Why haven't we seen female Namekians?

Discussion regarding the entirety of the franchise in a general (meta) sense, including such aspects as: production, trends, merchandise, fan culture, and more.

Moderators: General Help, Kanzenshuu Staff

ankokudaishogun
Advanced Regular
Posts: 1094
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2017 8:07 pm

Re: Why haven't we seen female Namekians?

Post by ankokudaishogun » Thu Jun 23, 2022 6:57 pm

Cipher wrote: Tue Jun 21, 2022 1:20 am Obviously they’re “sexless” while having basically every real-world (and Dragon-World) masculine secondary sex characteristic,
they don't have body hair, no prominent adam's apple and no genitals.

Anonymous Friend
I'm, pretty, cozy, here...
Posts: 1555
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 12:10 am
Location: Earth-1218
Contact:

Re: Why haven't we seen female Namekians?

Post by Anonymous Friend » Wed Jun 29, 2022 3:49 pm

Majin Buu wrote: Tue Jun 21, 2022 3:58 pm
WittyUsername wrote: Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:10 pm Piccolo was indeed both a demon and an alien, even if Toriyama didn’t initially plan for him to be the latter. I’m not entirely sure what exactly earns someone the status of a demon in the Dragon Ball world, but there’s never been anything to suggest that a character has to be from Earth to be one. Even Toei seemed to get the memo, because they made Slug and Garlic Jr. alien demons as well.
To speculate, demonic in this context seems to be a state of being more than anything else; a state that someone might reach by becoming evil in an all consuming kind of way, like a dark version of reaching enlightenment in Buddhism. Piccolo Daimao was the cast off evil side of an alien that was stated to have become corrupted by the evils of humanity, literally evil incarnate; so by that logic Piccolo was pretty much born a demon.

It also seems to be a state that one can lose, as Piccolo Jr. was stated to no longer be demonic when he killed Raditz, which happened alongside him becoming less evil.
Just willing yourself to this demon state can affect the afterlife management process.
Playstation Network ID/Xbox Gamer Tag: AnonymousFriend
Wii FriendCode: 1003 3740 6652 4063

User avatar
Ten na nGael
Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2022 8:24 am

Re: Why haven't we seen female Namekians?

Post by Ten na nGael » Thu Jun 30, 2022 5:53 am

As a side comment I think one thing to keep in mind is that Kami is really intended to be a Shinto kami, not a European style god. I've seen David Chart, a leading expert on Shinto who worked for Jinja Honcho, say that translationing "god" for "kami" isn't really accurate at all. You have to remember that there are waterfalls, mountains and even people like the Tennō (Emperor) that are kami.

Similarly a "Maō", like Piccolo, is often given as a subtype of yōkai in mythological compendiums. A maō is a ruler of mazoku, who are simply those yokai who directly oppose the kami and natural order.
As an example the Witch King of Angmar in Lord of the Rings is also translated with Maō. As are genies in the Arabian Nights. Human beings considered terrifying and powerful also get the title. Of course Piccolo is a Daimaō, i.e. a Great-Maō. As such the term literally means something like "Great leader of powerful beings opposed to the common good". Of course that's a mouthful and "Demon" is a nice shorthand, but it carries a lot of meaning from Christianity that isn't present in the original term.

This is why an alien can easily be a kami and Piccolo can easily no longer be a maō.

User avatar
Majin Buu
Advanced Regular
Posts: 1106
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2005 2:23 pm

Re: Why haven't we seen female Namekians?

Post by Majin Buu » Thu Jun 30, 2022 10:19 am

Ten na nGael wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 5:53 am snip
All of this makes sense. Goes to show how important having that cultural context is.
Anonymous Friend wrote: Wed Jun 29, 2022 3:49 pm Just willing yourself to this demon state can affect the afterlife management process.
Indeed.

Post Reply