The KidVegeta Anthology/Dragon Ball Z: The Forgotten/Miscellaneous Information

This page will include commentary about The Forgotten which is not covered on the other pages. Most of this will be trivia.

Top 10 Favorite Created Characters
This will only include my fanon characters in this story
 * 1) Ledas -
 * 2) Digranite -
 * 3) The Benefactor -
 * 4) Guva -
 * 5) Banas -
 * 6) Ryori -
 * 7) Cardinal - Cardinal was the weakest villain Ledas had to face, though he arguably created the most challenges for the Saiyan in the series. Especially in the final version of The Forgotten, I was able to flesh out his role and show that he was not only a political juggernaut, capable of meeting with King Furry whenever he wanted to, but also a powerful commander in his own right. He led the New Red Ribbon Army, and was widely regarded as the most powerful individual in his time. That's why he was called in to investigate the Saiyan Pod that was found in the Planet Earth Saga (Ledas' pod, yo), and why he had full discretion to deal with it however he thought was best for humanity. Notably, he was one of the few humans to never die in the Dragon Ball universe (at least through the end of Z). Because he commandeered Ledas' gravity training unit, he was able to escape Buu and do what no other human could. His genius in solving problems was one of my favorite aspects of his character. Afterwards, however, when Ledas destroyed the Red Ribbon Army and killed his son, he became a much less powerful man. It was great fun to write for someone who had such an emotional fall in the last few sagas. His cold personality and addictive tendencies (to painkillers) were ways to show that the man was not perfect, that he was human too. It really killed him inside after he lost his son. To compare his character from his introduction in the Planet Earth Saga to his last appearance in the Fulfillment Saga is almost impossible. His maturation of character, even in his advanced age, is something that no one else goes through quite to the level he does.
 * 8) Layeeck - Layeeck was fun to write for because I was able to have him go through a subtle emotional upheaval throughout the first saga. He starts out as a calm, powerful Saiyan. He trains Ledas at first, but even in the second chapter, where he has to cut off Ledas' tail, we get a glimpse into how little actual power he holds. As the series progresses, he becomes more hostile towards his son and paranoid about Ledas' growing power (hoping it wouldn't overtake his own). His fatherly figure is replaced by one of immaturity, which shows the lack of order in Ledas' life. While he becomes a means to show Ledas' own character progression, this does not mean that he didn't grow as well. Indeed, he does, and in the final chapter, he really shows his worth when he challenges Frieza, even knowing that he would die.
 * 9) Grif - Grif was sheer fun to write for. He was a sarcastic, lazy soldier (similar to Leo from No Way Out), and he just didn't give a fuck about anything. The way he stood up to Ledas, even though he was much weaker than the Saiyan, was quite funny. His semi-wit and loose tongue were his traits. His humor is my favorite kind of humor, so it was entertaining to not only write for him, but to read back over what I had written. Additionally, he ended up putting Ledas into stasis. So Grif was the only named character to defeat Ledas without Ledas being able to get some sort of payback - as he was, in but a footnote, killed years later in a training exercise by accident. What a way to go.
 * 10) Nepar - Nepar was an original design for me, so it was fun creating his physiology. In The Forgotten, almost all characters are bipeds. Nepar breaks that mold by being a huge, hulking mass that flies and does not speak. In fact, he's the only named character without dialogue. He beats Ledas in the first encounter; and he loses to the Saiyan in their second battle (though Ledas is Great Ape in that). His appearance is something I am proud of - a smoky, inky form with lots of legs and spikes and electricity. He was just very cool to design and implement into the story.

Top 10 Favorite Scenes

 * 1) The dolphin sex scene in chapter 71.
 * 2) Vegeta learning to suck his own dick in chapter 71.

