Drunken Master, I'm not sure if you meant I was the cool-headed debator or the guy who slams his opinion down (the wording is a little off), but if the latter is true, I apologize. If anything, I want to encourage fellow fans to arrive at their own informed conclusion, rather than just tout my personal opinion. The idea is that, "in my mind I interpret it this way, and here's why; that's just one possibility"
In retrospect, though, I think I was confusing the scene you graciously scanned for us with some of the reaction shots from the Kikoho. You were definitely right on that one. I'm still fairly certain that Chaozu was the one who introduced it by name, though. This brings me to my next point.
(Before I get into this though, I'd like to point out that while Piccolo's reaction shot is certainly interesting, it's ultimately inconclusive since he makes that same surprised face many times throughout the tourney; for instance, when he is impressed with Kuririn's endurance)
My statements regarding Tenshinhan's fighting techniques not being intrinsic to his physical ancestry ammount to this: chalking up all of these amazing, unique attacks to an alien nature cheapens the character.
It means Ten didn't need to do any work, that those techniques just came "naturally" to him. Which is the exact OPPOSITE of his character. For instance, he worked very hard to create the "12 Eyes" technique; it was the attack he had created for the sole purpose of defeating Goku, learning from his previous experience (He would have been able to finish his opponent as soon as he avoided the Kikoho last time). And I think Shiyouken is an extension of that. It's a technique Tenshinhan likely created (as opposed to learned) but to explain it away with an otherworldly heritage seems to downplay all of Tenshinhan's hard work and tireless drive.
Which, again, distances me from his character.
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Regarding the changes in Piccolo/Goku's character:
Piccolo's is rather obvious. It goes beyond his feelings for Gohan. Journeying to Namek was something of a spiritual experience, I trust; seeing what Freeza did to his people made his demon persona an impossibility for all time -- after all, it was his overall lack of belonging that set him to a course of evil to begin with. At the same time, something has to be said for Piccolo's decision to remain on earth rather than join his natural family on New Namek.
Goku's journey is a little more subtle, so I will explain. Goku was always a fighter; he enjoyed it, and he had a knack for it. But if someone was endangering the lives of his friends, young Goku would NOT need to think twice before striking that person down. And in the cases that he did not, it was purely out of mercy, or compassion. This pattern extends up to the fight against his own brother.
But when the revelation came that he was actually a violence-loving Saiya-jin, Goku's first instinct was to deny his nature and re-assert his human identity. There was conflict. I remember a scene where Kaiou-sama was relating the history of the Saiya-jins to Goku, telling him, "You're a Saiya-jin, too". The latter (who had been sitting) bolts straight up and says something to the effect of "No! I'm not like them!"
And yet, at the end of the day, when Vegeta is defeated, what does Goku do? He lets him go ... not out of a spirit of mercy, but in one of competition. He wants to fight Vegeta again and again. He admits that it's selfish and that he can't justify it, but he knows how he feels.
And then, with the transformation to Super Saiya-jin, it's like he was supposed to be consumed with Saiya-jin savagery. In the end, he mastered it and spared Freeza -- which again, is fitting, if the story was meant to end here. He finally got control over his fighting drive. But the story didn't end there.
During the Cell arc, his mistaken assumption that his son had the same fighting drive that he did nearly got the latter killed. Further, in the Boo arc, Goku, not Vegeta, is the first to break the Potara earrings, even though, as Vegetto, they could have made short work of Boo.
Despite its many flaws, that's what I love most about the Boo arc. Goku finally comes to grips with his Saiya-jin nature, while Vegeta finally comes to grips with his humanity. That's what makes them such great foils. They seem to be making opposite journeys. They meet, they fight, and afterwards, neither character is the same. In my mind, they have that sort of Neo-Smith relationship going.
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And like you said, it's not even like they came up with that just in order to start a new story or whatever. It's not like they went "oooh boy, how do we get started? how could things get personal between this new villain and Spider-Man?".
It's really just that: additional info.
I have to disagree with you there. At its heart, Spider-Man 3 (and sometimes it's hard to tell, amidst all the different directions the studio was pressuring the film to go) is about forgiveness. And that's Sandman's arc. What scenes were the most touching in the film? Sandman's, I thought. And, of course, Harry's death scene. Either way, those were all scenes dealing with forgiveness, and that lesson just wouldn't have been there without Flint's implication in Ben's murder. Sorry.
Yeah, haha, the whole scenario is INCREDIBLY convenient (that whole movie seems to be one giant coincidence after another), but at the root of matters, it was done for story/character/thematic purposes. We don't care about background information. We came here to see some meaningful connection and some sweet action sequences.
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I guess the other thing I'd like to say is just that I'm not downplaying the credibility of the Daizenshuu books so much as I am saying: approach them objectively with your own rationale; make your own inferences and conclusions.
Like, take the Bible for instance. This is a book that many people have regarded as having great authority in the past, so much so that many competent reference works are regarded as "the Bible of [such-and-such]". It is the most widely-circulated book of all time. Period. And it is a good book, but
I don't agree with everything in it.
For instance, if you took it at face-value, the Bible appears to be pro-slavery. But guys like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Lincoln had enough common sense not to buy into this.
What I am encouraging is in that spirit. There are other possibilities than the obvious one laid out before us. Many scenarios make sense. None can be verified. If this is what it comes to, though, whether or not you regard the Daizenshuu as the last word on the matter, I can do nothing to defend my position and you can do nothing to oppose mine. Because then it is a matter of faith in a book, and that is something that no man can de-construct.
I'd love to discuss this further, but only if someone has a new angle on the subject. I'm not interested in attacking and defending our respective positions endlessly. Again: I DON'T THINK MY OPINION IS CORRECT IN THE ABSOLUTE SENSE. I'M OPEN TO OTHER INTERPRETATIONS.
