General Fan Fiction Thread

[ekrolo2]

Well, when Super first started the Black Arc, I had plans to have Zamasu and Black fuse and get sealed by the Mafuba, but that ended up happening in Super so I can't do that now. :/

Why does that stop you?

[Dbzfan94]

Well, when Super first started the Black Arc, I had plans to have Zamasu and Black fuse and get sealed by the Mafuba, but that ended up happening in Super so I can't do that now. :/

Why does that stop you?

I planned on making the arc different from the original but then it would just seem like I'm recycling ideas. I know Super's arc ended (terribly) but still.

[ekrolo2]

Well, when Super first started the Black Arc, I had plans to have Zamasu and Black fuse and get sealed by the Mafuba, but that ended up happening in Super so I can't do that now. :/

Why does that stop you?

I planned on making the arc different from the original but then it would just seem like I'm recycling ideas. I know Super's arc ended (terribly) but still.

I can see that, if you want my input, I think taking the core ideas and then reworking them into another story would serve your end goal well. With my Resurrection F remake, I took the basic ques like Sorbet using the DBs to revive Freeza, him training then attacking Earth with an army but how all that happens is vastly different from the end product.

[Alruneia]

A Saiyan War Hero (Plenty of Planets conquered), taken from her time where she suffered from a deadly and incurable disease that is slowly rotting away her insides (Displayed by her skin cracking and body falling to pieces throughout the arc). Her final goal is to do everything in her power to push the last remaining Saiyans to there limits as some sort of test. Seeking an answer to the fate of the Saiyan race. Shall they die with her, pathetically withering to dust in a bed like pathetic worms? Or live on through her demise on the battlefield?
Their names undecided, but they'd all be based on some sort of decay/rot/taint pun.

I recognise that disease!
[spoiler]Shimi has had it as well. (One of the translations of the word "shimi" is taint. no steal pls) Though Shimi never accepted that she was going to die from that disease, and actually managed to find a way to "cure" the incurable... I'm not going to go into how, because that's major spoilers. Shimi isn't a saiyan, by the way.[/spoiler]
It's impressive that we both have that disease in our stories.

Well, 'Disease that slowly kills you' isn't exactly a rare idea in the ea of thought

I thought "disease that kills you by rotting away your insides and causing your body to slowly crumble" (just a slight rewording) was specific enough to be impressive, at least.

[Dbzfan94]

Why does that stop you?

I planned on making the arc different from the original but then it would just seem like I'm recycling ideas. I know Super's arc ended (terribly) but still.

I can see that, if you want my input, I think taking the core ideas and then reworking them into another story would serve your end goal well. With my Resurrection F remake, I took the basic ques like Sorbet using the DBs to revive Freeza, him training then attacking Earth with an army but how all that happens is vastly different from the end product.

That's very true. It's still a long ways away till I get to Black anyway, but I'll definitely keep that in mind. Thanks

[ekrolo2]

How easy to recognize would Vegeta if he were to say show up in a market place on some alien planet? I'm leaning towards him being fairly infamous even after dropping off the radar following Freeza's demise.

[SilverArmada]

How easy to recognize would Vegeta if he were to say show up in a market place on some alien planet? I'm leaning towards him being fairly infamous even after dropping off the radar following Freeza's demise.

Absolutely he could be recognizable. He and Raditz and Nappa were part of Frieza's teams which would wipe out entire worlds. Assuming some of those people escaped, I'm sure they would recognize him.

The more interesting question would be: would law enforcement recognize him, and are they after him for his crimes committed on behalf of the PTO?

[Kanassa]

How easy to recognize would Vegeta if he were to say show up in a market place on some alien planet? I'm leaning towards him being fairly infamous even after dropping off the radar following Freeza's demise.

Depends, does Vegeta leave any survivors to remember him?

Also, another question, would Trunks having any sort of PTSD about the androids, even years after he destroyed them, make sense?

[ekrolo2]

How easy to recognize would Vegeta if he were to say show up in a market place on some alien planet? I'm leaning towards him being fairly infamous even after dropping off the radar following Freeza's demise.