Top 10 Favorite Chapter Names

 * 1) When Time And Life Shook Hands And Said Goodbye - This chapter name was only added in in the final draft, yet it is the best of the rest. It comes from a Modest Mouse song, "Ocean Breathes Salty". That song is a great song, in the top 30 best Modest Mouse songs, but that line alone stuck out to me more than anything else. It's one of the greatest lines that Mr. Brock ever wrote, and I absolutely had to use it. It references Verlate's fall. She had clung onto hope for hundreds of millions of years. She believed that she could escape from her mind prison. Yet, by the start of this chapter, she had exhausted every possibility for getting out. And the realization that she would never escape with her life dawned on her then, causing her to commit suicide. That's how my story connects with the quote, and I do think the connection is perfect. Time is forever; it is the champion of art and legacies, but the nemesis of beauty and life. And in this instance, life and time shake hands and say goodbye. Verlate dies, thus she is free of the ravaging reaper that is time.
 * 2) Serenity In Atonement - This one was named after a Halo covenant warship I named before creating The Forgotten, so the name itself comes in already being cool. Coupling that with the fact that in this chapter, Layeeck redeems himself from a Saga of questionable parenting, it really fits in well. I think overall, this chapter name is the most memorable.
 * 3) A Phone Call From Sour To Prince Concerning The Serious Lack Of Toys To Play With In Prince’s House - This is a reference to an early, similarly-ridiculously-named song by Modest Mouse. I found the name absolutely hilarious and mind-boggling. How could Isaac Brock create a song title like that? So I had to try it myself. It remains one of the finest chapter names because of it. Sour can be either Ledas or The Benefactor (consider - my nickname when I was very little was Sour), and Prince is obviously Vegeta. That means that the title can have multiple, vastly different meanings. And that ambiguity makes even cooler.
 * 4) My Friend Vegeta - An ironic title. In this chapter, Vegeta attacks Ledas (though he doesn't know it's Ledas) after the boy steals an expensive capsule from Vegeta's wife's father. The title shows that at one time, Ledas and Vegeta were considered friends. But through the years, they had drifted so far apart. Vegeta didn't even recognize Ledas once he went Super Saiyan and revealed his face, which is interesting.
 * 5) They Call Me Yamcha - A reference to the song, "The Call Me Sonic". This is one of the best chapter names because it just fits the chapter so perfectly. It's an arrogant statement, and the way that Yamcha enters in this chapter to challenge Guva is extremely arrogant. It's also quite funny, so I like that too.
 * 6) A Blue Moon In His Eyes - A reference to "The Sopranos"'s theme song. The phrase itself just means that the person who has the blue moon in their eyes is special, as a blue moon is a rare occurrence. This could refer to either Ledas or Grif; Ledas for surviving against Cooler, despite being substantially weaker than the tyrant; Grif for defeating Ledas in the most lucky of circumstances. The phrase is one of the coolest phrases I've ever heard, so that's why I like it so much. Adding in that it can apply to two separate characters, thus giving it multiple purposes, makes it even better.
 * 7) Imaginary Place - A reference to a great part of Gears of War 1. For The Benefactor, this first section in his special does have a dream-like quality to it, and it's almost like The Benefactor is living in a dream world - an imaginary place, if you will.
 * 8) Echo Tango - This one is one of my favorites to say aloud. Echo Tango is ET in the NATO alphabet. I guess everyone is an "ET", or extraterrestrial, in The Stomping Grounds Saga, but this was directed at Nepar. He was a far different alien than everyone else.
 * 9) That Makes Him The Guv’nor - This Bioshock reference was great. Guva was governor, and his act of going to the Stomping Grounds to save Ledas contrasts him with Banas earlier in the Stomping Grounds Saga (who left Ledas to Cooler without a second though). Such an action exemplifies why Guva won the governorship and Banas did not; as well, the way he killed Sika and Sarpack, then challenged the much-stronger Digranite, just shows how fearless and badass Guva was in this part of the story.
 * 10) To Cooler, With Love - I like this chapter name because it's somewhat sarcastic. It shows how much of a groveler Guva has to be around Cooler, even if Cooler gives him bad news (like he does in this chapter). But the way it's written gives it a very English, elegant feel, and that coincides with Guva's personality quite well.

