r/TopCharacterTropes • u/KalzK • Sep 06 '26

miscellaneous Tropes that became problematic

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The Persistent Suitor: A guy who is after the girl and just wont take no for an answer. Nowadays we just call stalking and harassment, but it used to be romantic. Example: The Notebook (2004), Noah asks Allie out while she's on a date with another man. She refuses, but he threatens to let go and fall unless she agrees to go out with him.

Comedic Woman On Man Violence: Mostly seen in anime, recently it has decreased a lot but years back every show had a woman hitting a guy and showed it as funny. Example: Toradora!, where the quintessential tsundere, Taiga, beats up the MC regularly.

Kid Bags Adult Baddie: I remember a few of these, sometimes it was to show how cool and awesome a kid was because an adult woman fell for him, now it's just seen as problematic shit. Example: Blank Check, the woman likes the kid and kisses him telling him to look for her in 10 years.

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198

u/XVUltima Sep 06 '26

Which he no-sold, by the way. Meaning either Goku is acting in this GIF or Bulma slaps harder than a submachine gun.

122

u/moneyh8r_two Sep 06 '26

Considering that DragonBall started out as a gag manga, I wouldn't be surprised if she does slap harder than a machinegun. It's funnier if it's true, therefore it must be true. That's how gag manga works.

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u/LITTLEOWL031026 Sep 06 '26

Look, a UFO!

8

u/nagrom7 Sep 06 '26

There's a filler episode of Super where Vegeta fights Arale, a character from one of Toryama's other properties. Arale just keeps beating the absolute shit out of Vegeta, and the entire time he's lamenting the fact that he doesn't stand a chance against a gag character.

10

u/Jobber0001 Sep 06 '26

Bulma slaps goku and it hurts him. Launch used to actively shoot them with an smg (assuming anyone but fans would remember she exists) Therefore Bulma must be stronger then a gun.

That does kinda make me wish dbz had kept more of the gag manga stuff because that's where dragonball really shined for me.

9

u/Metum_Chaos Sep 06 '26

Super adds in a lot of the gag material which Z lacked, which is great.

1

u/Correct_Refuse4910 Sep 06 '26

I mean it had some, definetly less than when Goku was a kid but there was stuff like the Ginyu Force or Mr Satan among more serious threats. Then the Buu saga had a lot of gags with some very serious moments here and there.

198

u/SnowFiender Sep 06 '26

powerscalers will look at this and unironically tell you bulma could 1v1 buu

48

u/Pension_Pale Sep 06 '26

Even Beerus fears Bulma. Granted it's more because he doesn't want to lose access to Earth's cooking, but still...

14

u/nagrom7 Sep 06 '26

Also because Vegeta would become very annoying if he did anything.

2

u/Light_Beard Sep 06 '26

Psssshhh.. Vegeta can't do anything without Goku.

... but if Beerus offed Bulma Goku would be mad too.

https://giphy.com/gifs/t7jzGb5JT0B2D7w771

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u/nagrom7 Sep 07 '26

Probably. Bulma is his oldest friend, and Goku has been known to flip out if something happens to his friends, the most famous example being when he went Super Sayian for the first time after Frieza killed Krillin.

57

u/kaimcdragonfist Sep 06 '26

Given Super's writing at times they may be right

(/j)

13

u/SnowFiender Sep 06 '26

outerversal fire hydrant dude

2

u/Correct_Refuse4910 Sep 06 '26

Truly beyond Zeno himself.

7

u/-Best_Name_Ever- Sep 06 '26

/uj ok but seriously, it's crazy that Frieza came back and was able to take on POST-BUU Goku/Vegeta just because "he trained"

And even crazier that Roshi was even brought along for the tournament stuff.

These are characters that were previously long left in the dust, and they're suddenly strong enough to stand alongside buu-level characters???

5

u/Correct_Refuse4910 Sep 06 '26

In the manga Roshi even fought Jiren for a bit.

4

u/XGhoul Sep 06 '26

I was at the point were it's like. You know what? Let Jiren win. Goku and Beerus being too stupid is qualified for them getting deleted.

5

u/EmpressClaraB Sep 06 '26

I don't think its crazy for Freeza at all, we know he never trained, and we've seen other characters have explosive training results in shorter time frames

1

u/-Best_Name_Ever- Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26

I dunno, still seems like a crazy asspull.

Just because we haven't seen him train, doesn't make it believable that he could catch up to the other two.

It cannot be understated how big the power jump is from the Frieza Saga, to the Android Saga, to the Cell Saga, to the Buu Saga, and this is like 15+ years.

Gods (like Beerus and Zeno) and alternate universes existing and having stronger people come off as believable to me, and so does the Zen Kai boost, but for some reason, Frieza's training multiplier just comes off as a blatant ass-pull to bring back a fan favourite.

I know other characters might've gotten stronger in short time, but they usually had good explanations. Gravity Chambers, Namekian Fusions, Hyperbolic Time Chamber, etc.

Sure maybe Frieza had a gravity chamber, but it'll probably have diminishing returns and won't be enough to carry him to Buu-tier.

3

u/Light_Beard Sep 06 '26

Frieza's entire training arc was just him blowing up his subordinate...

I have a hard time believing he didn't do that before Super.

4

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '26

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1

u/Light_Beard Sep 06 '26

Hey, SHE FOUGHT A CRAB!

4

u/DrQuint Sep 06 '26

I mean, Mr. Satan 1v1'd Buu. It's pretty eaay, Buu is a nice guy if you're nice to him.

4

u/cleverpun0 Sep 06 '26

We see Bulma frivolously using dragonball wishes in Super for stuff like making her "buns perkier". Justbecause they had a wish "spare" and no stuff they really needed it for.

I could see her asking her massive power or something just to see what it felt like.

Not saying that is actually the case in the show. But could easily make a premise of a fanfic or something.

0

u/ComplexInside1661 Sep 06 '26

Wait isn't Dragon Ball a kids show? Did they really have a character wishing for a fatter ass in there lmao

4

u/fking13000 Sep 06 '26

The first wish used on the dragon balls we see in the series is for some panties

2

u/Phylanara Sep 06 '26

Bulma canonically uses the wishes to keep looking young when there is no plot going on, too.

1

u/ComplexInside1661 Sep 06 '26

How is she getting constant access to Shenron like that isn't the whole thing that the balls immediately scatter to the winds when you finish making your wishes? 😭

5

u/Phylanara Sep 06 '26

She invented the dragon radar and has unlimited travel budget.

1

u/GregTheMad Sep 06 '26

If you can't sell being slapped to make a good friend feel better, what are you even doing?

1

u/Jafroboy Sep 06 '26

He didn't no sell it, he was knocked back and visibly injured by it. He survived it.

1

u/Annual-Weird-6682 Sep 06 '26

There's a part in super where he's super on edge, and bulma goes to slap him like normal and he dodges it and everyone is shocked lol

1

u/XVUltima Sep 06 '26

The part where he hired Hit, right?

0

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '26

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1

u/Phylanara Sep 06 '26

Is he against hitting girls, or non-martial-artists? He has no problem fighting kefta in the tournament of power, and she's two girls.