Romantic Interests In Dragonball

[Gonstead]

She was a Teenager in Dragon Ball, so what more would you expect from hormones acting up?

[Perfect]

Dunno, since you know, I've known plenty of teenage girls not to lust over every moderately decent looking guy. I guess this comes from the theory that not every young girl is a whore/slut.

[Saiga]

Dunno, since you know, I've known plenty of teenage girls not to lust over every moderately decent looking guy. I guess this comes from the theory that not every young girl is a whore/slut.

It's not that every young girl is a slut, but hormone levels in teenagers are crazy. And as a teenager, Bulma's hormones were making her act extremely lustful despite not acting on it with the majority of guys she found hot.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Not every girl will openly fawn over every hot guy they see, but plenty of them do it internally. BUT, because it is a manga, all these traits are exaggerated and openly displayed because its funnier that way.

[Perfect]

Dunno, since you know, I've known plenty of teenage girls not to lust over every moderately decent looking guy. I guess this comes from the theory that not every young girl is a whore/slut.

It's not that every young girl is a slut, but hormone levels in teenagers are crazy. And as a teenager, Bulma's hormones were making her act extremely lustful despite not acting on it with the majority of guys she found hot.

Just because there's a high hormone imbalance doesn't make it healthy to be lustful over people and act like a slut. Plus I doubt Toriyama was taking any of that into account, so much as he was with his dirty his laundry humor. There's a difference between being horny once in awhile and taking care of it herself (Or not) and trying to get with every guy out there that she finds attractive. I mean, who in their mind would wanna be with Oolong, a feared monster that was kidnapping women to do whatever with. That isn't healthy at all, how is being so rudimentary and lacking in morals vigor at all? Sure it's healthy to have a hormone imbalance at that age, but that doesn't render soundness or the warranted vitality of one's lustful actions towards a sicko that kidnaps people, who just happens to be handsome in perspective.

You have to understand that a lot of the stuff in Dragon Ball is satirical, unrealistic and unhealthy. Strap 40 kg onto a little kid's back and tell him to run up a mountain, is that realistic or healthy? No of course not, because it's a comic book with special characters, like any story. Bulma is no exception here, at all; she's satirical like most sexual references with women in anime and manga. The difference here is that Bulma isn't portrayed as the typical manga girl with double G sized breasts and no waist whatsoever.

[Silver Sinspawn]

We've drifted a bit off topic. Yes, Bulma is a teenager, and yes, that does change things. I know plenty of teenagers who are just as horny, but as with most people, over time, those died down, and she became less hormonal.

Back to the topic about how aside from clear cut relationships, nothing else works?

[Michsi]

Back to the topic about how aside from clear cut relationships, nothing else works?

I believe that Yamcha will always have some feelings for Bulma, no matter who he ends up marrying.

A joke fan theory of mine is that Bulma turned to Vegeta because of Goku.


As a kid, for a while I thought that Krillin also had a crush on Bulma and that the reason Maroon looked almost like a Bulma clone was because she was meant to be a substitute for the real thing to him.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I don't see the problem with doing some shipping with Dragon Ball but yeah, it pretty much comes down to either developing the relationships that ARE in the series (albeit just for plot convenience), or just speculating. Honestly, I can kind of see a Goku/Bulma relationship having worked myself, just with Bulma having to take the lead just like Chichi had to.

Always strikes me as funny though at how poor Toriyama is at depicting relationships, despite not only having a wife and kids of his own, but having another manga-ka as a friend who pretty much made his career depicting that exact thing.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Wether it's love or mere lust doesn't matter. If she went so far as to question her relationship with Yamcha, who I have no doubt she DID love, because of Goku, then those emotions aren't something to be taken too lightly.

Well...yes, it is. We know what Bulma's like. And she's only saying that because she's reflecting upon how she's always fighting with Yamcha.

Although, personally, I don't think she loved Yamcha. Maybe the way a friend loves another friend, but not a way lovers do. The entire reason their relationship began was because...well, even that wasn't really explained well. Bulma and Yamcha had both lost their wishes (the former, for a boyfriend), and then they just looked each other and start dating. They had an unstable on-and-off relationship that was shook due to Bulma's paranoia about Yamcha's female attention, and throughout, Bulma was fawning over other males based on their appearance.

