If you could force Toriyama to show you The Documents, would you?

[Cipher]

We've all loved and enjoyed his work. But if you had one opportunity to go to his Kiyosu, Nagoya house, where he lives with wife Nachi Mikami and raised his two children, and blackmail him with doctored photos into showing you The Documents so you may stave off the emptiness of your life with just one moment in the presence of the shimmering everglow of Canon, would you? Would you ask him who his favorite character is? Or what the All-Truth revealed about Frost's power? It's just a fun game!

Let's take a step back and remember how good it felt rushing home after school, or, for those of us who are older, obtaining that next clandestine tape of mysterious origins and popping it into the VCR to eagerly absorb whatever contents it held, all to watch Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, two series following the simple, charming story about a superpowered martial artist whose good nature saves the universe time and again. We've all had our laughs and heated moments discussing the little details dropped into the series: What did the Saiyans' social structure look like? Could Gohan defeat Dabura? What is Goku's power level in the Boo arc? Could he defeat Superman? These are the conversations that keep us coming back, endlessly debating, all thanks to the series' lovable, sometimes forgetful author, Toriyama.

But if you had the opportunity to ignore the pleas and questions of his horrified and confused family as you rifled through his model collections and bookshelves for two-way-locking SentrySafe Elite with 1.5 inch live-action locking bolts in which he has always selfishly and secretly squandered The Documents that are rightfully fans', would you? Just for one second to sate the searing pain of not knowing the transformation indicated by Gohan's hair style in chapter 455, could you demand to be taken past the Cyberlocks to the Under and use the passwords contained in the safe to force open the vault of The Documents, forcing Toriyama to stand by, knowing its security measures present great personal risk to all those who attempt to bypass them? If it would alleviate the oncoming Death Spiral of not knowing what the Super outline indicates about Hit? Couldn't you do that, or at least imagine it, just for an instant? How great the pleasure would be, with all of your accomplishments offering the collective feeling of a pinprick in comparison to the whole-body warmth that accompanies of the glow of The Documents? If food would never again taste so sweet as the psychic meal of that knowledge which should, no, must be yours to hold?

We all remember how shocked we were when Gohan finally unleashed at the Cell Games. And who doesn't remember how cool it was when Vegeta sacrificed himself against Boo? That's what cartoons used to be made of. We love to keep the fandom alive by discussing our favorite moments and engaging in fun fantasy fights between characters, using the evidence at our disposal. It's just for fun!

But to that end, since the Reality has been cruelly kept from deserving Ever-Fans for the last three cycles, since the series was first Camitupulting in the Mind-Crystal of Toriyama's Vision Room wherein he received and purposefully distorted messages of truth from the Ryu-Ether, but not before recording them in a complex but decipherable system of cryptography, if you had the opportunity to accept an invitation to dinner, ask him questions about his time on the series, and cut the phone lines as you insist with the threat of small arms on going into Super Basement to the safe where The Documents are kept, would you, knowing full well they rest behind fingerprint-triggered locks, if you had to wrestle Toriyama down the stairs with you and as he screams in a language you do not understand, nor care to, for this pointless madness to stop, that there are no Documents, and force his own eye up to the optic scanner -- would you do that? Could you destroy all traces of your identity so you could sneak back overseas and live a life of anonymity uploading one Document to the internet at a time, all in the name of Canon that wants to be free?

Who among us wouldn't? That's what makes us true fans.

Except people who like GT. 'Cause everyone knows that sucks and has no Documents.

I can't make a poll on this site, so here are your options: http://www.strawpoll.me/12245561

Please remember to explain your answers below.

[Wezenheim]

No, I do not care about The Documents.

You covered a lot of my reasons in your post, actually. Dragon Ball is a whacky, random, fun series that holds a special place in my heart. It's a series that makes discussion extremely interesting, especially if you only consider the material on the screen/manga panel. If I knew all the reasons to everything ever, I feel as though some of that charm would just be stripped away. Even these message boards would be much less interesting. Why bother debating if we have all the answers? Interesting discussions can be shut down with a simple "Well The Documents said __ and that's that." Out of universe lore is definitely cool, but it's not necessary. This sort of ties into that "Death of the Author" topic from a few days ago, and I think this is a great thread too.

This is a series which features things like anthropomorphic animals holding places of power and the main character being revealed as an alien a little less than halfway through. Why do talking animals practically disappear later on? Was Goku always intended to be an alien and should you read it that way? I love thinking about that kind of thing. The Documents can be sealed away by the Mafuba as far as I'm concerned.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

Honestly, I'm indifferent. Would I read them if someone else posted them online? Of course! However, I don't actively care about them at all.

[successoroffate]

Except people who like GT. 'Cause everyone knows that sucks and has no Documents.
.

Well...I guess this leaves me out then.

[Zephyr]

Toriyama obviously keeps The Documents hidden so that he can extract their life-giving properties, and live forever.

If I took them from him, he wouldn't be able to spend the rest of time creating new Dragon Ball stories, retconning Toei's transgressions from existence. I can't bring myself to do that, there are far too many people being kept alive on this steady stream of new material!

