And my dream… is worth fighting for!

Tags

Android, Android 21, character reviews, DBZ, Dr. Gero, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Dragon Ball Z, Video Game

ANDROID 21

Real Name: Unknown
Android Model Type: New
Year of Activation: 774
Character Design By: Akira Toriyama
Voice Actress: Houko Kuwashima (Japanese) Jeannie Tirado (English)

WARNING: This review will contain SPOILERS for the game Dragon Ball FighterZ, so if you want to remain spoiler free until you complete the game yourself, I sincerely suggest skipping this post. That all being said, let’s begin with the biggest spoiler of them all.

Android 21 is not an android.

Of course, this is far from world-shattering news as a great many “androids” created by Dr. Gero are anything but. In truth, Dr. Gero created four distinct android types; Mechanical, Biotechnological, Bio, and New Type.

As one can surmise, the Mechanical models are all true androids being entirely machine inside and out though their appearances and mannerisms can and have been based on actual people. The Biotechnological models could be more fittingly labelled as cyborgs or even modified humans as some, like Androids 17 and 18 have little to no robotic parts and have simply had their organic matter reconstructed. So much so in fact that while they don’t need to eat, they do still to keep hydrated and are incredibly long-lived due to their now slowly deteriorating cells.

Cell is, as of the time of this post, the only true known Bio-Android, whose body was constructed via genetic engineering. It is one of the many reasons why Cell, despite having been made by a majority of humanoid samples of DNA looks the way he does.

While Android 21 is similar to Cell in that she too is a genetically altered being, her creation differs from his own by one simple fact. Cell, for all that he was created to become the “perfect” fighter, culminating in a final form that had the potential to become stronger, is nothing more than a prototype. Though not stated outright, it is heavily implied that the same bio-engineering technologies and techniques utilized in his creation were then later perfected and used on her to make her a far greater powerhouse than Cell could ever hope to become.

That is, if that was Dr. Gero’s actual intent…

Android 21 was not created for war or for violence, but is, more likely, the end result of Dr. Gero trying his damnedest to ensure that the last person on Earth that he cares for will not die without putting up one hell of a fight. However, via intentional application or by a hereto unknown design flaw in the original augmentation and later bio-engineering process, Android 21 considers herself to be less than ten years old.

True, she is both physically and intellectually an adult, and a certifiable genius outclassing even Dr. Gero, but all of the memories of the life she had are completely gone but for certain feelings towards the man himself and the son they had lost that still echo faintly in her heart.

It is actually the sole reason she sought to reconstruct Android 16, because in her search of trying to find out who she was and what her purpose could be, she had found out that his template was based on her son and so wanted him by her side and told him, in no uncertain terms, that she wanted to treat him as family.

Like Cell, Android 21 is composed of all of the Z-Fighters, possibly even Future Trunks, alongside Frieza, Cell, and both versions of Majin Buu, the more amicable and friendly “Fat” Buu and his previous and far more violent “Kid” Buu form, which is considered as two separate entities thanks to Buu’s permanent absorption of Grand Supreme Kai.

Having Frieza’s cells, Android 21 is able to switch between her former human form and her actual true form pictured below. In either form, she has incredibly powerful regenerative powers, able to completely heal within seconds and thanks in no small part to the combination of cells from Piccolo, Cell, and both versions of Buu.

Of course, one must also take into account that thanks to Frieza’s cells and those of Vegeta, Goku, Gohan, Goten, and both versions of Trunks, Android 21 has not only an incredibly high endurance, but anything that forces her to regenerate only ensures that she receives an even greater boost in strength thanks to the saiyan Zenkai Boost that increases their power the more they are driven to the point of death.

Of course, that’s not taking into account the power she possesses thanks to the Majin Buus and Cell, namely her ability to turn people into sweets and eat them to not only further her regeneration, but grant her a boost in power equal to that of the eaten warrior.

Thus we get to the point where I try to make sense of Android 21’s “master plan” as Dragon Ball FighterZ villain but in truth, she didn’t actually have one. At least, not the real version of herself. Recall how I stated that Cell was utilized as a testing ground for the bio-engineering techniques and tools before being utilized on Android 21?

