Namek Saga (Chapters 11–19) – Notes

A/N: Namek Saga Time! Please note that this one does not include the Ginyu Saga in the mix. So, if you want any info on our Sentai Superstars, I'm afraid it'll have to wait until the next installment. For this time though, I figured it would be prudent to discuss the "Bardock Force" seeing as this is mainly their set-up.

+ Arc Opening Theme: Superpowers (One Piece Opening 21)

Here we are. The first non-Dragon Ball opening. Some people might say that I'm not being true to the source material by dipping into other manga/anime like this, but I have always been one to argue that you use what you need in writing like this to put across a certain point. And Superpowers puts across the theme of both the Namek Saga and the Ginyu Saga in different ways.

It really serves to drive home the point that each member of their own force is able to contribute in one way or another. It puts aside the concept of a one-man army, which Bardock seems to feel he should be, in favor of leaning on those there to support you. It also puts across the idea that being weaker than your fellows doesn't make you useless in the long run. Ironically enough, this is something that our protagonists don't fully grasp. But it's also something that our antagonists of the next arc, the Ginyu Force, grasp way too well.

+ Basic Flow/Central Theme: Team Dynamics

It's a lot more clear with the Ginyu Force arc, but a big part of the Namek arc is team dynamics. These are people that, for some reason or another, have trouble functioning as a unit coming together and being forced to function as a unit. Gohan is full of self-doubt, but is determined to reach his goal. Krillin is constantly overwhelmed by what's going on around him, but doesn't back down. Bardock has trouble trusting in the concept of working as a group after what happened to his old squad, but is willing to try and suppress those feelings for the greater good. Vegeta hates the idea of teamwork because he's selfish. And Nail hates the idea of teamwork because he feels that working with these foreigners is preventing him from doing his duty.

Beyond the concept of Team Dynamics here, another big theme of this arc is slowly exploring the motivations of our characters here and finding what makes them tick with one another. These five might not all be best friends by the time the Ginyu Force is defeated, but they have at least grown accustomed to one another in their time working as a group.

Now, CHARACTER SHEETS!

+ Bardock. Age: 33+. Current Objective: Collect the Dragon Balls as a group. Secondary objective: KILL FRIEZA!

Bardock is arguably one of the two main characters of this story up until Chapter 36. Like I said in the previous Character Sheet, Goku kinda stops being a character for a long stretch of DBZ starting here. For Bardock, this is the beginning of his long arc to get out of what could almost be described as a defeatist personality.

Back before he died, everything went wrong for Bardock. He lost all of his friends and then he died, barely able to save his kids. Languishing in Hell, alone with those thoughts, wasn't easy on the guy. He mourned his friends for nearly twenty years. He never stopped thinking about the loss of his brother. He thought about how all of his efforts to stop Frieza amounted to nothing. And, while he was satisfied to an extent knowing that Goku would eventually face down Frieza in his stead, knowing that he was meant to be forgotten genuinely just made Bardock want to fade away. The only thing preventing that was his guilt at leaving Gine behind.

Now that he's back to life and being put in charge of watching/leading people, Bardock is having to work backwards through all of that angst to become a person again. You see that in moments such as him breaking Dodoria's fingers off, or his reaction to Guru reading his mind, or even when he sees Frieza.

If I had to give a visual metaphor, it's like watching someone learn to walk again. Bardock is getting back to his feet, setting goals for himself, stumbling and hitting walls, but still genuinely trying his best even if his personality makes it seem like he's uncaring of what he's doing. This arc of his begins here and ends with Cold, so I look forward to explaining each detail of what's going on with him as we continue to cover things.

For now, in the story, the main theme of what Bardock is going through is learning to put his faith in other people again. His grandson (a very willing partner) and Vegeta (very unwilling) are two good examples of that.

+ Vegeta. Age: 30. Current Objective: Steal the Dragon Balls. Secondary objective: Kill Frieza~

Vegeta is basically the same here as in canon minus one key thing, he actually has an antagonist he's working against here.

Now, I know there are a couple questions here now that I've said that: Isn't Vegeta an antagonist? & Aren't the Frieza Force his antagonists? The answer to both of those questions is...yes and no. From Vegeta's point of view, he's the protagonist. With that mindset in mind, it's important to treat him like one when you have scenes where he's the focus. The problem with that is the dynamic in place. Vegeta is often antagonizing his supposed antagonists and they are doing very little to actually deal with him. Now, you can't change that around in this situation, because it ruins the mystique of Frieza's character. Frieza is content to just let Vegeta scurry around because he finds it entertaining (until Vegeta starts directly affecting him). So, you can't touch that or you mess up Frieza as a character.

That's where Bardock comes in. Having him to act as an antagonist to Vegeta and actively try to hinder Vegeta's plans works in a couple of ways. First, Vegeta can't kill Bardock with one attack like he could Gohan or Krillin. So, it's less of a cat-and-mouse game than in canon. And second, Bardock understands Vegeta better than anyone else on Namek. He knows the mindset of being a Saiyan and a space pirate working under a member of Frieza's race. He is able to interfere with Vegeta in a more technical level, using his own experience as a soldier to stay comfortably ahead of Vegeta, but still close enough that he can mess with him.

He can also taunt Vegeta in ways that no one else could or would dare to. A key example of this is his jab at Vegeta about the Ginyu Force when the two Saiyans and Nail meet up. In an instant, Bardock can get under Vegeta's skin and subtly push his aggression in a direction that is beneficial to Bardock's side.

+ Nail. Age: 40. Favorite Color: Turquoise. Current Objective: Recover the Dragon Balls. Secondary objective: Kill Frieza.

