The Chads of /a/

About

The Chads of /a/ refers to a collection of internet slang and various memes native to the Dragon Ball Super threads on 4chan's anime and manga board, /a/. Usually taking the form of shitposting, it is often used to mock, troll or elevate a person, thing, behavior or group of people above another in an online debate all across 4chan. It also refers to the meme of treating Dragon Ball Super as superior to all other forms of anime and manga on /a/.

Origin

While the exact origin of Dragon Ball Super thread-style posting is unclear, the titular phrase "the Chads of /a/" was first uttered in 2017 on 4chan's /a/ board in response to a post telling another anonymous poster to check the catalog before making another thread (seen below).^[1]

As Dragon Ball Super neared its end, the show remained steadily prominent on /a/ and started to balloon in popularity toward the final arc of the show. Memes such as Gohan Blanco and early variants of Ultra Instinct Shaggy were among the most prevalent shitposting material on the threads.

Spread

Dragon Ball Super thread-style posting is found on various boards with differing frequency. On /a/, it has become notably common even in threads outside of Dragon Ball Super, particularly those pitting shounen series against each other or moe against shounen. Outside of /a/, one can find it being used in a similar manner.

Precursors

Toeipedros vs. Toyotards

The first instance of "Toyotard" being used can be traced to December 2016, and "Toeipedros" to about 10 days later. These two words are derogatory terms for the two sides that fans take regarding Dragon Ball Super (seen below).^[2][3]

Toei Animation, the studio that handled the DBS anime, is often called out for its low-quality, poor schedules and abhorrent fight scenes, especially early on. Toyotaro is the artist who draws and interprets Akira Toriyama's notes for Dragon Ball Super while receiving some designs from him. He is often called out for tracing earlier Dragon Ball media to create "homages" and the like.

Zamasuposting

Starting with the release of episode 47 of Dragon Ball Super, the Goku Black arc started featuring Goku Black as the antagonist with the company of Zamasu, a Supreme Kai that turned to a violent path through following his own ideas and prejudices. While this meme and the popularity it had didn't necessarily originate on /a/, it played a big part in how future DBS memes would be like (shown below).

Slowly, anonymous posters started to notice that the two were frequently using the Japanese words "ningen" and "subarashii," and it became a meme to use these in reference to the characters. The character known as Gowasu, Zamasu's mentor, was also turned into a meme after it became apparent how often he called for Zamasu, or "Zamas" as he said in the show (seen below).

Related Memes

The Dragon Ball Super threads on /a/ are known for deriving various memes on 4chan. Below are some notable examples.

Gohan Blanco

The spread of the Gohan Blanco meme was primarily part of the Dragon Ball Super threads, including its characters such as El Hermano and El Grande Padre. On September 22nd, 2018, YouTuber^[7] Arioch Capi 'The End' Joseph Caiaphas uploaded a video recording the events behind the meme's creation on 4chan, receiving over 52,700 views, 1,700 likes and 168 comments in just over two years (shown below).

AIIIEEEEEEEE

Possibly originating from the Portuguese Dragon Ball Z dub where Vegeta is defeated by Freeza (seen below, left),^[8] AIIIEEEEEEEE-posting originally appeared in /a/'s Dragon Ball Super threads around August 2019 and quickly became another Dragon Ball Super thread staple. Finding itself on other boards, as well being used for mocking characters when a person or company suffer for their insolence, variations of this meme spread to many boards after becoming popularized on /a/ (seen below, right).

I Kneel / Kneeling Vegeta

The first instance of I Kneel / Kneeling Vegeta appears to originate from a post on /a/ about Jiren's superiority compared to other characters in the anime (shown below).^[4]

Stemming from Vegeta's incapability of winning fights in Dragon Ball Super, it quickly became associated with an image of Vegeta kneeling (seen below, left). This prompted the creation of an exploitable to go with it as it started to appear on other boards like /v/ with a range of characters from pop culture. Archives such as Desuarchive display at least 14,000 posts on 4chan since the original post (seen below, right).^[5]

Enter CHADren

Enter CHADren is a snowclone and a copypasta spawned from the tendency of the anonymous /a/ posters to assign a prefix to replace part of a character's name. One of the ways it was first used was to engage in shitposting wars between people who liked the character Caulifla and people who liked Gohan, creating a precursor to this meme (shown below).

A two years later, a derivative of it was created in the form of Enter CHADren, in order to proclaim Jiren's superiority over all other Dragon Ball characters. Later, a copypasta about Jiren was created and eventually found itself combined with Enter CHADren, spreading beyond the bounds of /a/ (seen below, left and right).^[6]

The Enter CHADren copypasta typically appears as:

The Alpha of Awe. The Brute of Brawn. The Cultivator of Class. The Duke of Domination. The Emperor of Eloquence. The Fiercest of Fighters. The Greatest of Glory. The Height of Heroism. The Imperator of Intellectualism. The Jarl of Justice. The King of Knights. The Lord of Loquaciousness. The Master of Mortality. The Naysayer of Noobs. The Overlord of Obituaries. The Prince of Passion. The Que-hagen of Quixote. The Ruler of Ruination. The Sultan of Smite. The Taskmaster of Trembles. The Undertaker of Ubiquity. The Vaeyen of Vociferousness. The Warranter of Weaklings. The Xenophobe of Xenogeny. The Yardmaster of Yesteryear. The Zhar of Zoroastrianism.

THE INDOMITUS REX
THE ALPHA OF ALPHAS
THE KING OF KINGS
THE LORD OF LORDS
THE JUSTICIAR OF JUSTICE
CHADREN THE GRAY
APEXPREDATORren the MASCULINE
GRIPren the CRUSHING
INSURMOUNTABLEren the UNSURPASSABLE
INDOMITABLEren the UNYIELDING
AESTHETICren the BEAUTIFUL
SWOLEren the RIPPED
TANKren the RESOLUTE
PHYSICALLYIMPOSINGren the INTIMIDATING
GLAREren the DOMINEERING
JUGGERNAUGHTren the UNSTOPPABLE
DISCIPLINEDren the ENLIGHTENED
ZENren the SPIRITUAL
POTENTren the VIRILE
ALMIGHTYren the INVINCIBLE
VALORren the DAUNTLESS
IMPERIOUSren the DOMINATOR
INVICTUSren the ETERNAL
MAELSTROMren the TITANIC
QUAKEren the SPACE-TIME SHAKING
COLOSSUSren the LEVIATHAN
BEHEMOTHren the MASTODONIC
MONSTERren the TERRIFYING
LORDren the KING
DEITYren the CHRIST
CRIMSONren the LEGEND
SUPERNOVAren the TRANSIENT
RENCHAD THE JI
JICHAD THE REN
RENCHAD THE CHAD
KINGCHAD THE LORDGRAY
THE CHAD OF CHADS
ENCHAD CHADREN
CHADCHAD CHADCHAD CHA CHAD
ENTER CHADREN

Search Interest

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External References