look old” and that’s when I realized that they really need to watch everything preceding this to understand. Anyway, the kids were excited to see what would happen with the black star dragonballs. And when the red dragon appeared my kids weren’t too happy. My son immediately generated theories based on appearance. “He’s not green, he’s red! He must be an evil dragon. Are the red and green dragons going to fight?” I’m not sure where he would even get the idea of evil dragons and having to fight them but apparently that was a logically conclusion to draw in a kid’s mind just from the first episode. Anyway, the kids weren’t too impressed by this series. They found Vegeta’s mustache humorous and my daughter liked Pan and loved the exchanges between her favorite character Gohan and his daughter which she now adores. The Goku, granddaughter but smaller then her dynamic was really confusing for them. I think it’s because they had not seen the same visual character multiple times. In a single day they had seen: Kid Goku, kid Goten, and kid Goku GT. I blame myself for that confusion. My son was interested on continuing the series because it went into outerspace. My daughter could take or leave it but wanted to see what happened to Pan so she at least had some investment.
Basically, it looks like GT and Super are about even for them at this point but I would think when/if we return to either of the series they will have more context which helps them be more invested in watching.

Dragonball Z:
Now on to the main series. This is the one we will continue watching and just debating on where or what to do. Currently we are in the android saga and had been watching the series at about the same pace as the Z re-watch is proposing. I kind of want to go back and post impressions of the series with the rest of the community, but I want to also give impression of this current arc since my kids are heavily invested in it.
So for them they really enjoyed the filler episodes. Gohan vs the tutor and Goku driving were hilarious fun for them. They also seem to enjoy the pacing and the reveals. The Trunks reveal was a huge shock for them and my daughter loves Android 18. At one point she even says to me that she wants to learn so of her “moves” so she can be strong like her. I really liked the way 18 was implemented, she’s just a cool female character who also happens to break Vegeta’s arm in a pretty casual way. The subsequent twists and turns have been keeping them on their toes. My son loves to play detective so when they started investigating the mystery of the second time machine my son decided to take a guess at it. “I think it was Goku”. I didn’t understand what he meant at first but he said that then person who came back in the time machine was actually a Goku from different future. It was crazy because I was thinking to myself that this was actually a pretty good guess. Anyway. I definitely want to do a play by play, so I’m trying to decide whether to continue on or participate in the re-watch. If we continued I would likely keep reactions her. If we participated I can post in the re-watch thread.

[sangofe]

Background
I typically refrain from posting personal information but after starting a re-watch with my kids I realized how valuable their impressions were. So to preface this, my kids are 7 (boy), 5 (girl), and 3(boy). The have a bit of experience with Pokemon and really enjoy the XY series. Thus they have familiarity with serialized formats as well as the “monster of the week” format. When I began watching with my kids, I was actually re-watching part of the Buu saga and they seemed to love the tournament aspect. Especially the junior tournament. When I noticed that their interest I decided to start them back at the beginning of the Funi-Z dub. All series we watch are the original Funimation dubs on their streaming service.
I will give some partial notes on this since I didn’t think to chronicle it:
My daughter loves Gohan. I her words: He’s sweet and nice and really strong. She likes the wilderness training and the robot filler and really likes the interactions between him and Piccolo. I found it interesting because she picked up on exactly how the character is intended to be portrayed.
My oldest son loves Goku. He thinks Goku is really cool and the personality of my older son and Goku are actually pretty similar so I can definitely see the connection there.
To make this more interesting the Z filler of Goku interacting with Gohan really hits home as my older son is the protective “big brother” of his sister. Thus them seeing both themselves and the dynamic they share between each other probably is what really brings this home for them.
My youngest son seems to like short powerful characters, so Krillin, saibamen, and then finally Vegeta. Probably because he is 3 and that’s the way he sees himself at this stage. As a short(small) but still capable. He doesn’t really seem to process much beyond the characters fighting and small characters beating up bigger characters, but when he does see it he will sit and watch a whole episode and will actually get really excited and root for those characters. As such I probably won’t be writing much about his reactions.
Before I get into the Z re-watch too much I decided to take a break recently and explore the other components of the franchise to gauge their reactions and tried each equally.