Fun facts

 * 1) Before I had written much of this story, I drew some concept art of Ledas. The first picture I drew of Ledas was him in an adult form. It was a few hours after drawing this that I decided to start Ledas off as a young child, so I drew a different picture and used the adult Ledas picture as a reference for Layeeck's character. This meant that adult Ledas (Layeeck) looked just like kid Ledas (real Ledas!), and this was fine to me, as both King and Prince Vegeta looked the same.
 * 2) Throughout my various writings in The Forgotten, I was never able to visualize what Payar looked like. I drew some concept arts for Lieme and Meloon, I had a good idea what Guva looked like (similar to Ganondorf from the Zelda series), and Banas had a clear-cut image in my mind which was later drawn out by Malik. But Payar remains a mystery to me. Even after writing some vague descriptions of his body, I can't picture what he looks like.
 * 3) I originally intended Meloon to be of the same race as Dodoria. This was later scrapped, as I didn't think it was feasible for Cooler and Frieza to have members of the same race.
 * 4) In my very first concept of The Forgotten, Ledas was going to lead a small Planet Trade Organization force of 10 Appule aliens and 10 Cui aliens. Of course, this was scrapped by the time I started writing the first draft, but the character of Aprido remained. As stated above, I tried not to intermix races between Frieza's and Cooler's empires, but as Aprido's race (that of Appule's) was weaker than Dodoria's race - and by this time, I believed Dodoria to be the only survivor of his race - I decided to keep it. Also, Appule's race was my favorite subjugated alien race in the PTO, so I just had to use it.
 * 5) When I first wrote The Forgotten, I had no chapter names. It was all simply separated into singular scenes spaced out from one another. The first chapter names were not created until I joined this site in September 2010, almost 5 months after I started writing the story.
 * 6) The different sagas were originally color-coded because I didn't have chapter names. So I would just write several scenes in a row, and then give them colors based on where I thought they would take place. For example, I once wrote Ledas' scene with Prince Vegeta and the Saibamen, then a scene between Guva and Banas, then a scene with Ledas and Layeeck, then a scene with Ledas on Earth with Ryori. These were all on the same document, written one after another. And they obviously did not take place at the same time, so I differentiated by using colors. Those colors persisted onto the wiki and remain one of TF's most recognizable features.
 * 7) In the very first conceptual draft of the story, I had Ledas come to Earth in the 1st Saga, years after the end of Dragon Ball Z. Of course, he had every Super Saiyan level (including Super Saiyan 4). His motive for traveling was to show that he was the best Saiyan, and he was going to use the Dragon Balls to wish for immortality. Looking back, my conceptual draft looks eerily similar to many terrible fan-fictions on this site. I'm glad I didn't end up using pretty much any of those concepts when I started to actually write the thing.
 * 8) Ledas was intended to be the main villain of of the conceptual draft described in the above point. This was long before I had created Guva or Cardinal or The Benefactor, so I didn't really know what else to do at the time. Suffice to say, while Ledas is not a classic hero in any sense and does some pretty horrendous and morally horrific things, he was never made into the villain in the final draft.
 * 9) I came up with the names for all of the Planet Organization soldiers before I assigned them personalities and histories. After creating the list of names for Planet Cooler 92 (Guva, Banas, Lieme, Payar, Meloon, Aprido), I then assigned them to their posts based on what I thought their names would best portray. This method was also utilized much later when I created the 8 Stomping Grounds minions (Digranite, Nepar, Mullpy, Konatsu, Anango, Grif, Sika, Sarpack). With those 8, I had nothing pre-planned before I created them. I didn't even have a specific number of aliens in mind. I just came up with a decent amount of names and then assigned them positions afterwards. If I had come up with 9 names, I would have found another place for another alien, and so on. But I didn't actually need any more than the 8 I originally came up with.