Bulma/Vegeta worked out fine, despite Bulma seemingly not really being the faithful kind

I think that, once Bulma got older, she matured and stopped being promiscuous, especially since she had a child. As aforementioned, Bulma was a teenager, and as we know in real-life, many teenagers are super-hormonal. I think she loved Vegeta through Trunks, seeing his "good side" when he bonded with his son through training and amusement park trips.

Just because there's a high hormone imbalance doesn't make it healthy to be lustful over people and act like a slut. Plus I doubt Toriyama was taking any of that into account, so much as he was with his dirty his laundry humor. There's a difference between being horny once in awhile and taking care of it herself (Or not) and trying to get with every guy out there that she finds attractive. I mean, who in their mind would wanna be with Oolong, a feared monster that was kidnapping women to do whatever with. That isn't healthy at all, how is being so rudimentary and lacking in morals vigor at all? Sure it's healthy to have a hormone imbalance at that age, but that doesn't render soundness or the warranted vitality of one's lustful actions towards a sicko that kidnaps people, who just happens to be handsome in perspective.

You have to understand that a lot of the stuff in Dragon Ball is satirical, unrealistic and unhealthy. Strap 40 kg onto a little kid's back and tell him to run up a mountain, is that realistic or healthy? No of course not, because it's a comic book with special characters, like any story. Bulma is no exception here, at all; she's satirical like most sexual references with women in anime and manga. The difference here is that Bulma isn't portrayed as the typical manga girl with double G sized breasts and no waist whatsoever.

...

Look, if you really want to align it with real-life, then you could say that she's hypersexual.

[Michsi]

Well...yes, it is. We know what Bulma's like. And she's only saying that because she's reflecting upon how she's always fighting with Yamcha.

Although, personally, I don't think she loved Yamcha. Maybe the way a friend loves another friend, but not a way lovers do. The entire reason their relationship began was because...well, even that wasn't really explained well. Bulma and Yamcha had both lost their wishes (the former, for a boyfriend), and then they just looked each other and start dating. They had an unstable on-and-off relationship that was shook due to Bulma's paranoia about Yamcha's female attention, and throughout, Bulma was fawning over other males based on their appearance.

Yes, we all know what Bulm is like, she takes a healthy interest in men, but I think it's safe to say that at that point she stopped salivating after every hot guy she meets since I already said shen never had the hots for Zarbon in the manga. What you are talking about is teenage Bulma, who was the most careless when it came to this. By the time she stops to think of Goku, she is a grown up and the only one I remember her take interest in aside from Yamcha before that was actually Goku.

And as I said, the context in which she thinks about Goku and her relationship with Yamcha is noteworthy. It wasn't Yamcha that started to make her think her relationship wasn't working and look for alternatives, it was Goku. It wasn't until she thought of him that she started to question her choice. I'm pretty sure she could have almost any man she wanted but she never seemed o question her relationship until that point.

This was a person she had known for years, a person she genuinly cared about, respected and admired. He is in a whole different league compared to the other men she took notice in because of their looks.
And yes I am conviced she loved Yamcha, she went to Namek for him and hates to put gherself in danger, at least back then.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Well...yes, it is. We know what Bulma's like. And she's only saying that because she's reflecting upon how she's always fighting with Yamcha.

Although, personally, I don't think she loved Yamcha. Maybe the way a friend loves another friend, but not a way lovers do. The entire reason their relationship began was because...well, even that wasn't really explained well. Bulma and Yamcha had both lost their wishes (the former, for a boyfriend), and then they just looked each other and start dating. They had an unstable on-and-off relationship that was shook due to Bulma's paranoia about Yamcha's female attention, and throughout, Bulma was fawning over other males based on their appearance.