Super:
This was the first one I tried because I was also checking it out. I trying this one a long time ago with the first episode premiered. I figured they would enjoy it as it would be similar in art quality to Pokemon XY. My son’s fight impressions were asking why Goku was acting so lazy. He was referring to the radish crop. They were also incredibly confused by Goten/Goku and Gohan. I decided it was probably a bad idea to through them in here with little context. That’s when I decided to start the re-watch from Z.
I recently came back to it and tried them on Episode 32. I figured that would be a good introduction and jump off point for the tournament. Things they immediately noticed were the “fart” jokes of Buu. They also referred to Goku and Vegeta with beards as “Old Man Goku/Vegeta”. They didn’t seem amused by it… While they had no real context for the characters they did understand the interactions. One the things that rubbed my son the wrong way was watching Goku punch Monaka in the face “for no reason”. To which my daughter asked why Goku was being “mean”. I explained that he was testing him and accidentally hit him. Also the nipple jokes weren’t doing it for them either.
At the start of the tournament we have Goku against Botamo. Now remember my kids have been watching Z and developed expectations on Goku’s approach to fighting. Super had a sequence where Goku is doing “exercises” to prepare for the fight. The first thing my son asks is, what is he doing exercises for and why is he so happy all the time. My son was referencing the n n eyes. It isn’t really noticeable unless you are watching Z and immediately switch to Super like we did. I actually counted from that point forward and he did it like 3 more times. It was definitely overused. Anyway we watched two episodes with the Botamo fight and Frost. My son asked if we could watch something else after the 1st episode and my daughter asked for “regular Dragon Ball Z” after the second. I ended up testing my next one which was the Dragon Ball anime. I did attempt to return to Super following introducing them to GT. I even let them pick the episode and they chose episode two which is the Vegeta-resort episode. They seemed to enjoy it more but splice of life episodes were always Super’s strongest points. This is the series I dedicated the most episodes to out of the other series in order to counter my own bias against it and I really made and effort to present episodes which I thought may appeal to my kids. My intent was to allow to draw their own conclusions of the show on its own merits.

Original Dragon Ball:
So I hadn’t seen this at all since I was in middle school. I remember watching it when it was airing but not enjoying it as much as Dragonball Z. Recently I rated it as the lowest rating of all the series. Upon re-watch especially with my kids I gained a new appreciation for it. I’m actually really sorry I didn’t do this re-watch sooner. So the series opens with kid Goku rolling a giant log and carrying a huge saw. My son’s reaction to this is, “OMG that’s so dangerous, look at what Goku’s doing!” My daughter, who had been around when I screened the first 5 minutes of the episode said he should wait to see what else Goku can do. Sure enough Goku rolled the log to his house and then proceeded to push the log into neatly stacked firewood. My son was incredibly impressed. Next Goku enters his empty home and again my son is in disbelief. “He’s just a kid and he gets to live alone by himself?” I explained that his grandfather died and Goku has to take care of himself. Which is when we see Goku doing his daily chores of hunting/fishing etc. I could tell both my kids were impressed by that idea. This was a real contrast to what my son considered Goku in Super to be lazy and incompetent. Goku of course meets Bulma and my kids find that whole exchange hilarious. They were shocked that Bulma pulled out a gun on Goku, and more shocked that Goku survived it. The gun scene happens repeatedly so watching this makes the idea of a bullet hurting Goku even more bizarre when he’s older. This also brings up a good point on my struggle to decide to let my kids watch Dragonball, it has a ton of questionable scenes and nudity. In the first and second episode Goku does a number of things completely naked, and its frontal nudity. I decided it was best to allow it because it is natural, not sexual in nature. The Roshi stuff is still cringeworthy and I had to talk to my kids about appropriate behavior later, so I took that opportunity as a teachable moment.
As far as the nudity in general, kids obviously get a kick out of that idea. Goku was doing a number of things in the nude and the prospect of doing that would be entertaining. Continuing on, Goku saving Bulma was a great scene and the first few episodes introduced a number of different concepts. Number one, Goku likes thrills and rides. 2, Goku is not an idiot, he figured out how to work a motorcycle to the point where he chased down the monster who kidnapped Bulma. 3) The power pole is a cool weapon. 4) Flying Nimbus and how it works. 5) The Dragonballs 6) Emperor Pilaf and Roshi as recurring characters.
My kids loved it and didn’t really want to stop. They even commented that it looked more like “real” Dragon ball and they immediately picked up the difference in art style and seem to like that grainy look.
But alas I wanted to get good impressions so I moved on to GT.

Dragon Ball GT:
Now this was a tough one because I already knew they would be missing a lot of context. One of the very first things my kids noticed was that Emperor Pilaf was really old looking and so were Shue and Mai. To which again I explained it was because this show was much later. “But Goku doesn’t look old” and that’s when I realized that they really need to watch everything preceding this to understand. Anyway, the kids were excited to see what would happen with the black star dragonballs. And when the red dragon appeared my kids weren’t too happy. My son immediately generated theories based on appearance. “He’s not green, he’s red! He must be an evil dragon. Are the red and green dragons going to fight?” I’m not sure where he would even get the idea of evil dragons and having to fight them but apparently that was a logically conclusion to draw in a kid’s mind just from the first episode. Anyway, the kids weren’t too impressed by this series. They found Vegeta’s mustache humorous and my daughter liked Pan and loved the exchanges between her favorite character Gohan and his daughter which she now adores. The Goku, granddaughter but smaller then her dynamic was really confusing for them. I think it’s because they had not seen the same visual character multiple times. In a single day they had seen: Kid Goku, kid Goten, and kid Goku GT. I blame myself for that confusion. My son was interested on continuing the series because it went into outerspace. My daughter could take or leave it but wanted to see what happened to Pan so she at least had some investment.
Basically, it looks like GT and Super are about even for them at this point but I would think when/if we return to either of the series they will have more context which helps them be more invested in watching.