Well, here’s where things get really interesting… See, the Cell we know is not the Cell from the mainstream timeline. That one was destroyed whilst it was hardly more than an embryo by Krillin and Future Trunks while the one that is here is from an alternate future wherein he killed another version of Trunks from alternate timeline that… Okay, to put it simply, time travel shenanigans.

My point though is this. Without the means of testing out the bio-engineering tools and processes fully through Cell, Dr. Gero’s super-computer had no other choice but to utilize what it had learned to further enhance Android 21 and had, inadvertently, created an extreme flaw in her design.

Like Majin Buu and Cell, Android 21 can absorb people for energy and to enhance her own strength, but the combination of these cells alongside the faulty implementation resulted in those cells going haywire. Basically and contrary to Cell and Androids 17 & 18, Android 21 does feel hunger and while she managed to ignore that hunger for nearly a decade, it grew to be so powerful it actually generated a separate personality much like Fat Buu and his evil side.

To try and find a “humane” way to curb it, Android 21 created “flash clones” of all the Z-Fighters plus a handful of villains they had faced. Unfortunately, while the clones have all the skills and techniques of the originals, them having been rapidly aged up makes them less than ideal meals, mere “junk food” to the “organic” originals.

Eventually, Android 21’s evil side completely took over and went a step further by way of using the Namekian dragon balls to bring back Frieza, the Ginyu Force, Cell, and surprisingly Nappa, and transport them to Earth before utilizing a device created by Dr. Gero that would weaken all of the strongest fighters on Earth to a point where they would be “ripe for the picking.” She likely also released all of the flash clones as a means of drawing out the originals into the open and as something of a “snack” between actual meals.

Thankfully, Android 21’s evil side didn’t take into account that she also fit into that strong fighter category and was summarily repressed long enough for the true Android 21 to finish creating the artificial soul and dual linking system as another means of supressing her darker half and curbing her continually growing hunger.

From there… well, that goes into spoiler territory that I won’t delve into beyond this. That and the ending of the game, and Android 21’s story, is so damned bittersweet and tragic that I still get choked up on it…

Out of all the characters in the entirety of the Dragon Ball series, from the original fantastical story to the out-of-this-world Z to the often panned GT to the aptly named Super… Android 21 is my favorite character of the franchise, tied with the likes of Android 18 and Piccolo for a multitude of reasons.

But the one reason above all others, the very reason that put bade me to even make this character review in the first place… is that she wants to do good. Now, I don’t mean just in the sense of being a good person and possibly having a family again but in the most literal sense of the phrase. She outright says that when her evil side is dealt with, she wants to first try to find a more permanent cure for her hunger and from there go on to utilize the same technologies that created her for the betterment of mankind.

Do you have any idea how unbelievably rare that is for a genius of Android 21’s level, one whom perfected technologies far beyond anything anyone else had ever come close to completing, even the original creator, to actually be selfless with that technology?

I mean, this is the exact opposite of the “Reed Richards is Useless” trope! The trope wherein persons possessing the means of creating world-shaking technologies, refuse to allow those technologies to be utilized by the common people not because of some fear of the right devices falling into the wrong hands, but because it either never occurs to them to distribute them to the masses or because they simply don’t want other people to use them!

But Android 21, a being that is quite literally the most powerful being on Earth… Who has the potential to give even Lord Beerus a better workout than Goku… Doesn’t want to increase her power, doesn’t want to keep on being a fighter, or seclude herself away as some means of protecting people from the danger of her existence. She wants to fix herself to not be that dangerous so that she can go out into the world and help it and its people in any way that she can, however she can.

That’s… That’s just so…

… I have more stories than I can ever hope to remember. Seen heroes rise and fall, seen what the best and worst of people from all walks of life, from the fictional to the factual, are capable of… and this is the first time that I have ever truly, aboslutely, and fully been so endeared by a character of any kind, never mind one from a video game and one that is not meant to truly be an immersive story-line of RPG quality.

