Webcomic / Dragon Ball Unguarded

Art by Lady Tygry

Dragon Ball Unguarded is a fanmade prequel following the exploits of a young Freeza, Cooler and King Cold. During the comic, Freeza makes an unlikely friend during the comic, and the narrative revolves around that. The comics appeal is that it serves as a backstory to Freeza and other material that has not been addressed in Dragon Ball canon.

While it is currently ongoing, Dragon Ball Unguarded currently has fifteen chapters. The comic is updated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

It can be read here on the author's website.

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Dragon Ball Unguarded provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: King Cold is undoubtedly this. His spars with Freeza usually hospitalize him, and he, at one point, sent Freeza to a Death World to try and conquer it, not caring if Freeza lives or dies.
• Adaptation Expansion: Chapter 13 adapts the opening sequence of Dragon Ball Super: Broly where Freeza takes control of the Saiyans and expands on the events.
  • An in-universe explanation for Freeza’s seeming Adaptation Dye-Job to fully pink is offered, the pink form being a post-moulting state from his earlier transformation into his second form. The lack of armor is attributed to it being broken while transforming and there being not enough time to make another set. King Cold’s more purple colorations are left unexplained.
  • The Saiyans’ perspective and discussion of Cold’s arrival are shown.
  • This version adds a brief moment of hesitation from Freeza, looking off to the side, distracted, before Cold snaps him out of it. A later scene, showing him expressing his displeasure at the low attendance of his welcoming party, suggests he may have been looking for Tsukiryuu.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Tsukiryuu, for being weaker than the rest of the Saiyans, is usually ostracized and deprived of food from the other Saiyans.
• All There in the Manual: The comic's cast page reveals that Gelid is King and Queen Cold's nephew (and, by extension, Cooler and Freeza's cousin) and is the son of a local tradesman.
• Anti-Villain: Remarkably, Dragon Ball Unguarded manages to turn Freeza into this. Freeza, while a Jerkass and entitled, shows hesitation in his more heinous actions, only serving to please his father. He even shows more noble traits, like saving a young Saiyan girl from being lured away by one of his own henchmen.
• Benevolent Boss: Cooler is shown to be reasonable with his men, and he doesn't try to intimidate his men like his father.
• Big Brother Bully: Cooler is more than just a little abrasive with his brother, though that isn't to say that Freeza isn't provoking him.
• Big Little Man: How 12-year-old Freeza's height is depicted depends on the scene; he seems to be of average size and more teenage in scenes when he's around Tsukiryuu, but in other cases, such as when he's around Ginyu or his mother, he appears shrunken to a smaller child size.
• Blood from the Mouth: When Cold chokes out Nova, she spits up a few droplets of blood in her dying gasp and a trickle of blood comes from her lip as Cold leaves the corpse. The same also happens to Freeza after receiving a hard punch to the gut from Cooler, although he does get back up after transforming.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Freeza, while not concretely evil yet, is still abrasive, entitled and dickish overall.
• Call-Forward:
  • When Freeza and Tsukiryuu discuss making wishes, Freeza notes that "living forever might be nice."
  • Freeza remarks that, at their current rate, the Saiyans will be extinct before the next full moon on Puranto. The next full moon is noted to be "decades" away in Age 724, and the Saiyans will be wiped out by Freeza's own hand by Age 737.
  • An ironic example but, in a flashback, after rescuing her from her abusive family, Cold tells Nova that "no one will harm [her] again"- a statement that doesn't hold weight when you factor in Cold breaking her arm in the previous chapter.
• Cheerful Child: Tsukiryuu is usually seen with a happy expression, despite the situations she finds herself in.
• Claustrophobia: Tsukiryuu, justifiably, has this in addition to nyctophobia, and gets upset when Freeza hides her in dark compartments. Her fear stems from her adoptive Tuffle mother shutting her in a cupboard to protect her from a Saiyan attack, only rescued hours later after her mother is killed by the Saiyans.
• Compact Infiltrator: When Freeza finds out Tsukiryuu has been entering his room through an Air-Vent Passageway, he starts to treat her as this, using her to covertly grab a file from his father's desk.
• Covert Pervert: Freeza spends most of his free time spying on the women of his race while they're either sunbathing or in hot tubs, not that they mind, though. Though a lot of these are thwarted by Captain Ginyu.
  Captain Ginyu: Is this really how the little lord wants to spend his evening?
  Freeza: (Beat) Yes!
• Dead Guy Junior: Chapter 4 reveals that Cooler is named after Cold's great-grandfather.
• Deadpan Snarker: Freeza, aside from being abrasive and mildly sadistic, is also very sarcastic and snarky.
  Captain Ginyu: Found you!
  Freeza: Found me?
  Captain Ginyu: Yes sir!
  Freeza: I just landed in the open.
  Captain Ginyu: And I knew you would be here!
  Freeza: In broad daylight.
• Delusions of Eloquence: Tsukiryuu attempts to use some of Freeza's more eloquent words on her own, but ends up regurgitating them incorrectly, mixing up "intimate" with "impotent" and "amputate" with "annotate".
