MasenkoHA wrote:Gog wrote:
There is no official canon in the franchise.
The manga.
Even if you just say "the manga" then that still immediately raises other questions that start to snowball into something complicated. Which
version of the original manga, the original WSJ/Tankobon version or the Kanzenban edition with some corrections plus the new ending? Which version of Bardock's story to go along with it, the original TV special that Toriyama directly referenced in the manga or
Dragon Ball Minus which he drew himself? If it's Minus, then does the rest of the
Jaco the Galactic Patrolman manga count as "canon" along with it? What about the
Battle of Gods and
Resurrection F movies, which were scripted mostly by Toriyama and touted as direct continuations to the manga's story? Then what about the 2008
"Heya! Goku and Friends Return" special which was referenced in
Battle of Gods?
Besides,
Gog is correct in saying that there's no
official canon for the franchise... meaning that nobody in charge of it — be it Toriyama himself or someone from Shueisha or Toei — have ever come forward and clearly stated, "only THIS stuff counts, and anything else is just extra fluff." That's the kind of thing that
has happened for other franchises like Star Wars, and granted them an "official canon" in the process, but nothing of the sort has happened for Dragon Ball. The most we've got is some things being touted as "continuing the original story" and other things labeled as "side stories," without any stern commitment to a singular definition or criteria for either category.
So yeah, until something changes, "canon" for Dragon Ball is primarily in the eye of the beholder. I understand that the original manga is usually considered higher priority than anything else when it comes to continuity, and I agree with that. But the fact still remains that that's mostly just a common sense thing on fans' part, and not the result of any official definition of a canon.
Anyway, as for the original topic... by the time I even noticed this thread,
DBZ Macky had already beat me to pointing out King Cold's bio from the Dragon Books. It basically confirms that he
can transform
("appears to be" is pretty straightforward), but without clarifying more beyond that, such as which form he's actually in, or how many forms he has, and what-not.
Personally, since he looks so much like Freeza's 2nd form, I've always assumed that he's in a suppressive state, and his true form remains unseen somewhere under it. Given that he's supposed to be weaker than Freeza overall, I've wondered if he has fewer suppressive forms than his son, since he has less power that needs to be held back to begin with. The one we saw him in might even be the only suppressive transformation he has.