While there is no official confirmation as of yet, it is my sincere hope that not only will we see a continuation of the FighterZ game, be it a direct sequel or future DLC because the game really is that good… But that we may also see Android 21 back to the potential she could have had rather than the reincarnation route Goku was going for at the end of the game.

After all… the Android 21 of the mainstream timeline was the one constructed by the faulty data in Dr. Gero’s super-computer… Who knows what had become of the one in a certain alternate timeline…

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Tags

Amore, Blazing Bat, Cracked, Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, Marvel vs Capcom, Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, Morrigan, Morrigan Aensland, Shipping

GHOST RIDER & MORRIGAN AENSLAND

Main Media: Video Game, Fan Works
Shipping Type: Fanon
Dimension: Earth-30847 (Marvel vs Capcom Series)
Ship Name: None (Though I call dibs on “Blazing Bat”)
Primary Moments: Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite (Story Mode)

This first and likely one of the most cracked pairings that I like, this ship came about from the most recent addition to the Marvel vs Capcom franchise, Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite. While this game (currently) has the smallest roster of the series in more recent years due in no small part to the legal shenanigans involving copyright of the X-Men franchise, MvC: Infinite has one of the best story modes I’ve seen in a fighting game series that, quite literally, had next to no actual storyline to begin with.

As to where this ship of mine comes about in the game proper, well, that’s quite an interesting bit of story there. It’s a bit of a long story but the short of it is that Ultron of Marvel and Sigma of Capcom attained two of the six Infinity Stones, specifically Space and Reality, and used them to forcibly converge the two universes into one and in a way that no one expected. Case in point, the Dark Dimension of Marvel and the Makai Kingdom of Capcom both of which are, in essence, realms that only the darkest of entities can survive and thrive.

In the days since the convergence (roughly 90 days by this point in the story) Ghost Rider, the Spirit of Vengeance, has at last come close to finding the force responsible for the theft of a million innocent and forgotten souls in the mortal realm. His appearance in the Dark Kingdom immediately draws the attention of Morrigan, a succubus and an S-Ranked Darkstalker of incredible power.

Now, a brief pause here so I can make a few things clear. While Morrigan is undoubtedly portrayed as her canonical self, there is no official canon for the likes of Ghost Rider in this setting beyond the fact that he is undoubtedly in his first and most recognized host Johnathon Blaze and has all of the powers and abilities that incarnation has.

However, by way of dialogue by Ghost Rider himself, we can deduce that though his priorities might be slightly tweaked by the Spirit of Vengeance, it is still Johnathon Blaze that’s in control of the body and has, quite likely, not reverted back to his mortal form either by choice or because the Convergence has resulted in a more permanent fusion between the two.

Upon catching up to Ghost Rider, Morrigan asks him whether it is business that brings him to the Dark Kingdom or pleasure. He answers that it is vengeance and she surmises it’s a bit of both. When Ghost Rider tells her of the theft of a million souls, she asks him to do something that I would never have expected anyone, let alone a demon, to do.

She asks him to look into her eyes and tell her what he sees.

Now, for those who are unawares, Ghost Rider’s greatest power and most powerful ability is the “Penance Stare” wherein he stars into his victim’s eyes and straight into their soul before inflicting upon them each and every hurt they have ever inflicted upon every innocent soul they’ve marred all in a single instant. Most mundanes are left catatonic from this.

In one iteration of Ghost Rider, he used the Penance Stare to defeat Galactus the World Eater, a being who was made from the sole survivor of the universe existing before the Big Bang and whose conscious and body fused with that preexisting universe’s cosmic sentience.

That Morrigan, a far from innocent being, would ask this of Ghost Rider is… is nothing short of insane but what happens next just drives the crazy to new heights. Ghost Rider grabs her, via arm around the waist might I add, and looks into her soul and states that while she is guilty of many things, she is not guilty of the crime he seeks to avenge.

