Bra's Character: The point everything went wrong
Jan 5, 2021 0:17:27 GMT
Post by fionordequester on Jan 5, 2021 0:17:27 GMT
I didn't think I'd be creating a thread. I was just giving a stream-of-conscious retrospective on the newest page, and sharing my feelings. No new arguments, so there wasn't any point... Or so it seemed... Then I realized something.
I didn't use to mind Bra so much either. Actually, I *liked* her, for about the first 300 pages! She was feisty in a positive way, she seemed like a hard worker, she clearly admired her father, she had emotions apart from "misery" and "anger"... She even smiled on occasion!
Not just the "You're gonna get knocked the FUNK out!" kind of smirks or smiles, either. I mean, actual, *genuine* smiles...
But... Then Page 309 happened—the day Salagir decided Vegetto was no longer a white man...
And *immediately* after, the very first time they show up (Page 315), the Bras are meaner than they are before:
Bra insults her family for the first time (Page 321):
Bra gives her first murderous grin (Page 363):
Bra kills someone for the first time (Page 368):
And on it goes. In addition, she almost never smiles again—ever. Even after 1500+ more pages. There's ONE time where she shows genuine happiness, when Pan is revived (Page 958):
And a few one-off occasions when she's 6 years old, in the Chapter 54 special (Pages 1224-1244):
But apart from that, post-309 Bra can be boiled down to four basic emotions...
--
1) A gloomy scowl
2) Mocking glee at someone's suffering
3) Outrage at someone else's stupidity
+-
4) Joy in laying a beating on some poor fool
--
There was a new Bra in town, because Salagir decided he wanted a darker, edgier story... Which was fine. I enjoyed watching Vegeta gradually evolve, and thought Salagir would guide her to a similar place of self-reflection and self-actualization. So, I defended her and Salagir as I saw fit, and waited...
...and waited... and waited... and waited... and waited. I watched Bra win every match, use Senzu Beans without any hint of shame, watched her abuse her family without anyone fighting back, and watched the Ginyu sub-plot resolve itself in the span of a few minutes. Bra was protected from all consequences, and I was left stunned...
But that was ok! She came back as Majin Bra! NOW was when she was going to have her world view challenged, at long last! Gohan and the others would resist her with the power of teamwork! Gohan and the others would talk her down the same way Goku talked down Vegeta! It'd be like a long therapy session, just like that fight! Eventually, Bra's love for her family would prompt her to resist Babidi, just like Vegeta...
...And then she slew them all. She read the script and stopped attacks she couldn't possibly have known about. Cell's reinforced nucleus, Phipil's carbonite attack on her boot, people teleporting to places she could only have guessed at...
Then she cuts Gohan in half, and powers right through. Even Gohan's surprised:
Oh, she breaks the spell, sure... After someone calls her "passive":
And now, instead of *fixing* her character, Salagir wants to blame everything on Vegetto: A quick & dirty way of getting us back on her side, without actually having to put too much work into it.
I won't presume to know what Salagir's thinking... But what it seems to me? He decided he wanted Bra to be "dark & edgy" around the 300 page mark. Before then, he just wrote her as "strong, female Saiyan"—a fantasy about what Bra would look like if she was sired by Vegetto, and trained as hard as the main heroes. And, frankly, that worked. I thought it was cool to see.
...Then, perhaps sometime in the space fight, he thought "what if she was a "serious" character? A darker, edgier, more "complicated" character than Dragon Ball has ever had before?" He decided she should be "morally grey"—and "morally grey", to him, meant "this character is always 100% gloomy and mean, all the time, and always rips people's heads off".
Now, perhaps realizing he's written himself into a corner, he's trying to save her the only way he knows how—by making Vegetto even worse, in comparison.
Well, trying to make him look worse, anyway. Thoughts?
I didn't use to mind Bra so much either. Actually, I *liked* her, for about the first 300 pages! She was feisty in a positive way, she seemed like a hard worker, she clearly admired her father, she had emotions apart from "misery" and "anger"... She even smiled on occasion!
Not just the "You're gonna get knocked the FUNK out!" kind of smirks or smiles, either. I mean, actual, *genuine* smiles...
But... Then Page 309 happened—the day Salagir decided Vegetto was no longer a white man...
And *immediately* after, the very first time they show up (Page 315), the Bras are meaner than they are before:
Bra insults her family for the first time (Page 321):
Bra gives her first murderous grin (Page 363):
Bra kills someone for the first time (Page 368):
And on it goes. In addition, she almost never smiles again—ever. Even after 1500+ more pages. There's ONE time where she shows genuine happiness, when Pan is revived (Page 958):
And a few one-off occasions when she's 6 years old, in the Chapter 54 special (Pages 1224-1244):
But apart from that, post-309 Bra can be boiled down to four basic emotions...
--
1) A gloomy scowl
2) Mocking glee at someone's suffering
3) Outrage at someone else's stupidity
+-
4) Joy in laying a beating on some poor fool
--
There was a new Bra in town, because Salagir decided he wanted a darker, edgier story... Which was fine. I enjoyed watching Vegeta gradually evolve, and thought Salagir would guide her to a similar place of self-reflection and self-actualization. So, I defended her and Salagir as I saw fit, and waited...
...and waited... and waited... and waited... and waited. I watched Bra win every match, use Senzu Beans without any hint of shame, watched her abuse her family without anyone fighting back, and watched the Ginyu sub-plot resolve itself in the span of a few minutes. Bra was protected from all consequences, and I was left stunned...
But that was ok! She came back as Majin Bra! NOW was when she was going to have her world view challenged, at long last! Gohan and the others would resist her with the power of teamwork! Gohan and the others would talk her down the same way Goku talked down Vegeta! It'd be like a long therapy session, just like that fight! Eventually, Bra's love for her family would prompt her to resist Babidi, just like Vegeta...
...And then she slew them all. She read the script and stopped attacks she couldn't possibly have known about. Cell's reinforced nucleus, Phipil's carbonite attack on her boot, people teleporting to places she could only have guessed at...
Then she cuts Gohan in half, and powers right through. Even Gohan's surprised:
Oh, she breaks the spell, sure... After someone calls her "passive":
And now, instead of *fixing* her character, Salagir wants to blame everything on Vegetto: A quick & dirty way of getting us back on her side, without actually having to put too much work into it.
I won't presume to know what Salagir's thinking... But what it seems to me? He decided he wanted Bra to be "dark & edgy" around the 300 page mark. Before then, he just wrote her as "strong, female Saiyan"—a fantasy about what Bra would look like if she was sired by Vegetto, and trained as hard as the main heroes. And, frankly, that worked. I thought it was cool to see.
...Then, perhaps sometime in the space fight, he thought "what if she was a "serious" character? A darker, edgier, more "complicated" character than Dragon Ball has ever had before?" He decided she should be "morally grey"—and "morally grey", to him, meant "this character is always 100% gloomy and mean, all the time, and always rips people's heads off".
Now, perhaps realizing he's written himself into a corner, he's trying to save her the only way he knows how—by making Vegetto even worse, in comparison.
Well, trying to make him look worse, anyway. Thoughts?