Dark God Piccolo Saga Afterword
July 9th, 2016, that was when the first chapter of The Dark Age went up. A gloomy timeline where the Earth's mightiest warrior fell to the reincarnated offspring of one of his ultimate enemies. After 20 chapters, 6 years, and 65k words, the first arc is complete.
Six years...wow. When I started writing this, I intended for it to be a weekly series to challenge my skills as a writer. Becoming an author has been my dream ever since I was a teenager and I knew I needed to write to get better. So I decided to create The Dark Age. I'm a huge Dragonball fan so it was a world that was very familiar to me while at the same time I could create something new and different. Dragonball was also starting to rebound with Battle of the Gods, Resurrection F, and Super. Anyone who is remotely a Dragonball fan knows What Ifs are as important and are as common to the fandom as they are to Marvel. MasakoX has successfully created some of the best, both large and small, What If stories. Not to mention the popular and equally long-running Multiverse comic.
When I started this, I had a pretty simple plan. Write a new chapter every week, covering possible three arcs. I have continued to write, which is why the more recent chapters are much better than my previous ones. My style and intentions have also changed. Originally the story was very much a 'Grr...Edgelord!' kinda story and in some regards, it works that way. It was when I watched MasakoX talk about the Kakumei fan comic that I realized Dragonball is much more than that. So I'm gonna cut down on the 'Grimdark' kinda vibe. It'll still have 'rough' edges, both from a narrative and style approach but I'll try not to be as tense.
So yes, The Dark Age will continue. This was the Dark God Piccolo Arc and I have started working on the second arc, tentatively titled The Civil War Arc.
Let's talk inspiration.
I love the planet-shattering action of DBZ but a lot of the side characters aren't really used. They did receive some love in the Universe Survival Arc and that was good. However, Dragonball has primarily been the Goku show and I wanted to change that. However, there really wasn't a point I could kill off Goku that didn't immediately end with everyone losing. So I went further back to the end of Dragonball. Now we know how this What If played out but there are aspects that I would change. The main part would be Tien. I decided to focus on Yamcha because he is always considered the laughingstock of the Z Warriors. So I wanted him to be the leader but I couldn't do that with Tien in the way. So he needed out of the story. In hindsight, I should have kept Tien and created an opposing view on the training. Yamcha of the Turtle Style and Tien of the Crane Style. Yamcha would favor hitting hard and fast, using your KI to supplement your strikes. Tien would focus on using KI as his main method of attacking. The inclusion of Gero is one of my favorite aspects. He is such a throwaway villain that most games don't even include him. Hard to imagine what DBZ would have been like if #19 and #20 were the main villains of the Android Saga like Toriyama wanted. Now he can live out his days working alongside Bulma and another scientist I have plans to introduce. Piccolo's wish was probably a surprise to some. Besides being entirely too convenient for him to become immortal, I decided Piccolo wouldn't. Why? Cause why would he wish to be immortal when he was already the strongest being in existence? At least according to him. Since Piccolo and Kami still think they are Demons are this point, since there hadn't been a Nappa to inform them differently yet and Shenron is only as knowledgeable or as strong as Kami, that's my reasoning as to why the portal opened to the Demon Realm instead of Namek. The ending of the Arc was always tied to whether I felt that I would continue the story. The Dragon Balls are the magic mcguffin that solves all problems so if the new Z Warriors defeated Piccolo, they could just wish everyone back and boom, Goku is back, and we go about our way. I do not want my characters rubbing elbows with Goku, that's TOO fanfic-y. That would be a good way to end the series though.
So if the story were to continue, I would have to get rid of the Dragon Balls. To do that would mean Piccolo would have to die. I originally was gonna keep Bell alive but then I realized the Dragon Balls might still be active if a Piccolo child was alive. Would the children remain after their father's death? Would the Dragon Balls remain active if a child survived? Probably not because Piccolo is a reincarnation of King Piccolo, not just an offspring. It was too many questions so they all needed to die. Tako was originally going to be the one who received the powerup and fight Piccolo. Then it ends with him accidentally killing the Demon King. However, the more I wrote Rasha, the more I liked her as the final fighter. So she was supposed to kill Piccolo in their duel. Instead, I decided on the current ending as a way to solve both Piccolo and the Dragon Balls problem while also introducing an interesting storyline for the next Arc. How do you go back to being a Z Warrior knowing you are solely responsible for the world still being messed up? I also tried my best not to make the characters seem like Mary Sues. I want them to feel like real people that grew up in this hellish nightmare. Admittedly the result is rocky but I know these kids can grow into more interesting characters. I imagine in the regular Dragon World timeline, they lived perfectly normal lives.
While there are aspects I would do better now, I'm not gonna change anything that has already been written but I am gonna work on rewriting and fixing the grammar issues with the previous chapters. I even have an idea for a What If for this What If lol. So what excitement is planned for the next Arc? Well, I can't reveal much but we are going to be visited by some familiar characters. I hope you stick around!