Morrigan meanwhile actually swoons and starts to caress his jaw stating what she sees in him is a desire, a fire, unlike anything she has ever seen in any other being. Ghost Rider declares it to be the desire for justice and retribution and Morrigan teasingly asks if there’s not even a spark of emotion for her or herself via duplication magic.

Caught literally between two succubi, Ghost Rider simple walks away towards where he feels the thief is, leading Morrigan to declare that if he will not give her what she needs, then she’ll have to take it from him.

Another pause here for a bit of background on Morrigan to those unawares. While it is a general trait among succubi that they absorb the life energies, or souls, of men via intimate relations, Morrigan is not so distinctly limited. Rather she is part of a unique… sub-species? Next step in evolution? Either or, what allows her to live, what is essential her bread and better, is not life force or even souls but rather a liquid in her own body that is secreted whenever she is physically or mentally stimulated.

However, Morrigan is not one to find such excitements so easily and, like others of her kind, utilizes the dreams of mortals which secretes a similar liquid in their brains and absorbs that in place of her own, leaving her victims feeling like their dreams had been taken away but are otherwise still alive if incapable of dreaming properly for extended periods of time.

Given her apparent anger at Ghost Rider, it was more likely that she was actually frustrated that her advances were being so readily ignored by someone who had ignited such a passionate spark in her that she hadn’t felt in ages past.

At the start of their battle, Ghost Rider proclaims he has no desire to destroy her and she in turns asks him to dance with her then, in flame and in fire. That alone was a major bomb of impossibility dropped by Ghost Rider who has been noted on several past occasions to strike down anything even remotely considered a sinner and as I’ve said, Morrigan is many things but an innocent soul she is not.

Their fight is eventually interrupted by the arrival of Dr. Strange, Dante, and Arthur, with the devil hunter himself threatening Morrigan with his guns if she doesn’t stand down. She pouts, freaking pouts and says that she and Ghost Rider were only playing. When Dr. Strange reveals that they are in the Dark Kingdom looking for the Soul Stone, Morrigan admits that it is Jedah who has it and that she can lead them to him as she and he are “close.”

This might have to do with the whole “Lilith” thing but that’s a whole other kettle of fish I’d rather not dive into. Needless to say, her small remark actually manages to get a spark of emotion in Ghost Rider as she teases him not to feel jealous of her connection to the Dark Messiah to which the Spirit of Vengeance, the Engine of Hell, actually turns away and huffs.

I just… how? How is it that two beings whom are far from the word adorable as Pluto is from the Sun managing to make each and every one of their interactions feel as such to me? By all rights, these two should not click so well together as they do and yet, out of the many match-ups I’ve seen in the Marvel vs Capcom series, be they simple team-ups to subliminal pairings (I’m looking at you Captain America and Chun-Li), Ghost Rider and Morrigan together just seems to work.

Morrigan is either outright immune to Ghost Rider’s stare, which is incredibly unlikely as even a cosmic entity has fallen victim to it, or is innocent enough as to not be affected by it at all. Highly unlikely but considering most, if not all, of her crimes are tied to her “feeding,” something she has no choice but to do lest she starve and eventually die, may grant her some leniency. She has outright said that Ghost Rider has a desire in him she has never felt in any other being and is enticed by it enough that she will, figuratively speaking, dance with him at risk of her own life to feel even a spark of that pure exhilaration he inspires in her.

Ghost Rider, for all that his a driven and nigh unstoppable force of vengeance, actually pauses in Morrigan’s presence and has shown not only an open unwillingness to kill her, a demon whom he would normally destroy outright without a second’s hesitation. He actually displays a sense of jealousy at the mere mention of her having been close with someone else.

Though he admits that he will not be seduced so easily thanks to the deal he struck, he doesn’t outright deny that he couldn’t be and given that for pretty much the rest of Infinite’s story, he sticks next to Morrigan and she to him, both eventually becoming Custodians to two of the Infinity Stones entrusted to the Dark Dimension and departing together at the end of the climatic battle.

