DragonBall should do more with politics

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Jord
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DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by Jord » Mon Oct 28, 2019 9:18 am

During the Daimao Saga we meet the King (the dog guy) who needs to evacuate because Piccolo is taking over. I really liked that scene since it gave us a bit more of world building that was missing before...and since. Usually, Dragonball's world is just a series of plains, mountains and random cities etc but that little scene did a whole lot of story telling. All those horrible things are happening in the DragonWorld but they mean less if we only see the reaction of the main cast. Drawing that a bit further and seeing the general public react to the Vegeta & Nappa is a great way to add impact but political scenes could add even more to it.
I mean, the final part of Super determines the fate of the universe and no one on earth knows about it. That's a big contrast with the terrors of Buu for example.

Maybe they could even toy with the idea of elections with Gohan running for president and using his brains to make the world a better place. He kinds reminds me of Bernie Sanders's philosophies anyways.

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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by Polyphase Avatron » Mon Oct 28, 2019 9:47 am

Considering that the general public in their world is gullible enough to believe anything Mr. Satan says, even things as ridiculous as 'A god came to destroy the Earth, but I transformed into a god myself and beat him', I'd figure if Gohan wants to run for office, Mr. Satan would just need to say 'vote for my son-in-law', and he's already won.
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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by Jord » Mon Oct 28, 2019 9:51 am

Polyphase Avatron wrote: โ†‘Mon Oct 28, 2019 9:47 am Considering that the general public in their world is gullible enough to believe anything Mr. Satan says, even things as ridiculous as 'A god came to destroy the Earth, but I transformed into a god myself and beat him', I'd figure if Gohan wants to run for office, Mr. Satan would just need to say 'vote for my son-in-law', and he's already won.
That would be extremely entertaining.

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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by ABED » Mon Oct 28, 2019 9:55 am

Considering the scale of DB's battles, the politics of DB World are meaningless. Seeing how the general public reacts is great, but how the government responds is meaningless since they can't hope to have any impact on the outcome of the battles.
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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by SupremeKai25 » Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:06 am

The politics in Dragon Ball just shifted from the Earth to the entire cosmos in Super. You still have politics in Super, but they are the politics of the Gods. The bickering between the Kais and Destroyers, the competition hosted between Beerus and Champa, Zeno serving as the ultimate monarch of the cosmos, then the whole storyline with Zamasu, where he usurps the position of Supreme Kai of U10 and exterminates all his fellow Gods to become the sole deity of the cosmos (the Supreme God, if you will)... In the manga we also have Rumsshi (the Destroyer of U10) reprimanding Gowasu for choosing Zamasu as his successor; not only beacuse U10 then had to rely on Beerus (the Destroyer of U7) to destroy Zamasu, but also because he was worried the upcoming meeting with the Grand Priest involved Zamasu's actions, which would obviously reflect very badly on U10. In the anime we also have the Supreme Kais of the various universes meeting up in secret to discuss the Tournament of Power, then Roh and Sidra (the deities of U9) trying to weaken U7 before the Tournament.

Super is full of these little dynamics between the various gods, and I love it. As I was saying, Dragon Ball still has a political aspect to it, but it was just shifted to a multiversal perspective.

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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by JulieYBM » Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:30 am

Remove the monarchs and gods from power, replace with new, democratic structures. We must teach our young to destroy the power structures of the authoritarians.

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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by SupremeKai25 » Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:48 am

JulieYBM wrote: โ†‘Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:30 am Remove the monarchs and gods from power, replace with new, democratic structures. We must teach our young to destroy the power structures of the authoritarians.

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I mean, good look doing that when the authorities can just turn you into dust with their hand...

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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by Polyphase Avatron » Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:50 am

Isn't that what Hearts is trying to do?
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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by JulieYBM » Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:02 am

Polyphase Avatron wrote: โ†‘Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:50 am Isn't that what Hearts is trying to do?
Gay anarchist killing gods? Sound pretty radical.

But no, we should be making attempts to merely seal the gods in prison, not killing them so readily.
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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by Kataphrut » Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:15 am

Wasn't Freeza meant to be a reference to the brutal loan sharks of the Japanese economy in the 80s?

They say the major villains that make an impact in pop culture represent the fears and concerns of our time, that's why Nazi allegories were so big in the 60s and 70s (the Empire, the Daleks). Nowadays the biggest concerns are over-population, resource loss (Thanos), alt-right neo-facism (the First Order), incels (Joker) climate change (pre-ruined Game of Thrones) and unchecked capitalism (take your pick). With that in mind, I wonder if it might have been a poor choice for Dragon Ball to finally make their racist, fascist, narcissistic real-estate mogul villain into a fun anti-hero right around the time America elected one as president?