Finally Nail. His big moments come during the fights with the Ginyu Force and with Frieza, so I'm going to use this section here to address something important. As I'm sure you've noticed reading this, Nail's goals in this section of the story coincide with two other characters.

As much as they disagree and bicker, Bardock, Vegeta, and Nail all have the exact same mindset going into things here. Fundamentally, the three of them aren't all that fond of each other. Vegeta simply hates Bardock and Nail as a rival and an inferior respectively. Bardock hates Vegeta and Nail's attitudes. Nail is unapproving of Vegeta's overall wickedness and Bardock's overall abrasiveness.

Without Frieza as a unifying factor, the three of them would probably be at each other's throats.

But they also have a lot in common. They're prideful warriors that want to put an end to Frieza for personally selfish reasons. Even Nail, as selfless as he is, mainly wants to keep the Grand Elder safe over anything else. He's not so much out to avenge his fallen brothers as he is to simply fulfill what he feels is his duty to Molluska. I look forward to delving more into this in future installments.

+ Son Gohan. Age: 5. Current Objective: Revive Piccolo. Secondary Objective: Impress his grandfather.

Gohan's point in this section of the story is developing his relationship with Bardock. It's an important relationship that will span over the rest of this story. Nothing much more here to say beyond that. Gohan probably has the least changes as a character in this section, compared to everyone else. He basically acts just as he does in canon, just with a new adult male figure he's trying to figure out and get to know.

There will be more comments on this in the next couple of Character Sheets, for now though we're at the impetus of a new character arc for Gohan.

+ Krillin. Age: 26. Favorite Color: Yellow. Current Objective: Revive his friends.

Krillin is a trusty guy. He's basically the Koichi of Dragon Ball. He's someone you can rely on in a pinch and a guy who, while not the strongest, is still willing to work hard and help accomplish things. I focused a lot less on his relationship with Bardock than with characters like Gohan and Vegeta because I feel like Krillin's personality informs how he'd treat someone like Bardock. Krillin often defers to Goku's judgement on people because he recognizes how uncomplicated Goku's brain is with such things. Goku trusted Bardock, so Krillin trusts him. There's not much to the relationship beyond that. Krillin recognizes Bardock as a good guy, so Bardock is someone he can work with.

Vegeta, on the other hand, takes more work. But, we'll discuss that in the next two of these.

+ Additional Characters: Bulma is an important character here, just not one that's actively involved in the events of the arc. She is firmly placed in the background, but always working on something. Bardock, being the team leader and the guy trying to keep them all from dying, recognizes her talent for machines and instantly starts putting those smarts to work for their side. I disliked how canon pushed Bulma into the background for Namek. It felt like kind of a waste to even bring her just to forget about her. So, I wanted to find ways to keep her relevant and involved from beginning to end in this version of the events on Namek.

Trivia

+ When writing the relationships between the characters and Bardock, I don't think I've had more fun with any of them than between him and Bulma. I think they have the most interesting dynamic because they take each other out of a specific comfort zone. Bardock has never had to deal with a woman like Bulma before. Gine was always agreeable and Fasha, even if she and Bardock could grate against one another, usually deferred to her leader's judgement. Meanwhile, Bulma is used to Bardock's face...but with a much different personality attached. Having these two deal with one another and slowly evolve a weird sort of friendship and respect is one of my more favorite things I did in this arc.

+ Piggybacking off of Bulma & Bardock's relationship, we come upon the fact that Bardock's bestowed Future Vision seems to not be agreeing with his head the more it is used. I feel that's only a natural response. Bardock's brain isn't built for that level of psychic input and it would obviously have some form of negative effect on him overall. As for that negative effect...it's a building block towards something a lot further down the line.

+ People seem to think that I just spared Elder Tsuno's village because it was unfair that they stayed dead in the original story. Not true. I feel that any good story needs unfair moments like that, because it helps to build up character and inform future characters traits. A good example of that in Dragon Ball is Vegeta's original slaying of Tsuno's village informing his character in the Moro arc. This was just a matter of showing how crafty Bardock could be. He's not the smartest guy in the world, but his big strength is that he can think on his feet. A lifetime of hardship and tragedy has made Bardock into a bit of a cockroach. He can take so much pain and he can still react to new pain as it comes in to try and counteract it. It makes him a character you want to root for.

+ I haven't really had many chances to touch on it, but I have a lot planned for the Namekians as a whole. Chapter 16 of this story was the start of that. The "Unknown Grave" for Katas and Molluska's regrets regarding it were two very important details that I wanted to cover. As we go on in the story, we get to see things from Katas' perspective through Kami, just a little bit. But, with those two covered, that does leave the matter of Slug...

+ One criticism I've gotten in writing this story is that Bulma smokes. She does smoke in canon, I just took that trait and used it to sort of show when she's really focusing on getting something done. I also wanted to include it a bit more heavily as a trait for the sake of a certain character in a future arc.

+ Finally, the tale of the original Super Saiyan. I had Frieza tell the tale of his ancestor, Chilled, and the original Super Saiyan. In my story, it's Yamoshi who is the original Super Saiyan. This was something I wanted to do out of liking the concept of Episode of Bardock, but hating the execution. As for what Yamoshi looks like...well, we might already know what his face looks like.

+ In Chapter 11, we have the first mention of Turles in this story. Specifically, Bardock mentions someone that Turles used to hang around when they were little. It kinda sounds like he's referring to Slug (in my original concept, he was), but he isn't. He's referring to a different character we'll meet soon.