Absolutely he could be recognizable. He and Raditz and Nappa were part of Frieza's teams which would wipe out entire worlds. Assuming some of those people escaped, I'm sure they would recognize him.

The more interesting question would be: would law enforcement recognize him, and are they after him for his crimes committed on behalf of the PTO?

Considering the fact the Galactic Patrol are such whimps they can't even handle a grown Saiyan, I think they'd most likely look the other way.

[SilverArmada]

How easy to recognize would Vegeta if he were to say show up in a market place on some alien planet? I'm leaning towards him being fairly infamous even after dropping off the radar following Freeza's demise.

Depends, does Vegeta leave any survivors to remember him?

Also, another question, would Trunks having any sort of PTSD about the androids, even years after he destroyed them, make sense?

YES on Trunks having PTSD. I've written into fanfic and people really liked it, so I'd wager that most fans think he is traumatized by the cyborgs (and Gohan's death).

[sailorspazz]

They have no one from Super (Whis and Beerus don't count). Now, I can't look up any Black/Zamasu slash fiction! HOW WILL I LIVE!?

Even if you can look it up, it barely exists I've found a whopping total of two. And when I say "found", I mean "written" for one of those. The other one might be only on AO3...at least there you can input character names and they'll be added into the database.

I might end up writing another fic of them, because 1. I have more ideas bugging me now, and 2. Apparently no one else is going to keep this ship sailing! (On the English side, at least...there are plenty of wonderful, talented Japanese fan-artists putting out great stuff for these two♥)

[ekrolo2]

For all the shit I've given Toriyama, I can't help but understand where he was coming from when he chose to prioritize some characters over others as I've written DB fan fics.

Maybe I'm just not there yet as a writer, but am I the only who thinks his approach of picking a handful of key players then use them as the central focus might be for the best instead of trying to give everyone an important arc?

[Kanassa]

For all the shit I've given Toriyama, I can't help but understand where he was coming from when he chose to prioritize some characters over others as I've written DB fan fics.

Maybe I'm just not there yet as a writer, but am I the only who thinks his approach of picking a handful of key players then use them as the central focus might be for the best instead of trying to give everyone an important arc?

I think it makes perfect sense. Yes, you want to have plenty of character for people to love and treasure, but you should only have a few key characters to focus on or you bring down both the story and the characters because you`re stretching them thin. With Toriyama, the only mistake I see here is that at time the main players (Aside from Piccolo and Krilin when they`re relevant) shared heritage, species and attributes makes them feel rather samy to watch fight.

[ekrolo2]

I think it makes perfect sense. Yes, you want to have plenty of character for people to love and treasure, but you should only have a few key characters to focus on or you bring down both the story and the characters because you`re stretching them thin. With Toriyama, the only mistake I see here is that at time the main players (Aside from Piccolo and Krilin when they`re relevant) shared heritage, species and attributes makes them feel rather samy to watch fight.

I also think this issue with the cast stems from a couple of things. 1) the bigger focus on fighting makes it nigh impossible to give people like Oolong & Puar, characters who's shape shifting would be incredibly useful anywhere else anything to do. And 2) a good chunk of them become redundant as Mistare Fusion pointed out. Tien and Chaozu are basically a much less interesting duo than Piccolo and Gohan while Krillin's plucky everyman quality and desire to get married (which he took from Yamcha) makes Yamcha redundant too.

[Kanassa]

I think it makes perfect sense. Yes, you want to have plenty of character for people to love and treasure, but you should only have a few key characters to focus on or you bring down both the story and the characters because you`re stretching them thin. With Toriyama, the only mistake I see here is that at time the main players (Aside from Piccolo and Krilin when they`re relevant) shared heritage, species and attributes makes them feel rather samy to watch fight.