It’s not a pairing that could ever be canonized outside the game and one that’ll likely not remain in the next one or in any possible future updates, but for all the insanity that it generates in my thought processes, it is one that I cannot help but enjoy.

Springtime is in the air…

Tags

Amore, Announcements, Breath of the Wild, Link, Pairing, Shipping, The Legend of Zelda, Zelda

A bit later than I had planned but given my weekly updating has been marred by the insanity that is the winter holiday season and an oral surgery the likes of which has instilled a fear of dentists in me that will likely haunt beyond the grave. Severe mental trauma aside though, it doesn’t change the fact that the winter holidays have come and gone, meaning springtime and all the joys it brings will soon be drifting on the wind with one holiday in particular leading the front. I speak of course of the holiday of Saint Valentines and being a sucker for romance and a shipper with enough vessels for an entire fleet…

Well, I figure it’s time that I do another top ten favorite pairings. As before these are my own personal preferences of pairing, which can range from the canon to the fanon to even a few with cracked hulls in the lot. However, before I start a whole new list, I think it’s only fair that I “rehash” one of my top contenders from my last countdown, Link and Zelda from The Legend of Zelda game series, specifically their incarnations from the most game Breath of the Wild.

As I said previously, Link and Zelda’s love, that of the original Hero and the creation goddess Hylia, is one that has been tried and tested in multiple differing lifetimes and, thanks to recent revelations, different timelines altogether. Yet, of those various moments in time, the budding romance between our hero and princess in Breath of the Wild, is far, far different from the norm.

A word of warning to those who have not played the game or its expansions, some small spoilers lie ahead.

LINK & ZELDA

Main Media: The Legend of Zelda (Games & Manga)
Shipping Type: Canon
Ship Name: Zelink
Primary Moments: Skyward Sword/Breath of the Wild (Game & Manga Prequel)
Secondary Moments: Scattered Throughout Games

Contrary to previous stories, Breath of the Wild starts with Link and Zelda already knowing each other. In point of fact, while he is designated as being the chosen Hero meant to wield the Master Sword in order to bring a (hopefully) permanent end to Calamity Ganon, Link is also assigned to be Zelda’s personal bodyguard. To serve and protect her as she goes through the trials to try and awaken the power of sealing that lies dormant in her blood. Of course, she also tries, and succeeds, in rediscovering lost and ancient technologies to try and aid Link and the other Champions in destroying Calamity Ganon once and for all. The key difference between her and Link’s relationship whence compared to previous ones though?

She hated him.

Matter of fact, she loathed him due mostly to the fact that he, rather inadvertently, served as a constant reminder of all her failures in awakening her own innate magical power. While she started off as being distantly polite to him at first, she soon started to lose patience with Link when he proved more than willing, and quite capable, of following her wherever she went despite her proclaiming there being no need for an escort. She even went so far as to tell him outright to stop following her and he abided it just enough by keeping out of her immediate way but followed her to the ends of Hyrule and back again.

Of course, that all changed when Link managed to save her from a trio of assassins and continued to protect her against the various monsters and creatures that were arising in greater numbers and frequency with the approach of Calamity Ganon’s awakening. She even goes so far as to admit to actually heeding his own given advice when it concerned the state of her horse.

Of course, things take a turn for the worse with Calamity Ganon’s appearance and hostile takeover of the technologies Zelda had sought to use against it but that delves a little too deep into spoiler territory for me. The main reason that I enjoy this particular set of incarnations of Link and Zelda as a couple is simply for the fact that they both actually grow closer as time goes on.

While Link still remains the silent and steadfast hero he atypically is, you see snippets of his character through Zelda and the other Champions’ eyes, and more directly through his own memories, which primarily feature Zelda in some way or another. In point of fact, when everything is all said and done, that is the first thing that Zelda asks of Link, whether or not he remembers her truly or knows her only by what he’s pieced together himself or by what others have told him.