Yes, we all know what Bulm is like, she takes a healthy interest in men, but I think it's safe to say that at that point she stopped salivating after every hot guy she meets since I already said shen never had the hots for Zarbon in the manga. What you are talking about is teenage Bulma, who was the most careless when it came to this. By the time she stops to think of Goku, she is a grown up and the only one I remember her take interest in aside from Yamcha before that was actually Goku.

And as I said, the context in which she thinks about Goku and her relationship with Yamcha is noteworthy. It wasn't Yamcha that started to make her think her relationship wasn't working and look for alternatives, it was Goku. It wasn't until she thought of him that she started to question her choice. I'm pretty sure she could have almost any man she wanted but she never seemed o question her relationship until that point.

This was a person she had known for years, a person she genuinly cared about, respected and admired. He is in a whole different league compared to the other men she took notice in because of their looks.
And yes I am conviced she loved Yamcha, she went to Namek for him and hates to put gherself in danger, at least back then.

I'm not going to bother arguing this further. I think the point that you can say she definitely changed was after she had Trunks. She's now got the responsibility of a child to look after and has to grow up. I mean, she was still pretty ditzy beforehand. I mean, how about at the start of the Saiyan arc, when she visits Kame House? Kuririn asks her where Yamcha is, and she just rages on without fully explaining what Yamcha did or did not do. Likely more of her paranoia about Yamcha's likely unprovoked female attention. I know it was a gag, but still. They were still having an on-and-off relationship, which Bulma finally ended for good sometime in the three years before the Androids.

And I think you're looking into it too deeply. She's just wondering about how much Goku has grown, and then reflecting to her shitty relationship with Yamcha. Just because you think about going out with a friend doesn't mean you actually have loving feelings for them. Especially if you're reflecting on a broken relationship you're currently in, and yes, I know, she mentioned that after she mentioned how big and strong Goku had gotten, but it's still relevant, as she wonders afterwards if she blew it (as in, "Maybe I should've gone with Goku instead of Yamcha before he got married".). I mean, I know I've wondered what it would be like if I'd gone out with a friend, but it doesn't mean that I fancy her or anything. Just that I find her attractive and she's nice, so maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing if I went out with her.

But, again, that's just normal thinking about hypothetical situations that a lot of people do every now and then and may never act on. I mean, we never get a scene that highlights Bulma's supposed attraction towards Goku. No, all we get later is her dumping Bulma and then bedding the mass-murdering Vegeta who almost killed the supposed object of her desires.

And it wasn't only Yamcha that died. Of course, he may've been the most important person to her, because, being a boyfriend to someone, they're the person closest to you. But her other friends or just acquaintances that she knew was friends to her friends had died too, and she would've wanted to revive them as well. If Piccolo's dead, then no-one can ever be revived again. Besides, she was the only one who knew how to operate the spaceship because of her technological know-how, and, IIRC, she either didn't want to go, didn't want to go alone and/or wanted Mr. Popo to head the mission for her. But that alone doesn't mean that she loves Yamcha. He could still just be a close friend to her who she occasionally bumps genitalia with before accusing him of cheating on her for the millionth time, breaking up with him and then getting back together with him. I.e. she loved him as a friend, not a boyfriend. There's a distinct difference. And no, banging someone doesn't mean you love them either, just in case you were thinking of that.

[Michsi]

And I think you're looking into it too deeply

I don't doubt that it wasn't meant to be something serious, but it's still a scene the author added and I took notice of. Considering how much the author does not like these types of things, it's something.
And she is doing more than just wondering about how much his grown if she's thinking about having lost her chance with him.
The reason I think this is more meaningful than any other guy she liked was that this was Goku and because of their history together. He wasn't just any other friend, he was a hero to her, especially in that moment.

Anyway I just think it's more interesting when things aren't cut and dry when in comes to characters and relationships.

If anything, it might explain her initial attraction to Vegeta ( and I find that funny)

And it wasn't only Yamcha that died.

I seriously doubt she would have gone through all that for just Ten or Chiaotzu and I remember her crying her eyes out. The only other time she was so emotional was when Vegeta died in the Buu arc.

Just my two cents.

[Piccolo Daimao]

OK, yeah, I think we should just agree to disagree here.