I also think this issue with the cast stems from a couple of things. 1) the bigger focus on fighting makes it nigh impossible to give people like Oolong & Puar, characters who's shape shifting would be incredibly useful anywhere else anything to do. And 2) a good chunk of them become redundant as Mistare Fusion pointed out. Tien and Chaozu are basically a much less interesting duo than Piccolo and Gohan while Krillin's plucky everyman quality and desire to get married (which he took from Yamcha) makes Yamcha redundant too.

I also think another problem is the way fights are carried out, sooner or later, every beam attack and punch thrown look the exact same. I always found the Majin Vegeta VS Goku fight to be so creative.

[ekrolo2]

I also think another problem is the way fights are carried out, sooner or later, every beam attack and punch thrown look the exact same. I always found the Majin Vegeta VS Goku fight to be so creative.

The power level system is to blame for the fights I think. Even if Yamcha spends more time jogging to improve his running, if Piccolo's vague numerical designation of power is higher than Yamcha's he WILL run faster than Yamcha even if he predominately focused on punching for training. Dragon Ball is no JoJo in this regard.

[Anime Kitten]

It's definitely possible to utilize an impressive cast of characters without sacrificing the story. I mean, Naruto (where I am, at least, so no spoils ) focuses on Team 7, but you still see a good bit from the other teams and the antagonists. I think Dragon Ball could pull it off in Super, but I'd personally prefer new characters from other Universes instead of the same Universe 7 cast.

Bringing this back around to writing, though, reading books/manga and watching shows/anime would certainly provide some assistance in writing aspects such as cast utilization.

[Doctor.]

For all the shit I've given Toriyama, I can't help but understand where he was coming from when he chose to prioritize some characters over others as I've written DB fan fics.

Maybe I'm just not there yet as a writer, but am I the only who thinks his approach of picking a handful of key players then use them as the central focus might be for the best instead of trying to give everyone an important arc?

Just kill some characters off and you won't have a problem with the big cast anymore.

[Alruneia]

For all the shit I've given Toriyama, I can't help but understand where he was coming from when he chose to prioritize some characters over others as I've written DB fan fics.

Maybe I'm just not there yet as a writer, but am I the only who thinks his approach of picking a handful of key players then use them as the central focus might be for the best instead of trying to give everyone an important arc?

Just kill some characters off and you won't have a problem with the big cast anymore.

If that's your solution, then you might run into the problem of your readers being able to tell that you killed characters because you don't know how to write with a big cast. Of course, avoiding that problem isn't all that difficult. All you have to do is make the deaths make sense. Just be careful about it.

I'm going to have to agree, though. Using a large cast properly is difficult. About ten chapters ago I was using fourteen Z Fighters across the Earth at the same time, and I kept forgetting where people were. The problem mostly vanished when everyone got together, though I still had to make sure everyone got to shine (Goku and Vegeta weren't around, so it was the non-gods' time in the spotlight). It's very easy to start leaving people out even when you've set everything up for them. (Oh well, I think I did all right. Chiaotzu and Yamcha got to shine in a battle for the first time in a very long time.)

[ekrolo2]

If that's your solution, then you might run into the problem of your readers being able to tell that you killed characters because you don't know how to write with a big cast. Of course, avoiding that problem isn't all that difficult. All you have to do is make the deaths make sense. Just be careful about it.

I'm going to have to agree, though. Using a large cast properly is difficult. About ten chapters ago I was using fourteen Z Fighters across the Earth at the same time, and I kept forgetting where people were. The problem mostly vanished when everyone got together, though I still had to make sure everyone got to shine (Goku and Vegeta weren't around, so it was the non-gods' time in the spotlight). It's very easy to start leaving people out even when you've set everything up for them. (Oh well, I think I did all right. Chiaotzu and Yamcha got to shine in a battle for the first time in a very long time.)

A good way of circumnavigating this kind of stuff is to maybe put in camps where a bunch of people are trying to accomplish the same thing together. Like Goku, Vegeta, Beerus and Whis are over here doing this thing. Gohan, Piccolo, Goten and Trunks are doing another and then the Earthling's are doing a third. That way you can at least compartmentalize the cast into more manageable chunks instead of having 15 people do 15 different things at once.