• Dies Wide Open: This happens to both Nova and one of her handmaidens. It also seemingly happens to Freeza after receiving a gut punch from Cooler, but he is Saved by Canon.
• Domestic Abuse: Aside from routinely beating both of his children, King Cold is also abusive towards their mother, Queen Cold. He, at one point, broke her hand because she disagreed with how he was raising Freeza.
• Doomed by Canon: Tsukiryuu is a Saiyan, which seemingly dooms her to be killed off when Freeza wipes out the Saiyan home planet unless he finds a way to keep her around longer. Tsukiryuu's adoptive Tuffle parents are similarly doomed, as the Tuffle race is driven to extinction by the Saiyans.
• Downfall by Sex: Cooler attempts to orchestrate this for Freeza by sending a concubine to him in an attempt to have him reveal plans to her in the heat of the moment. He finally reaches his downfall when he lays waste to a valuable planet after Cooler removes the instructions on what to preserve from a report. Cold misattributes his careless rush to wanting to get home to the concubine.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The prologue starts off with the destruction of Planet Vegeta, and in the comic proper Freeza has been shown blowing up the aforementioned Death World, albeit on accident.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The only person Freeza isn't seen being abrasive towards is his mother, Queen Cold. While the same is true for King Cold, Freeza is also not afraid of his mother.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Freeza, while not apparent at first, has been shown to be warming up to Tsuyikuu.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Freeza, having caught one of his fathers men trying to lure Tsukiryuu away for what is implied to be unsavory purposes, kills him in a rather messy way.
• Forced into Their Sunday Best: Freeza has an initial aversion to wearing his armor, but is forced to for formal occasions.
  Captain Ginyu: It will be fun!
  Freeza: I was already having fun!
  Captain Ginyu: You get to wear your armor!"
  Freeza: That's not fun!
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Nova becomes this to Freeza after Chapter 9, seemingly due to his father becoming more controlling over him. He's shown to be grief-stricken over her in Chapter 9, yet she is only referenced by him once after in Chapter 11, and her next appearance in Chapter 14 is Cooler's flashback.
• Gender Reveal: Freeza is completely unaware of Tsukiryuu being female, referring to her as “it” (as do characters such as King Cold and Gelid), until Chapter 15. As a grown-up Ryuu removes her poncho to wash her face in the river, he notices her breasts (which he initially mistakes for swelling from her earlier fight with Dodoria) and is quickly clued in to her actual gender. Not a spoiler to the reader, as Ryuu is referred to with her correct pronouns in dialogue from other Saiyans and Doctor Malaka.
• Given Name Reveal: Freeza’s mother’s name, Nova, is not revealed until Chapter 3. The name is never used outside of flashbacks.
• The Glomp: Tsukiryuu does this multiple times to Freeza, once to climb on his back to fly to the trading market and another while playing in a firefly-lit field.
• Interrupted Bath: This happens to Freeza in Chapter 7 when an impatient Tsukiryuu, told to stay in the other room, intrudes to ask for breakfast. When she finally goes back, a loud crash causes him to give up and get out of the bath.
• Jerkass:
  • As stated numerous times above, Freeza is abrasive and entitled. However a lot of his interactions with Tsukiryuu borders on Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • King Cold is a more straight forward example, due to being an abusive father and husband and a Bad Boss.
  • Prince Vegeta the Third, his Establishing Character Moment has him physically abusing Tsukiryuu with his cronies because she tried to take his bread.
• Kidanova: As stated above, whenever Freeza spies on the women of his race, they tend to be quite pleased with the fact that he's watching them.
• Killer Bear Hug: Cold kills Nova with one, cracking her ribs before strangling the remaining breath out of her. She even notes to him that she is struggling to breathe when the gesture is still believed to be affectionate.
• Lonely Funeral: Nova's final procession is only attended by Cold and Freeza, Cooler retiring to his chambers after sending the Saiyans back to Puranto and her handmaidens not being relieved from duty.
• Mistaken for Gay: Though Freeza was really pressing his brothers buttons, he accused Cooler's interview of one of his henchmen as being one of his "salacious conquests".
• Moment Killer:
  • Anytime Freeza happens to be watching women, Captain Ginyu, without fail, always swipes Freeza away.
  • However, Freeza is prone to being this too, being, in Coolers words, a "boner killer".
• The Napoleon: Freeza is shown to be this. Notably, he climbs on top of a rock in order to continue his argument with Tsukiryuu after finding out she's grown taller than him since their last meeting.
• Noble Demon: Some of the henchmen that work for King Cold qualify, as some qualify as Affably Evil, yet work for a genocidal mad man and his entitled son.
• Pathetically Weak: Tsukiryuu is this compared to the other Saiyans. She is a decided pacifist due to her raising from the Tuffles and declines training, instead working in the medical field as a data analyst. The full extent of this is shown when Dodoria challenges her to a fight, as she is easily winded and pulls a muscle from trying to rush towards him and the one blow she manages to land doesn’t even faze him. However, her Saiyan biology makes her Made of Iron, managing to walk away from being clobbered and sat on with only a slight black eye and sore muscles.
