Dragon Ball villain theories: is General Blue the Androids' dad?

A list of twelve fan theories about Dragon Ball villains was sent to me, and I went through every one. A couple are interesting, and a few I could see being the case. Most of them are bad. The list comes from an anime site, and my problem with it is less about the writer personally and more about theories that fall apart the moment you think about them for more than two seconds.

My general rule is simple. There is nothing wrong with theorizing about an anime, a TV show or a movie. But you should "at least take some time to debunk your own theory" before putting it out there, the way the scientific method tells you to test a hypothesis. Too often fans come up with ideas that sound cool but have nothing behind them, like the claim that Goku Black is Goten, when Goten doesn't exist in the future timeline.

General Blue is not the father of Android 17 and Android 18

The first theory says General Blue is the father of Android 17 and 18. There's no clue for this whatsoever except that their real names, Lapis and Lazuli, come from a stone, a mineral that is the color blue. That's the only reason anyone came up with it.

The names don't support it. Toriyama named Lapis and Lazuli about two decades after the Dragon Ball manga featured General Blue. They're names he came up with in an interview years later, not a hidden link.

The article also suggests Blue may have had a woman before. No. If you watch Dragon Ball and see General Blue interacting with Bulma, Blue does not like women. This isn't a case of a character who was bisexual or used to pretend to be straight. General Blue is gay in this series and has never been with a woman, so the theory is out of the question.

The Goku vs. Frieza fight in slow motion has something to it

The second theory says the legendary Goku and Frieza fight takes place in slow motion. This one isn't entirely off. It's not that the fight happens in slow motion. During much of the combat, the two characters are moving at an incredibly fast speed, and for TV timing the animation could slow it down.

The article doesn't explain this very well. It talks about the fighters being too fast for the human eye, but the real explanation is TV time for animation. It could be explained better. Still, the theory holds credence and makes sense, because Dragon Ball tends to do that. That one gets a thumbs up.

Vegeta as the next God of Destruction is a guess, not a theory

The idea that Vegeta will become the next God of Destruction isn't a theory. It's a guess based on fans wanting Vegeta to take the role. It goes back to an early Dragon Ball Super episode, I think 13 or 14, I forget the exact number, where Vegeta replacing Beerus came up.

Beyond that there's nothing to it. The article points to Vegeta training on Yardrat, but that training has nothing to do with being a God of Destruction. Could it happen? Maybe. But there are no clues indicating it will, because Vegeta has shown numerous times that he doesn't care about doing that. Will he do it? Possibly. I just don't count it as a real theory.

Majin Buu's candy people could still be sentient

This theory comes from Vegito, who was able to fight and communicate with Buu after being turned into a piece of candy. The catch is that Vegito was incredibly strong, and the article itself admits that's why he could do it. Vegito is a very extreme case.

That said, it's a possibility. Maybe when Buu turns you into candy you're not automatically dead. Maybe you're alive, and maybe you feel Majin Buu eating you. I think that's plausible. So at this point in the list, I had two bad ones and two that I think are possible.

Majin Buu's knock knock joke only exists in the English dub

This one irritates me. The article claims there's a heartfelt reason Vegeta fell for Buu's dumb joke, meaning the knock knock joke. Its explanation is that Buu made the joke because he absorbed Gotenks.

The problem is that the knock knock joke is only in the English dub. It isn't in the Japanese version and it isn't in the manga. It was created for Funimation's dub, not something that exists in the original. I posted the actual subtitled line on my Twitter to show it. Some people think the joke is funny and even clever, but "you can't do a fan theory based on a dub you just can't."

That's a problem with many of these articles. The people writing them grew up with the English dub and never bothered to read the manga or watch the Japanese version. There's nothing wrong with growing up with the dub, because many of us did. But if you're writing articles on an anime, I feel you have to know more about the anime and the manga instead of throwing something out without thinking about it.

Majin Buu does not represent Japan's view of the USA in World War II

Next comes a Japanese reference. The theory says Majin Buu represents Japan's view of the USA during World War II, because Buu betraying Babidi represents America betraying the British and going its own way. I think they're reading too deeply into it.

Yes, products made in Japan after World War II represented feelings about nuclear weapons and similar themes, the biggest being Godzilla. The Japanese people are well versed in what the war did to them and how it affected their relationship with America. That's all obvious. Still, I feel like comparing Majin Buu to it is dumb.

Buu killed Babidi for a couple of reasons. One, he got tired of listening to him. Two, Babidi had the spell to trap Buu again, and Buu was tired of being threatened with it. The only way to avoid being trapped again was to kill Babidi, so that's what he did. It has nothing to do with the British.

