Tapion

Tapion
“ For too long, you've fed on the misery of others. You stole from me everything precious and dear. But no more. It ends now. „ ― Tapion to Hirudegarn
Vital statistics
Names	Tapion, Abira Gatapira, Tapioca, Tapioka
Gender	Male
Race	Konatsian
Occupation	Swordsman
Origin	Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon (ドラゴンボールＺゼット 龍りゅう拳けん爆ばく発はつ！！悟ご空くうがやらねば誰だれがやる Doragon Bōru Zetto Ryū-Ken Bakuhatsu!! Gokū ga Yaraneba Dare ga Yaru, lit. Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Fist Explosion!! If Goku Won’t Do it, Who Will?(1995)
Alignment	Good
Age	1000+ Years Old
Created By	Takeo Koyama, Akira Toriyama
Height	{{{height}}}
Weight	{{{weight}}}

Tapion (タピオン Tapion) is described as a "legendary hero" from a planet named Konats. from the Dragon Ball Movie; Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon.

Development

Originally, the character was going to be named Tapioka, as a pun on tapioca. However, it was changed at Akira Toriyama's request to Tapion, with his elaborating in his personal notes that he ordered it changed because he felt the pun was too direct and instead felt they should use a word that was similar in sounds yet different in spelling. He also indicated he offered as an alternate name for him "Abira Gatapira."

Appearance

Tapion is roughly six feet tall, has light skin, a mohawk (similar style to that of Shin) of bright red hair, and something that looks like a golden head band that covers the bald surface of his head. He wields a magical sword and ocarina, which he says are gifts from God.

Personality

Tapion is kind-hearted in personality, wanting to protect his people from any danger that may set foot. While on Earth after being freed, he purposely makes himself isolated from the outside world, solely wanting to focus on destroying Hirudegarn. However, when becoming friends with Trunks, his more happy and upbeat personality returns.

Biography

Background

Thousands of years ago, Tapion and his younger brother Minotia were ordinary Konatsians, living on the peaceful planet of Konats. However, one day, a group of black magicians known as the Kashvar performed an ancient ritual that revived a statue, the ruthless and enormous monster Hirudegarn.

With no sense of reason, Hirudegarn would eventually use his incredible power to destroy the planet Konats. During the battle between Hirudegarn and the Konatsians, Tapion and Minotia used their Hero's Flutes to hold Hirudegarn at bay.

Given this opportunity, a wizard brandished an enchanted sword and used it to slice Hirudegarn in half. Tapion, Minotia and the wizard were then known as Great Heroes among the Konatsians. To ensure Hirudegarn's eternal imprisonment, Tapion and Minotia agreed to have their bodies guard each spirit of Hirudegarn (his top half went to Tapion and his bottom half to Minotia). They were then enclosed in mystical music boxes and dispatched to the distant parts of the universe. Minotia was sent to an unknown planet, while Tapion was sent to Earth.

Wrath of the Dragon

"I know death seems cruel, but I welcome this blade." — Tapion to Trunks in Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon

Unfortunately, a Kashvar named Hoi would go off in search for Tapion's and Minotia's music boxes in order to free them and unleash Hirudegarn once again. Hoi plots to use Hirudegarn's destructive powers to take over the universe. With the help of the Dragon Team (Goku, Gohan, Videl, Krillin, Goten, Vegeta, and Trunks) and Shenron, Hoi manages to free Tapion from the music box (Hoi has not revealed his true intentions to the Z Warriors). But Tapion, furious, storms off, determined to stay alone in order to ensure the imprisonment of Hirudegarn's top half. He is visited regularly by Trunks, who has taken a liking to him and brings him food, but Tapion refuses to eat and always shuns Trunks away.

However, after seeing the bottom half of Hirudegarn invade the city, Tapion comes to aid Gohan and Videl by playing the magical tune on his enchanted ocarina, which weakens and absorbs Hirudegarn's bottom half into his own body. Leaving the battlefield, Tapion comes to believe that Hoi has already killed Minotia.

Later on, while Trunks is visiting Tapion, Hoi attempts to steal the ocarina from Tapion and tell Trunks that Tapion is the true monster, but Trunks does not believe him, and instead gives the flute back to Tapion. Tapion then befriends Trunks and asks him to dine with him.

Tapion and Trunks then form a friendship, and Tapion is invited to stay at Capsule Corporation, by Trunks. Tapion explains the whole story to Bulma, and she announces that she will try to re-create the broken music box so that Tapion can finally rest, much to Tapion's delight. Tapion tries sleeping inside the new music box/chamber, but it is still no use, and Hirudegarn manages to get free from Tapion's body. Now whole, Hirudegarn has finally returned and Tapion's nightmare has come true. For a while, Tapion manages to use his flute to absorb Hirudegarn's spirit once again, but Hirudegarn would soon be free. Tapion begs Trunks to slay him with the sword (Tapion and Minotia were Konatsian Knights who always carried swords), but Trunks ultimately hesitated to kill his "big brother", and Hirudegarn is free once again. To Tapion's horror, the flute shatters.

After accidentally killing Hoi, Hirudegarn goes on a rampage throughout the city, battling the warriors Goku, Gohan, Goten, Trunks and Vegeta, but it is no use. Even Gotenks (the fusion of Goten and Trunks) is not enough to stop Hirudegarn (Gotenks manages to destroy Hirudegarn's first form, but he evolves into a more powerful, insect-like behemoth). Eventually, Hirudegarn is distracted while attacking the others, and he is destroyed for good when Goku (as a Super Saiyan 3) sees his chance to pierce through Hirudegarn's chest with a Dragon Fist, obliterating the monster forever.

