Vegeta, saiyan progeny, and popularity were what was more important. Thus the reality is, he made an executive decision about a character with no forewarning that completely contradicted what he wrote before for the sake of convenience. Toriyama is, by his own admission, somewhat lazy (I don't envy his production schedule back then) and it makes sense that, if he did indeed want to write Yamcha off as being some kind of jerk, a simple bit of dialogue would get the job done rather than a thoughtful prelude setting the fact up. That said, dumb or not, it's his work and he is more than allowed to ruin his own work. But just like George Lucas, that doesn't mean he can't make dumb decisions. On one hand, Toriyama is the author of Dragonball and what he says about the world goes, period. This bothered me, not only because it was inconsistent with everything that came before, but it also appeared to be a genuinely calloused middle finger toward Yamcha and his fans. However, in recent years, it's come to my attention that supposed interviews with Toriyama and Toru Furuya illustrated that Toriyama intended for Trunks' comment to be taken as truth rather than a second-hand lie. Although it absolutely sucked to see Yamcha sidelined and was definitely character assassination, I didn't consider it to be anything out of the norm way back then. In other words, even the end of the world couldn't stop her from being petty. My conclusion, like many fans, was that Trunks got his mother's version of the story which, as part of the aforementioned running gag, was what she had always told everyone. Bulma yelling at Yamcha and Yamcha not understanding what the heck she's on about went throughout the entire series and even into the movies. He was essentially a trophy boyfriend that backfired and he apparently wasn't doing anything right. We also see Yamcha cut his hair and dressed up to make her happy. Starting in the Red Ribbon saga (Tale 69 to be specific), we see Bulma's mom remark that Bulma fought with Yamcha because she couldn't stand that he was popular with other girls. However, the less obvious thing is that Bulma's irrational jealousy and accusations were a somewhat running gag. But infidelity didn't seem consistent with his repeat depiction over the course of years as a man who was only really comfortable around a woman who constantly showed her ugly side to him. Yes, a man's dreams can change and he can also have a wandering eye. The most obvious is that Yamcha's original stated dream was to get married. I came to that conclusion for a number of reasons: Based purely on these resources, I came to the conclusion, as you and many fans have said, that Yamcha was not a cheater and that Bulma was being dishonest, no matter what Trunks might have said. When I wrote this, the only resource I had beside web forums for my information was the original Manga and the Anime. Out of the many objections to my story that I've received, this page probably gets the most spite and accusation of being a "retcon". This is a somewhat nuanced topic so bear with me.
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