We as fans can sort through all the official information on Number Eighteen, watch and read the anime and manga, and deduce a number of things about her motivations in a quasi-academic way. In fact, the other sections on this site do that. But in this particular section, I'm going to get a little more personal.

Way back in 1997, I think, I started to role-play (RP) #18 on America Online (AOL) member chat rooms. I had been RPing Sailor Moon characters before that, in a really amateur kind of way, where I didn't understand the nuances of interacting with others in-character (IC) and out-of-character (OOC). Toonami didn't exist yet and Dragon Ball Z, in that time, was still dubbed only until the middle of the Namek saga, right before Goku first goes super saiyan (crazy right?). But anyway, DBZ RP was all the rage in the AOL chat rooms and I wanted in. So I did some internet searching for a character I could play, and stumbled upon a female cyborg who was not only a beautiful villain but really powerful — really appealing character traits to a nerdy 13-year-old tomboy. I didn't know much else about her than that...

Fast foward a couple months and I had become a mini-guru on #18. I had super poor quality fansub tapes (oldheads know the kind) of what is now called the Android Saga. I strictly used her Japanese name and attack moves, knew all about her origins, and had tons and tons of screen captures and scans on my computer. Did I mention I was also reading tons of fan-fiction about her too? It was an all-encompassing obsession — I was a 20th level nerd for Eighteen, one that spent most of her teenage years role-playing all day long (though I did switch to other characters over time). And I think when you spend that much time RPing someone, you start to get a feel for their motivations. So here are my thoughts on some of 18's relationships in the Dragon Ball universe.

Dr. Gero

Number Seventeen

Number Sixteen

Krillin

Marron

The Z Warriors

Mr. Satan