Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by JulieYBM » Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:57 pm

The concept of bisexuality, asexuality, aromanticism and gray-sexuality being lost on cishet people really goes to show just how badly education is needed on all fronts. I hope we can get better representation and understanding of sexuality and gender in future DB projects.
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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by Yuli Ban » Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:19 pm

JulieYBM wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 3:40 pm Not everyone wants to get married or engage in romantic relationships. Ace and aro people exist.

Also, Toriyama doesn't care to think about it.
This. 100%. We are VERY used to an Abrahamic duality of gender and sex. I'm not one to claim it's so completely fluid,, but it's clearly not a binary deal. The fact we apparently have to struggle against this so often and that archetypes widely existed and were understood even during the most "traditional" of times should prove that this is the case.

Martial artists, monks, and warriors of his lot, if I recall, are also written as being fairly chaste and direct their lives against romance and sexuality towards improving their craft, so in his case it might not even necessarily be his orientation but rather entirely his choice to avoid it. He doesn't even have to be non-cishet to just be a standard martial artist archetype, but it's possible he is.
If Toriyama ever came out and said that one of the senshi is gay, I always felt Tenshinhan would be the most likely. However, I'm fairly sure he's just going to remain a sexless martial artist until the IP eventually peters out.
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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by JulieYBM » Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:29 pm

Yuli Ban wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:19 pm
JulieYBM wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 3:40 pm Not everyone wants to get married or engage in romantic relationships. Ace and aro people exist.

Also, Toriyama doesn't care to think about it.
This. 100%. We are VERY used to an Abrahamic duality of gender and sex. I'm not one to claim it's so completely fluid,, but it's clearly not a binary deal. The fact we apparently have to struggle against this so often and that archetypes widely existed and were understood even during the most "traditional" of times should prove that this is the case.

Martial artists, monks, and warriors of his lot, if I recall, are also written as being fairly chaste and direct their lives against romance and sexuality towards improving their craft, so in his case it might not even necessarily be his orientation but rather entirely his choice to avoid it. He doesn't even have to be non-cishet to just be a standard martial artist archetype, but it's possible he is.
If Toriyama ever came out and said that one of the senshi is gay, I always felt Tenshinhan would be the most likely. However, I'm fairly sure he's just going to remain a sexless martial artist until the IP eventually peters out.
Sexuality is a spectrum and some people (not all) experience shifts on the spectrum daily. I know speaking from my own experiences as a bi person I cycle through extremely complex feelings for women, clear attraction to men and asexuality all within the same week. Our media is far too quick in depicting sexuality monosexually and rigidly and that's something that I hope in-school and media education can hopefully cut down on.
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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by omaro34 » Sat Jul 24, 2021 12:43 am

Wouldn’t surprise me if he is in a romantic relationship with Chiaotzo
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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Sat Jul 24, 2021 1:44 am

While I LOVE Julie and I agree not everyone needs to be cishet, married or even have sex to be happy fullfilled people...some part of me just realized its because Toriyama is not interested in the humans reproducing. If Tenshinhan and Lunch did the deed and had a child... what would happen? Because Toriyama is not interested in the humans and the child would be as out of focus as their parents so why bother.

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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Sat Jul 24, 2021 1:57 am

omaro34 wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 12:43 am Wouldn’t surprise me if he is in a romantic relationship with Chiaotzo
Though of course there's nothing in the manga or anime that gives me such impression at least not to the level that Tien likes (or loves) his Chinese doll looking child sized friend that way, and unless i'm missing something here i don't think Toriyama really had this in mind when creating them back in the day.

It's certainly open to interpretation in terms of their relationship, just saying that may not necessarily be the thing that they were intended to be seen as.
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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by DBZAOTA482 » Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:44 am

He,'s already got Chiaotzu. Why does he need to get married?
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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by coola » Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:50 am

I remember reading about cute rumor in Dragon Ball special issue of Polish manga/anime magazine called Kawaii, that Tenshinhan and Lunch married and had daughter named Uzi.
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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by MasenkoHA » Sat Jul 24, 2021 9:00 am

This Tenshinhan/Lunch obsession people have when he made clear as day he had no interest in her is weird.

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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by JulieYBM » Sat Jul 24, 2021 9:25 am

MasenkoHA wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 9:00 am This Tenshinhan/Lunch obsession people have when he made clear as day he had no interest in her is weird.
Cisheteronormativity is, well, normalized. It definitely goes to show that we need to normalized not trying to pair up men and women just because society tells us that it is the point of life.
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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by MyVisionity » Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:17 am

Tenshinhan/Lunch would work if it were an unrequited thing. I can definitely see Lunch traveling around with him and Chiao Tzu, but Toriyama hates Lunch. I would have enjoyed recurring filler arcs featuring the trio and their adventures.

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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by MasenkoHA » Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:51 am

Does Toriyama hate Lunch? I just think he didn’t know what the hell to do with her the further the story removed itself from a gag manga to a comedic martial arts manga. She’s not useful to move the plot like Bulma and Tenshinhan wasn’t important enough to upgrade Lunch to babymaker like Chi Chi.

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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by Kinokima » Sat Jul 24, 2021 12:20 pm

JulieYBM wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 3:40 pm Not everyone wants to get married or engage in romantic relationships. Ace and aro people exist.