  Tsukiryuu: People who follow me to places like this– they don’t usually have good intentions. It’s really only those who are stronger than me. Which is everyone.
• Posthumous Narration: Nova's "prophecy" narration in the Prologue (Age 737) is revealed to be this (as she dies in Age 720).
• Precision F-Strike: In telling off Freeza about his screwup leading to the situation he supposedly saved her from years ago, Tsukiryuu drops the first f-bomb of the comic in Chapter 14.
• Precocious Crush: After Ginyu offers to get her something to eat, six-year-old Tsukiryuu is suddenly set on marrying the much older soldier. Ginyu indulges her fantasy rather innocently, planning small things such as dancing and a cake.
• Pregnant Reptile: While it is implied that there is an additional egg phase, with mentions of incubation, Nova's pregnancy with Cooler appears somewhat mammalian.
• Punny Name: Carried over from the source material, Saiyans have vegetable-themed names, while the Arcosians have ice and cold-themed names. Of course, this is present in existing canon characters but it also passes on to new characters with Saiyans such as Melokia (jute mallow) and Dill, and Arcosians such as Gelid, Polaris, and Frore. Exclusions are:
  • The little Saiyan, Tsukiryuu, whose name instead translates roughly to “moon dragon”. Justified, as it’s later revealed that she was abandoned as an infant and raised by a Tuffle couple, her adoptive parents giving her a Tsufuru name.
  • Freeza’s mother, Nova. Novas are stars that heat up before they explode.
• Really Gets Around: If whatever Freeza said happens to be true, Cooler is always on, what Freeza calls, "salacious conquests".
• Saved by Canon: Freeza and Cooler get into a brutal fight against each other with Freeza being knocked out and spitting up blood. Cooler then proceeds to attack him with a few more powerful ki blasts to be sure, but Freeza transforms and gets back up, obviously. Cooler somewhat follows this, since his movie appearances are debatably canon, when Freeza punctures his chest later in the fight. He's revealed to be unconscious and being stitched back up in the next chapter.
• Security Blanket: Freeza gives Tsukiryuu his cape to hold onto after she divulges her fear of the dark, telling her it will remind her that she's not alone and he's nearby. Even after the two get into an argument and break apart, she is shown years later with the cape tied around her waist.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: A young adult Tsukiryuu removes her poncho to wash her face in the river, which reveals her breasts, and seems unbothered continuing to sit around topless in full view of Freeza. He freaks out over discovering she’s a woman, yet Ryuu only continues to tease him about it. She changes her stance by their next meeting a week later, insisting on changing further away from him rather than give him a “free show”.
• She Cleans Up Nicely:
  • Young Nova is reared into a refined lady to be King Cold's bridal candidate, tidied up from her usual self who works in the garden without minding the dirt. Part of her old nature peeks past the facade for a moment, as she fidgets with her dress out of nerves.
  • Freeza presents Tsukiryuu with a set of armor to replace her neutral poncho. The gesture is initially interpreted as giving her extra protection if she gets into a fight, but there appears to be an ulterior motive at work considering the armor set exposes her shoulders, accentuates the curves of her bust, and includes spandex under-armor that barely covers her rear.
• Sophisticated as Hell: While Cooler is generally more well-spoken and mature than Freeza, he has some moments where he just outright cusses out Freeza. Most notably:
  Cooler: THE HELL ARE YOU GAWKING AT, YOU MISERABLE LITTLE BONER KILLER?
• Spare to the Throne: Freeza is this next to Cooler, born seemingly because Cooler wasn’t meeting Cold’s expectations. Cold mentions directly that he needs one to run the army and another to run the empire. While younger, however, his only orders from Cold are to “make himself useful”. Despite being the second-born, Freeza is shown a lot of preferential treatment and given higher privileges, yet it takes him brutally beating Cooler into a coma to prove his value enough to inherit the reins after Cold’s retirement.
• Tastes Like Friendship: When Tsukiryuu runs into Ginyu, she seems to instantly forget Freeza telling her in the previous chapter not to talk to strangers the moment he hears her stomach growl and offers to get her something to eat. Turns into Through His Stomach when the little Saiyan is suddenly dead set on marrying him.
• Time Skip: Multiple time skips occur over the span of comic:
  • Chapter 1 skips ahead five years after the scene of Freeza’s birth
  • A seven year skip occurs between Chapters 3 and 4, bringing Freeza to age 12 in Age 720
  • Four years are skipped between Chapters 9 and 10 with Freeza now at 16 (Age 724)
  • Another seven year skip occurs during Chapter 12 with Freeza at 23 (Age 731)
  • There is a seeming skip to Age 732 between Chapters 13 and 14, although it’s unknown how far into the year the previous section was
• Troubled Backstory Flashback: Nova's flashbacks over multiple chapters; her memories of her developing relationship with Cold are interwoven with her husband gradually becoming bent on training their children into warriors.

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