[Cipher]

If I took them from him, he wouldn't be able to spend the rest of time creating new Dragon Ball stories, retconning Toei's transgressions from existence. I can't bring myself to do that, there are far too many people being kept alive on this steady stream of new material!

You don't think the Dragon Ball Room has copies of The Documents?

[TheGreatness25]

Of course. I would hold his entire family hostage and I'd blackmail him, committing multiple crimes, just to find out what the intended canon was. The good news is that if I got caught, I'd have very strong grounds for the insanity plea.

Of course not. I couldn't care less.

[Zephyr]

If I took them from him, he wouldn't be able to spend the rest of time creating new Dragon Ball stories, retconning Toei's transgressions from existence. I can't bring myself to do that, there are far too many people being kept alive on this steady stream of new material!

You don't think the Dragon Ball Room has copies of The Documents?

Those are just adaptations! They're not the Canon version of The Documents. They don't possess a fraction of the succulent vitality supplement enveloping The Source Material.

[RandomGuy96]

I would never want to interact with Toriyama again. Not after last time.

I saw Akira Toriyama at a grocery store in Nagoya yesterday. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for a signed sketch or anything.

He said (in perfect English weirdly enough), “Oh, like you’re doing now?”

I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen ship models in his hands without paying.

The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter. When she took one of the boxes and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any ki infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each model set and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.

The point here is, yeah, I would definitely break into his house and rifle through The Documents. My reasoning is simple. I could sell the documents Toriyama has about the Japanese nuclear program to the US government for $100 million, and sell Toriyama's secret battle power sheet of Buu arc characters to the collective DB fans for $200 million. If I could find his secret battle power list of Super characters, however, I would destroy it; man was never meant to possess that info.

[Cipher]

Of course. I would hold his entire family hostage and I'd blackmail him, committing multiple crimes, just to find out what the intended canon was. The good news is that if I got caught, I'd have very strong grounds for the insanity plea.

Of course not. I couldn't care less.

Spoken like someone who's never seen a single Document; smh.

One time someone showed me a picture of The Documents, and even though the text was too small to read, just seeing them made me feel like strong, electric meat.

To be honest, I'm not really sure how anyone can get away from wanting The Documents. They're such a part of the fandom.

This is why, whenever someone brings up GT, we always have to say, "This series has good ideas, but it has no Documents."

And we're constantly asking questions like, "Does this prove Toyotaro has seen The Documents? How many times has he looked at them? Did he feel like meat?" and "Is this episode based on The Documents or ideas?"

[Kamiccolo9]

I hear that if you play Cha-La Head Cha-La backwards, you hear a secret message from Toriyama giving you the first clue on the hunt for The Documents. That's what I hear.

[PelicanDynasty]

A hermit I met in Yemen once told me that Toriyama keeps the original Documents shoved up his own asshole, and the rest are just copies.

I dismissed that as utter nonsense at the time, but now that I look at all the evidence it seems possible. Who knows what to believe these days, with all the fake news going around.

[Gog]

Guys, guys. obviously Toriyama no longer has the documents.

They are in the nefarious hands of Toei

[RandomGuy96]

How thorough was the investigation into Daisuke Gori's death? I heard he ran afoul of The Documents against his level of clearance a week before he was found dead. I'm not saying he was murdered to prevent a leak of The Documents. I'm just saying that it's suspicious.

[Zephyr]

I don't think that getting The Documents is worth it, guys. Apparently some inside sources say that being exposed to them before you're ready can have dreadful consequences. While the case is still disputed as "tinfoil hat conspiracy theory nonsense", there are images floating around the Information Super-Highway of what they can do to you. This is so graphic that I'm not going to embed the images, instead I'll hot link them:

Here's what they looked like before seeing The Documents, and here's what they looked like after. Very gruesome stuff. The media will tell you that this is unsubstantiated bullshit, but they're always lying about this sort of stuff, so why believe anything they say?

[Kid Buu]

No I don't talk to weeaboos.

[Doctor.]

The correct translation is "Da Dokumentos", how can you call yourself a true fan when you don't even keep the pun intact?

[Nightmare Wheel]

No, you don't get it. Toriyama IS The Documents!

[moochfloatjr]

Would I love to see The Documents? Absolutely! I lay awake every night, wondering about the infinite cosmic mysteries of this fragile mortal realm, like what form Gohan was using or how Dabura and those weird filler demons from DB fit together in the hierarchy of the Demon Realm.

However, I cannot bring myself to view The Documents. Can you not see how they drive men to madness? Guidebooks are infused with but a sliver of The Sacred Knowledge, a mere particle of dust compared to the whole majesty of The Documents, and with only that much power, guidebooks drive the strongest men to madness, cross-referencing information to no end, their lives sustained by The Documents until they are but a husk! Heed my warning! The Documents were not meant for mere men!

[Ki Breaker]

Except people who like GT. 'Cause everyone knows that sucks and has no Documents.

About the canon, don't really care, if it's on the internet and means something for argument's then I might take a glance..
We already have a pretty good idea what canon really is, even if it's not stated outright the show follows a defined timeline and story, we don't see cooler randomly popping up in super now do we..