Dragonball Z:
Now on to the main series. This is the one we will continue watching and just debating on where or what to do. Currently we are in the android saga and had been watching the series at about the same pace as the Z re-watch is proposing. I kind of want to go back and post impressions of the series with the rest of the community, but I want to also give impression of this current arc since my kids are heavily invested in it.
So for them they really enjoyed the filler episodes. Gohan vs the tutor and Goku driving were hilarious fun for them. They also seem to enjoy the pacing and the reveals. The Trunks reveal was a huge shock for them and my daughter loves Android 18. At one point she even says to me that she wants to learn so of her “moves” so she can be strong like her. I really liked the way 18 was implemented, she’s just a cool female character who also happens to break Vegeta’s arm in a pretty casual way. The subsequent twists and turns have been keeping them on their toes. My son loves to play detective so when they started investigating the mystery of the second time machine my son decided to take a guess at it. “I think it was Goku”. I didn’t understand what he meant at first but he said that then person who came back in the time machine was actually a Goku from different future. It was crazy because I was thinking to myself that this was actually a pretty good guess. Anyway. I definitely want to do a play by play, so I’m trying to decide whether to continue on or participate in the re-watch. If we continued I would likely keep reactions her. If we participated I can post in the re-watch thread.

My daughter is currently 4. I think I'll rewatch it with her when she turns 6, probably. And dubbed in French since we speak French.

[precita]

I was curious about how kids would react to the nudity and sexual nature in Dragonball. All the stuff with Bulma pulling down her panties, Goku walking around naked, and Roshi's perverted antics aren't really something for kids.

The Dragonball dub was of course edited on Cartoon Network so a lot of those scenes were either removed or toned down, but now online and with DVDs there's no choice but to watch them uncut. So I think it's difficult to watch those scenes with kids around.

[KBABZ]

I have actually considered making a slight alternate version of my T1C episodes of OG DB that remove the more negatively-sexual moments like anything Roshi does or the "No balls" stuff so that it's easier to watch with kids (whilst still providing the uncensored versions, of course).

@Mikado: What influenced your decision to show them DBZ over Z Kai?

(also this thread is wonderful and I wish it was chronological, from DB to Z and onwards)

[TheMikado]

I was curious about how kids would react to the nudity and sexual nature in Dragonball. All the stuff with Bulma pulling down her panties, Goku walking around naked, and Roshi's perverted antics aren't really something for kids.

The Dragonball dub was of course edited on Cartoon Network so a lot of those scenes were either removed or toned down, but now online and with DVDs there's no choice but to watch them uncut. So I think it's difficult to watch those scenes with kids around.

This actually wasn’t too bad and it actually helped us be able to discuss some topics that may have been overdue. It’s funny because we got to talk about personal space and what Goku is doing wrong and how Bulma reacts to Goku in her personal space. We got to talk about appropriate and inappropriate things and it really helped us talk about right and wrong. The emphasis on characters being fallable really was a good take away from this and a lot of things are analyzed on the actions rather than the person being “good or evil”. Vegeta and Piccolo are good examples and open the door for that type of discussion.

[TheMikado]

I have actually considered making a slight alternate version of my T1C episodes of OG DB that remove the more negatively-sexual moments like anything Roshi does or the "No balls" stuff so that it's easier to watch with kids (whilst still providing the uncensored versions, of course).

@Mikado: What influenced your decision to show them DBZ over Z Kai?

(also this thread is wonderful and I wish it was chronological, from DB to Z and onwards)

The no balls stuff was actually great because Goku was very confused about body parts. One of the things he told Bulma was that all boys had tails and Bulma started to wonder if that was true. It really allowed me to explain that there are some body parts that are different between boys and girls and that they are supposed to be private. It’s usually a really difficult topic to bring up but it having that ice breaker made it easier and the fact that we have already had the conversation to one degree or another. It was actually nice for them to see that other characters maybe be confused by it as well.

As far as the decision to go with DBZ instead of Kai it’s because I knew they would find the filler pretty funny and they do love it. I felt those were valuable breaks from the main plot and action where it can get too intense at times.

As fair as chronology order we still can, Z currently is what they are interested in and asking for. I was planning to start doing episode reactions but then I saw the DBZ rewatch thread so I’m debating if we should start back there. I’ll test them out and see what they say so maybe we can get play by play from them.

