Ashur wrote: ↑Thu Aug 04, 2022 10:01 pm
Bulma is still just as good as she always was, maybe even more, in Super they've given her a lot of protagonism in spite of being all fighting arcs (especially Zamasu arc) that's even an improvement over her original DB self where in some arcs she just stayed on the background because...
I'd say overall the writing for Bulma in Super improved from where we were in early Dragon Ball and even parts of Z.
Imo Videl's best characterization after the Buu fight is when she becomes Great Saiyaman 2, like in movie 13 and post-Buu filler, in GT and Super she becomes a standard housewife with not much personality, even though she has some good moments in Super.
It is a shame Toei tried to do a little more with Videl than Toriyama ultimately decided on. People will try to excuse her becoming a homemaker but there really is no reason why she can't moonlight as Great Saiyaman 2 other than it wasn't Toriyama's idea.
Chi-Chi's entire character is a gag, she is an uncultured girl who follows stereotypes she reads on magazines to dictate how life "should" be, first with the marriage thing, then with Gohan getting good studies, now with getting Goku to work to provide for the family, she is funny and that's it, her being so traditional is part of the joke, there wasn't a fighter character that got turned into a random housewife like Videl, in fact being like this is perfect for the type of character that was pre-marriage Chi-Chi, it's like an extension of the joke that was her being wanting marry a guy because tapped her parts once lol.
Chi Chi is kind of a symptom of a larger issue with how women in pre-Super Dragon Ball were written than an issue in and of herself.
Number 18's entire character is... kinda boring, even before getting married, she's basically just a pretty girl that makes Krillin doubt about killing the androids just because she's pretty, she feels like a "trophy wife" more than anything else, i honestly don't get why people actually like her character, her becoming a standard housewife but with some craving for money is in-line to how she was before, which is: not very good or nuanced as a character.
18 is popular because 1. One of the only female characters who could actually kick ass (and was introduced before the whole anti-sjw whining about everything is woke these days culture took over so she gets a pass from those people) 2. Hot 3. Isn't a bitch (see the venom that Chi Chi and to a lesser extent Bulma receive) she wears the pants in the relationship but but she never emasculates Kuririn or tries to push him around. Which makes her more palatable to large segments of the fandom as opposed to Caulifa.
I like 18 but yeah it unavoidable that she is ultimately Kuririn's prize for being such a fine stand up good guy. He really wanted to get married and he's just so nice and sweet so he got awarded with a hot wife.
although Videl wasn't like that before and she actually had the best romantic development with her husband.
The fact Videl wasn't like that before is what makes it so much worse. But yes her and Gohan have the most fleshed out romance but that is practically damning with faint praise.