Also, Toriyama doesn't care to think about it.
While I don’t think Toriyama probably intended Tien to be Ace as someone who finds herself on that spectrum it does kind of annoy me that people need to ask the question why did a character never get married as though that’s weird and abnormal or inherently bad. Some people just don’t get married.

No offense to the thread creator I certainly know they didn’t mean anything bad by the question. It’s just the unfortunate default of our society to think marriage= good and not married= something wrong.


On another note I never got anything from Tien/Launch too certainly not from reading the manga.

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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by JulieYBM » Sat Jul 24, 2021 12:49 pm

Kinokima wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 12:20 pm
JulieYBM wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 3:40 pm Not everyone wants to get married or engage in romantic relationships. Ace and aro people exist.

Also, Toriyama doesn't care to think about it.
While I don’t think Toriyama probably intended Tien to be Ace as someone who finds herself on that spectrum it does kind of annoy me that people need to ask the question why did a character never get married as though that’s weird and abnormal or inherently bad. Some people just don’t get married.

No offense to the thread creator I certainly know they didn’t mean anything bad by the question. It’s just the unfortunate default of our society to think marriage= good and not married= something wrong.


On another note I never got anything from Tien/Launch too certainly not from reading the manga.
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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by Polyphase Avatron » Sun Jul 25, 2021 1:34 pm

TBH with a character like Tenshinhan, who has had no sexual or romantic scenes or dialogue ever (that I can recall), his sexuality is a big ?. Could be anything really.

As for not raising a family, seems like he's just not interested in that, for whatever reason.
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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by DestructoDisc » Sun Jul 25, 2021 6:27 pm

MasenkoHA wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:51 am Does Toriyama hate Lunch? I just think he didn’t know what the hell to do with her the further the story removed itself from a gag manga to a comedic martial arts manga. She’s not useful to move the plot like Bulma and Tenshinhan wasn’t important enough to upgrade Lunch to babymaker like Chi Chi.
There are many DB characters who don't do anything to the plot anymore besides staying in the background and look pretty. If Toriyama can still remember them and keep them in the show, Idk why he couldn't do the same thing with Launch.

I believe in the theory that the real reason Toriyama removed her from the story was because her transformation was too similar to the SSJ transformations.

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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by jjgp1112 » Sun Jul 25, 2021 6:32 pm

DestructoDisc wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 6:27 pm
MasenkoHA wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:51 am Does Toriyama hate Lunch? I just think he didn’t know what the hell to do with her the further the story removed itself from a gag manga to a comedic martial arts manga. She’s not useful to move the plot like Bulma and Tenshinhan wasn’t important enough to upgrade Lunch to babymaker like Chi Chi.
There are many DB characters who don't do anything to the plot anymore besides staying in the background and look pretty. If Toriyama can still remember them and keep them in the show, Idk why he couldn't do the same thing with Launch.

I believe in the theory that the real reason Toriyama removed her from the story was because her transformation was too similar to the SSJ transformations.
Toriyama completely wrote her out before Super Saiyan was even a phrase that was uttered.
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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by WittyUsername » Sun Jul 25, 2021 7:31 pm

The simple answer is that Toriyama doesn’t care about the love lives of most of his characters. The only reason he gave Goku and Vegeta wives was so they could have kids. Kuririn and Yamcha are the only male characters in the series who display any particular desire for a romantic partner (unless you count Roshi and Oolong being perverts), and of the two of them, only Kuririn is confirmed to have a wife by the end of the series.

Even in terms of Gohan and Videl, their relationship is treated like an afterthought by the end of the series. It almost feels like an excuse to make Goku a grandfather.

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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by goku the krump dancer » Sun Jul 25, 2021 7:55 pm

Why does it have to be anything other than he's committed to his monk lifestyle/belief system so he sacrifices romance and any real leisure activities in order to push himself towards self enlightenment with no distractions.

Lunch being a Bi-Polar crook didn't catch his eye and there's nothing to even remotely suggest that he wants to put his dick in Chaozu's butt.
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Re: Why did Tenshinhan never settle down and get married and raise a family?

Post by DBZAOTA482 » Sun Jul 25, 2021 9:44 pm

goku the krump dancer wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 7:55 pm Lunch being a Bi-Polar crook didn't catch his eye and there's nothing to even remotely suggest that he wants to put his dick in Chaozu's butt.
Are you sure about that? Mime boy is the only person Tien ever thinks about.
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DBZGTKOSDH wrote:... Haven't we already gotten these in GT? Goku dies, the DBs go away, and the Namekian DBs most likely won't be used again because of the Evil Dragons.
Goku didn't die in GT. The show sucked him off so much, it was impossible to keep him in the world of the living, so he ascended beyond mortality.
jjgp1112 wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 6:31 am I'm just about done with the concept of reboots and making shows that were products of their time and impactful "new and sexy" and in line with modern tastes and sensibilities. Let stuff stay in their era and give today's kids their own shit to watch.

I always side eye the people who say "Now my kids/today's kids can experience what I did as a child!" Nigga, who gives a fuck about your childhood? You're an adult now and it was at least 15 years ago. Let the kids have their own experience instead of picking at a corpse.

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