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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by ABED » Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:43 am

I find that argument specious. The ones that have the biggest impact aren't limited to the politics of the time. Also, given Lucas's politics, statements, and when he wrote Star Wars, The Empire was not an analog for Naziism, but rather America. Remember, he was dealing with Vietnam. Regardless, Star Wars' appeal isn't limited to the politics du jour, same with Freeza. That's just fun texture.
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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by jjgp1112 » Mon Oct 28, 2019 12:15 pm

I mean if you actually trusted Toriyama to do that coherently and for the target audience to actually be interested in it, then go right ahead.
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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by Saikyo no Senshi » Mon Oct 28, 2019 1:14 pm

I mean the world already gives you some ideas. It is vague and should be more fleshed out, but like the people on the countryside are living with dinosaurs and dragons in the past isolated from cities which have advanced technology and what not. Blooma and her family are capitalist pigs. It is kind of a corporatocracy. Namu's arc while a minor one is literally "the drought screwed me and my people and I need money cause lul nobody gives a fuck about me and my people." Obviously, Toriyama solves it in a naive way without addressing the root of the problem, but its still something. At least, with Freeza Toriyama knows where he stands. Fascism is bad and DB says so loud and clear.

And, shounen works have plenty of politics just like every work of art. And, given how successful they are I'd say the target audience is totally interested in it whether they understand its politics or not.
Last edited by Saikyo no Senshi on Mon Oct 28, 2019 1:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by FoolsGil » Mon Oct 28, 2019 1:32 pm

While I hate the Dragonball is for kids conversation, I would have to jump in and say kids don't care about politics, and this would be a waste of time in a shonen series.

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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by KBABZ » Mon Oct 28, 2019 2:21 pm

King Furry was really only introduced in the Daimao arc to demonstrate that the crisis was on a truly global scale, and it allowed him to establish his own empire to take over the world. While it was interesting and led us to knowing about the whole "One country with 40-something sectors" thing, it doesn't have much use in a shonen series mainly about the carefree main character from the woods training to meet his next strong opponent and maybe gain a new form along the way.

I do think the Saiyans and the Frieza Force have elements of this though. In particular, I like what the Broly movie did where it showed Frieza being introduced as Cold's replacement and was abjectly far WORSE than he was, with Frieza basically usurping King Vegeta in the political hierarchy. That's about it though, if I have to sit through another nine hours of trade route taxations and Supreme Chancellor executive powers I'm gonna lose it.

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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by TheBigBoy » Mon Oct 28, 2019 3:08 pm

It's like when Star Wars thought it needed a bunch of scenes of politicians talking about trade disputes and taxes and what not....it was thrilling!!!!!!!

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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by ABED » Mon Oct 28, 2019 3:16 pm

Saikyo no Senshi wrote: โ†‘Mon Oct 28, 2019 1:14 pm I mean the world already gives you some ideas. It is vague and should be more fleshed out, but like the people on the countryside are living with dinosaurs and dragons in the past isolated from cities which have advanced technology and what not. Blooma and her family are capitalist pigs. It is kind of a corporatocracy. Namu's arc while a minor one is literally "the drought screwed me and my people and I need money cause lul nobody gives a fuck about me and my people." Obviously, Toriyama solves it in a naive way without addressing the root of the problem, but its still something. At least, with Freeza Toriyama knows where he stands. Fascism is bad and DB says so loud and clear.

And, shounen works have plenty of politics just like every work of art. And, given how successful they are I'd say the target audience is totally interested in it whether they understand its politics or not.
Okay, two things... what? And what? I don't know if you are being serious. The politics of DB world, at least the Earth bound politics are so surface level and say so little.

How are Bulma and her family capitalist "pigs", and how is what a "corporatocracy"? Whatever the hell that means.

DB World has a single king because Toriyama likely wasn't interested in complex world building.
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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by Hellspawn28 » Mon Oct 28, 2019 5:20 pm

It could work if it is done right. It would be interesting to see how they pull it off with some neat ideas.
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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by JulieYBM » Mon Oct 28, 2019 5:24 pm

Hellspawn28 wrote: โ†‘Mon Oct 28, 2019 5:20 pm It could work if it is done right. It would be interesting to see how they pull it off with some neat ideas.
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Re: DragonBall should do more with politics

Post by GreatSaiyaJeff » Mon Oct 28, 2019 8:16 pm

Personally I am more interested on how the Space Trade organizing works. Freeza is supposed to be a dealer, I kind of want to see him doing some business with the planets he's conquers and sells. Who does he sell them too?
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