For a “fairy tale” type of game Link and Zelda’s relationship in Breath of the Wild is, if you’ll pardon the pun, a breath of fresh air. Most of the games simply have hinted at a budding romance between our hero and princess, with Skyward Sword being one of the few to show any open affection between them and that one followed the common trope of “childhood romance” and had the added bonus of being (so far) the “first” game in the timeline, meaning that Zelda and Link were more directly connected to their previous selves than the ones from Breath of the Wild.

So while I’ll always sail proudly on the ship of Link and Zelda, I can say that the incarnations from Breath of the Wild stand at the forefront and I sincerely look forward to any possible continuations of these two be it new DLC for the game or a direct sequel.

The brilliance of the rising sun!

Tags

Archer, Archer Inferno, Fate Grand Order, Fate Series, Servants, Tomoe Gozen

TOMOE

Real Name: Tomoe Gozen
Titles: Archer Inferno
Origin: Japanese History
Illustrator: Shirabi
Featured In: Fate Grand Order
Voiced By: Kanemoto Hisako (Japanese)

As one can no doubt surmise from the title of their Class, Archers are those Heroic Spirits who specialized in long-distance combat. Not strictly by use of a bow and arrow mind you as guns and even specialized magical abilities or Noble Phantasms allow for their summoning as an Archer.

In the case of Tomoe Gozen in particular, she is one of the exceptional few whose abilities are best described as jack of all trades, master of all. No, that wasn’t a mistake on my part, Tomoe Gozen is simply so extraordinary that even when summoned as an Archer, she can still utilize her naginata and katana to the same degree of prowess as a Lancer and Saber.

In The Tale of the Heike, an epic recounting of the Taira and Minamoto clans for control over Japan, she was described as “especially beautiful, with white skin, long hair, and charming features. She was also a remarkably strong archer, and as a swordswoman she was a warrior worth a thousand, ready to confront a demon or a god, mounted or on foot. She handled unbroken horses with superb skill; she rode unscathed down perilous descents. Whenever a battle was imminent, Yoshinaka sent her out as his first captain, equipped with strong armor, an oversized sword, and a mighty bow; and she performed more deeds of valor than any of his other warriors.”

Though not stated outright in any official records or epic retelling, it is a common belief that the blood of oni-kind flowed in Tomoe Gozen’s veins, a trait that shows most predominately in her fully ascended form and in her skill, Demon Magic that not only increases the attack power of her allies but also increases the strength of their Noble Phantasms for a far longer time than most other Servants are capable of granting.

Her second skill, Knowledge of Chaotic Battle, is not so named for the ability to take command of a military force but rather to utilize combative technique to persevere as a single warrior within an army. Tomoe is so skilled in the art of battles of many against many and one against all, that she and her allies can fight to maximum potential even when they are jumbled together.

Her final is perhaps the most distinct I’ve ever seen in any Servant yet. Aptly named as Adrenaline Rush, this skill was born from a type of self-hypnosis that Tomoe unwittingly performed whilst alive and as a Servant further amplifies her powers as a member of oni-kind.

Basically, it not only increases her health by several magnitudes, it also grants her the ability to overcome a mortal blow and continue fighting. However, for all her skills and all her combative prowess, there still remains one more telling aspect that best describes the sheer awesomeness that is Tomoe Gozen and that, my dear readers, is in her Noble Phantasm.

Named Oṃ Ālolik Svāhā: Mantra of the Holy Avalokiteśvara, this Anti-Unit Noble Phantasm is one of the most brutal I’ve ever seen among Servants. Though the clip above shows just how overwhelmingly powerful the arrow that Tomoe fires is, it doesn’t allow one to hear the neck of the enemy Servant being broken as Tomoe twists their head around before launching them into the air!

Made from the grief of not being able to meet her last moments with Yoshinaka, and coupled with her inborn ability over fire and monstrous strength of an oni, Tomoe chants the mantra of the Aryavalokitesvara Bodhisattva that acts as the honzon of the Gichuji, the temple that held the memorial services for her beloved Kiso no Yoshinaka, before going in for the attack. As to the fiery inferno that resembles the intensity of the sun itself? That, my dear readers, is the literal physical manifestation of her feelings for Yoshinaka.

Passionate indeed.