[Ringworm128]

I was curious about how kids would react to the nudity and sexual nature in Dragonball. All the stuff with Bulma pulling down her panties, Goku walking around naked, and Roshi's perverted antics aren't really something for kids.

The sexual stuff in DB is mostly tame and played for laughs. I don't think there's really anything that could damage a child. Remember, we're talking about the same age group that finds naked butts funny.

[Hellspawn28]

It's good tell what's right and wrong and what's real & not real to kids when they at a young age, so they can grow up and not get shock it by when they get older. I also feel like nudity won't scare away most kids. They will probably laugh at it and be like "Haha boobies!" or "Look at his wiener!!" like most kids that I know did. Even I saw Swamp Thing when I was 4 on VHS, they had a nude women and it didn't shock me.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Other than the Roshi antics, I think children are taught to stigmatize nudity too much and the rest is fine.

[TheMikado]

It's good tell what's right and wrong and what's real & not real to kids when they at a young age, so they can grow up and not get shock it by when they get older. I also feel like nudity won't scare away most kids. They will probably laugh at it and be like "Haha boobies!" or "Look at his wiener!!" like most kids that I know did. Even I saw Swamp Thing when I was 4 on VHS, they had a nude women and it didn't shock me.

Other than the Roshi antics, I think children are taught to stigmatize nudity too much and the rest is fine.

Well there isn't any real adult nudity. At least so far. I know Roshi's magazines tend to be questionable. I actually really like that Goku is comfortable with his body and more importantly Bulma does try to impart modesty and personal space. Its fine overall.

Also in case anyone is interested I have decided to try and rush through the rest of the android/cell saga and join everyone else with the rewatch afterwards. We average around 2-3 episodes a week and have 44 more to go so we should join the group or at least rewatch in a few weeks. We also may marathon it over the holiday break.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Be patient and thoughtful of them. Watch it at their leisure. If they wanna go slower or faster its up to them.

[ABED]

We see Goku's ass in the Princess Snake episode.

I think it's better that you watch the show with your kids instead of outright shying them away from this stuff. You can also explain to them that while Roshi's antics are played for laughs, it's not okay to treat women that way in real life.

[precita]

Besides that, how do you feel about the violence? As you get into the Saiyan/Namek saga, it's easy to forget how violent certain scenes can get. Tons of blood, arms ripping off like Tien's, Freeza killing a whole bunch of Nameks, Vegeta coughing up blood.

Are you ok with your kids seeing such brutal violence at a young age? It's easy to forget how violent uncut DBZ can be at times.

[Danfun64]

My daughter is currently 4. I think I'll rewatch it with her when she turns 6, probably. And dubbed in French since we speak French.

(emphasis in quote mine).

...eww. You want her to grow up with Satan's Little Heart and Crystal Balls and Space Warriors and "they never said this guys name" and "what's the name of this technique" and "why do different techniques have the same name"? Maybe if you only let her see the french dub of Kai, BOG, Res "F" and Super...

[sangofe]

My daughter is currently 4. I think I'll rewatch it with her when she turns 6, probably. And dubbed in French since we speak French.

(emphasis in quote mine).

...eww. You want her to grow up with Satan's Little Heart and Crystal Balls and Space Warriors and "they never said this guys name" and "what's the name of this technique" and "why do different techniques have the same name"? Maybe if you only let her see the french dub of Kai, BOG, Res "F" and Super...

Yes. She won't be able to read subtitles at 6. We'll start with DB dubbed in French, then watch Kai, then super. Just so you know - her mother tongue is Norwegian and there's no dub of Dragon Ball in that language for the TV series.

[Danfun64]

Her mother tongue is Norwegian, and she (apparently) speaks French. What other languages does she understand?

[Hellspawn28]

Besides that, how do you feel about the violence? As you get into the Saiyan/Namek saga, it's easy to forget how violent certain scenes can get. Tons of blood, arms ripping off like Tien's, Freeza killing a whole bunch of Nameks, Vegeta coughing up blood.

Are you ok with your kids seeing such brutal violence at a young age? It's easy to forget how violent uncut DBZ can be at times.

I feel like if kids can handle most PG-13 movies these days, they should able to be okay with DBZ uncut.

[Dbzfan94]

Question for OP, why did you switch around so much? I get watching everything in order can be daunting but as you said it’s confusing to kids.

Also I find it funny they didn’t like how Goku was acting in Super

[floofychan333]

I'm glad you're sharing DB with your kids (I hope to do so when I have my own) and I strongly commend how you explained that Master Roshi's behaviour is inappropriate. That's one thing in Dragon Ball that's just inexcusable, and it's unfortunately tolerated by much of the fan base.

[sangofe]

Her mother tongue is Norwegian, and she (apparently) speaks French. What other languages does she understand?

No other languages. I've always spoken in French with her because my mother and half of my family's from France.