To go home, Tapion uses a Time Machine (similar to the one used by Future Trunks) to travel back to Konats. As a gift, Tapion gives his sword to Trunks, says goodbye to Trunks, and goes one thousand years back in time to his home.

Trivia

• Just like Tapkar, Tapion's name is based on "tapioca", a starch extracted from manioc. His name during the development of the movie was Tapioka (タピオカ).
  • The name Abira Gatapira was also proposed for him, but never used.
• Tapion makes a cameo appearance as a statue in an episode of Blue Dragon, an anime adaptation of the role-playing video game of the same name, to which Akira Toriyama contributed.

• It is mentioned in several Dragon Ball Z video games that Tapion (or possibly a future timeline counterpart) appeared in Future Trunks' timeline. Tapion and Future Trunks have special dialogue in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and Budokai Tenkaichi 3, where Future Trunks says, "Long time no see" and Tapion responds "Alright, let's see how strong you've become", which suggests that Tapion appeared in Future Trunks' timeline at one point. It is stated in Dragon Ball: Raging Blast that Tapion gave his sword to Future Trunks. One of the hint/trivia screens in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z states that Tapion appeared in Future Trunks' timeline and sealed away Hirudegarn, and then gave his sword to Future Trunks. In the Xenoverse series, the sword wielded by Trunks: Xeno is identical to Tapion's sword indicating the possibility at some point in his past Trunks: Xeno acquired the Brave Sword (possibly from Tapion before or after becoming a Time Patroller).
  • However, in Xenoverse 2, Tapion's Brave Sword (which is designed like it appears in the film) is identical to the swords wielded by GT Trunks (which makes sense as it's implied to be the Brave Sword that Trunks receive as a child in the film) and Future Trunks (DBZ era), while Trunks: Xeno wields Tapion's Sword from Xenoverse. It's possible that Tapion's Sword is simply another sword once wielded by Tapion and is unrelated to the Brave Sword. Presumably the sword wielded by DBZ Future Trunks simply resembles it (it should be noted that for the film Tapion's Brave Sword was itself an allusion to Future Trunks' sword thus explaining their similarities in the Xenoverse series along with the simple idea that the developers simply used Future & GT Trunks' existing sword model for Tapion's Brave Sword).
  • Additionally, Tapion has special dialogue with Kid Trunks and Future Trunks (DBZ & Xeno eras). If he faces Kid Trunks, he will say "Show me your power, Trunks." while Kid Trunks will eagerly state "Let's Go Tapion!". If he face's Future Trunks (DBZ or Xeno), he will say "Your a hero Trunks, through and through." while Future Trunks says "Y-your..." indicating he recognizes Tapion. Interestingly, he has no special dialogue with either GT Trunks or Future Trunks (Super).
• Tapion use of Bulma's Time Machine at the end of Wrath of the Dragon is technically a violation of the natural laws of the universe (it should be noted that the film was written long before the concept of Time Travel being dangerous was introduced). Interestingly, it is never explained in Xenoverse or other video games where the Time Patrol appear how Chronoa and/or the Time Patrol dealt with Tapion's use of the Time Machine (it is also unknown if the one Tapion used had the same design flaw that produced alternate timelines as the one used by Future Trunks and Cell). One possibility is that the Time Patrol may have become aware of its use and the events leading up to it and may have fixed the timeline so those the Time Machine's usage would not occur or Tapion's use of Time Travel did not negatively affect which ever timeline the events of Wrath of the Dragon takes place. Given that Bulma (who was ignorant of the danger possessed by time travel technology) was at fault for giving Tapion the time machine, it is unlikely that Chronoa would have erased the timeline, as it is more likely she would have just had the timeline corrected or allowed it to remain as she had with the timelines created by Future Trunks and Cell's use of the Time Machine.
  • It is implied in the Dragon Ball Super anime that the events of Wrath of the Dragon either never occurred or at very least Bulma giving Tapion a Time Machine never occurred as Bulma herself stated she had tried to reverse engineer Cell's Time Machine, but failed and left its Capsule on a self, thus it is very unlikely that she would have been able to create a working Time Machine at all as she was only able to fix Cell's after acquiring her counterpart's research notes and realizing its fuel source was something she recently discovered in a previous episode during the Copy-Vegeta Saga. Thus, Wrath of the Dragon either takes place in the GT or another alternate version of the main Timeline.
• Tapion's use of a Time Machine identical to Future Bulma's Time Machine is likely a homage, allusion, or reference to Future Trunks who Tapion resembles.
  • Similar to Future Trunks, Tapion is a swordsmen mentored by a god (Tapion by the Kami of Konats & Future Trunks by Future Shin), both are heroic figures with lived through conflicts that brought their respective worlds to ruin (the Hirudegarn War & Androids Conflict),and both have lost a relative to enemies responsible for said conflict (Tapion loses his brother to the half of Hirudegarn sealed within him and Future Trunks lost his father, which results in Future Trunks being an only child).
    • Additionally, even without his use of the Time Machine, Tapion is already a time traveler of sorts, due being from Universe 7's past, ending up on Earth in the present as a result of being released from the music box within which he had been sealed to contain Hirudegarn (akin to someone being put into suspended animation for years and waking up in the future). In fact, this method of time travel is basically the reverse of Future Trunks time travel method, as Tapion is from the past and ends up in the present, while Future Trunks traveled from a future timeline into the past, with Tapion's forward time traveling not being considered a crime (as Whis notes in Dragon Ball Super, time should only move in a single direction, forward) while Future Trunks' was a serious offense. Additionally, both return to their respective eras via Time Machine, though in Tapion's case the past he would end up in wouldn't be part of his timeline of origin.