I basically like Roshi as Jackie Chun rather than Roshi as Roshi; I think that's when he's an appealing character. I started to like him when I read the manga and got to the Jackie Chun arc. He fights Goku and deals with his pulling-powers-from-his-ass shonen hero bullshit solely to teach him healthy values and never admits to it because would break the illusion. He casually advises Nam on how to save his village after his hopes had seemingly been crushed by his defeat. He might have been strong enough to beat Tenshinhan but quits because his students don't need him to be in the role of the unreachable champion. He plays up his immortality to Tenshinhan in order to hide the fact that he's going to sacrifice himself to try to beat King Piccolo. That's emotional Dragonball right there.
I don't even think you need Roshi to be a creep in order to have a funny Roshi. He's old guy who tries to be cool but is just horribly out of date, plays up being old for sympathy despite being unable to die of old age, he's often irritable and not quite on the top of his game despite playing the old master role. There's a lot of opportunity for humor there.
I don't even think you need Roshi to be a creep in order to have a funny Roshi. He's old guy who tries to be cool but is just horribly out of date, plays up being old for sympathy despite being unable to die of old age, he's often irritable and not quite on the top of his game despite playing the old master role. There's a lot of opportunity for humor there.
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