Frieza might not be fully grown, but the evidence is thin

This one's interesting. We don't know anything about Frieza's race. We know Frieza is very old, but we don't know how long his race lives or how they grow. Maybe his race grows over thousands of years and Frieza is still a kid. There's a possibility there.

The article supports it by saying a semi canon spinoff manga reveals Frieza as a father. That's Neko Majin Z, and it isn't semi canon. It's a parody manga, a clown show that isn't meant to be serious, with no canon tie in to the Dragon Ball manga. This is one of those articles written without real research. The theory could be possible, but there isn't enough evidence to say whether it applies.

Android 17 and 18 did not help Cell reproduce

This theory concerns Cell spitting out the Cell Juniors. It suggests that because 17 and 18 are male and female, they somehow gave Perfect Cell the ability to reproduce. That's not correct, and it's a little creepy, because they're brother and sister.

The article does say the ability may have been inspired by King Piccolo, who could reproduce this way, and that's exactly where it came from, because Cell has Piccolo cells. Piccolo Jr., the Piccolo of Dragon Ball Z, doesn't do this, but he's a reincarnation of Demon King Piccolo. King Piccolo got the ability to give birth from the Namekians, because he is a Namekian, but his is a polluted version. Cell's version is an evil, polluted, more artificial take on Namekian birth. It comes from the Piccolo cells, not 17 and 18.

Jiren is not the Buddha; Dragon Ball draws on Buddhism everywhere

I don't have much information on the Buddha, but the article claims Jiren is the Buddha. It says that in Buddhist belief, reaching the highest level of spiritual awakening means entering a state called enlightenment, that Jiren appears to have achieved it, and that through meditation he unlocks godlike perception impossible without it.

The problem is that we see this over and over in Dragon Ball before Jiren. Goku goes through several Buddhist moments when he trains with Kami, with King Kai and even with Whis. Other characters who train learn a similar enlightenment, and the theme repeats as the series progresses. Dragon Ball is an Eastern series that takes concepts from Buddhist and Taoist belief, so you get it everywhere. The theory isn't entirely wrong. It's just not about Jiren.

Beerus does not want Goku gone

The theory says that although Beerus stopped Goku flat in their first fight, Goku's strength kept growing, and Beerus may be wary because of a vision of someone resembling Goku becoming more powerful than him. The article asks whether Goku could become strong enough to take on a god.

He already has. Goku in Mastered Ultra Instinct defeated Jiren, which puts him above Gods of Destruction. Whether it puts him above Beerus we don't know yet, but he's past being a god in that form, not almost there. The theory says Beerus might take Goku down before he gets too strong. That hasn't happened, and it probably won't. Beerus has no beef with Goku and doesn't feel threatened, and Goku doesn't want his spot. It's a bad theory.

Captain Ginyu cannot use Body Change on the whole Ginyu Force

This theory says Captain Ginyu could be using his Body Change technique on the whole Ginyu Force. The article argues that while he typically uses it on himself, nothing in canon says he can't swap other people's bodies. The idea is that he could change other people's bodies without changing his own, meaning the members' bodies are ones he found and swapped for them.

That's complete nonsense. It's not in the guidebooks, it's not anywhere in the series, and not even the games do this. It invents an ability Ginyu doesn't have. "That's not how the body change works" and it's never been like that. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It's a stupid theory.

Raditz is a full blooded Saiyan, whatever his hair looks like

The last theory says Raditz may not be a full Saiyan. Family trees from the old guidebooks and from the material around Dragon Ball Super: Broly show Raditz is the son of Gine and Bardock. That has been proven, and even before Gine was introduced we knew he was full blooded and born on Planet Vegeta.

The justification is his hair, which doesn't match his father's. Nowhere does it say you'll have the same hair as your father. King Vegeta and Vegeta share it, and so do Goku and Bardock, but that's more an illustration of the relationship. Tarble, a Toriyama creation, doesn't have hair like King Vegeta. This takes one small thing and ignores everything that contradicts it. When I saw it posted, people were laughing at it. The article calls it an entertaining thought, but it isn't. It's not well thought out.

A lazy list built from Reddit posts

The majority of these theories are dumb. There are many good fan theories, ones that make you think, and I love those. These aren't them. I'm not going to blame the writer too much, because all she did was go through Reddit and copy people's posts. You can click through the article and see the Reddit posts. She found the theories, wrote a couple of paragraphs on each and posted it to get clicks. That's lazy article writing, and none of this is a reason to attack her.

What bothers me is that many of these websites publish articles without caring. I care a lot about this franchise and this fandom. There's nothing wrong with getting paid, but at least care about what you're talking about and do some research. If you come up with a theory and you can't debunk it, even with your friends helping, then maybe it's a good theory. Think it through first, because putting out nonsense only makes you look dumb.