How Would YOU Fix The Goku Black Arc?

[Colonel Silver]

I would have better explained how a Kai's natural abilities like magic and what not are changed or mutated by having a Saiyan's power. I would explain why he was able to rip holes in space that lead to a dimension of endless hatred that farts out clones. What the fuck was that halo and that angel thing? Why were those things possible. I would given the audience answers to that.

[JulieYBM]

I've been thinking for the past two days that a cool way to remake the arc would be for the first episode to be entirely from Zamasu's point-of-view. Show his usual daily routine at first, then show him learning of Son Gokuu for the first time as he walks in on Gowasu watching the last tournament on KamiTube. This scene introduces Zamasu's distrust of humans. From there we show the first scene with the Baribarians, which shows Zamasu's disdain for the humans, then in the next scene we cut to the introductions for the Zen-Ou tournament. Zamasu approaches Gokuu, a convenient figure for his disdain for humans, and asks for a sparring match before the tournament begins. Gokuu agrees, defeats him, and leaves the final shot of the episode being Zamasu thinking "As I thought, human's really are..." then the second episode can open immediately with Gokuu Black (shown only as an abstract figure) killing Future Blooma, Mai distracting Black so that the injured Trunks can escape, and then Trunks leaving to the past all before the Opening. After the Opening, Trunks awakens and attacks Gokuu, but is subdued long enough to snap out of his feral state. Trunks can provide a recap of what happened to Gokuu and friends for the rest of the episode. At the end of the episode, Black appears in the past and shocks the viewer and Gokuu's group as the abstract figure peels away to reveal...Gokuu?! This would all for the second episode to open emotionally, a rocketing departure from the calm of the first episode.

Episodes later, when it's time to reveal Zamasu stabbing Vegeta in the back, that can be the cliffhanger for an episode, which the succeeding episode can continue off from where Episode #1 ended. The entire idea of this part of the arc is to confuse the viewer, by essentially showing two different takes on how Zamasu first meets Gokuu.

[omaro34]

I wouldn't have made the time travel story so damn complicated in the end. 2 other Mai's and Trunks' living with the ones that fought Black is just a strange ending.

it would have been better if one of the good guys defeated Zamasu and not Zeno.

[Ki Breaker]

I wouldn't have made the time travel story so damn complicated in the end. 2 other Mai's and Trunks' living with the ones that fought Black is just a strange ending..

Even that is somewhat excuses able, but I still can't get over how trunks did what he did.. No reasonable explanation..
There is something odd about the two mais and Trunks though, why have that specific ending if he could be kept around here

[anand11]

defiantly fix the animation, black arc deserved badass animation to help show the badass character he was.

[Dragon Ball Gus]

defiantly fix the animation, black arc deserved badass animation to help show the badass character he was.

It did have some badass animation.

[HybridSaiyan]

Easy, ditch it altogether and start again, animating it through Toyotarō's vision and concepts

[lunaticthegame]

I still am for having Goku Black being a clone.

[spoiler]In the end, he happened to be Zamasu from another timeline and because he trusted no one but himself, he went to Trunk's future where he recruited himself[/spoiler]

The original was pretty complicated in comparison the Android arc (Which I understand pretty easily) but I had a problem with how Zamasu and Black and a team worked. Back when the arc was originally starting and we were first introducing Zamasu, it made perfect sense for Goku Black to be Goku from the future timeline but with Zamasu's influence. Goku Black would have been the God of Destruction while Zamasu would have been the Supreme Kai for Universe 10 and he would order Black Goku around in order and not do it himself to keep suspicions low.

Later on in #56, he shows up with an annoyed look because of how long it was taking Goku Black to decimate the human population. It would make so much sense to me.

[Dragon Ball Gus]

I still am for having Goku Black being a clone.

[spoiler]In the end, he happened to be Zamasu from another timeline and because he trusted no one but himself, he went to Trunk's future where he recruited himself[/spoiler]

The original was pretty complicated in comparison the Android arc (Which I understand pretty easily) but I had a problem with how Zamasu and Black and a team worked. Back when the arc was originally starting and we were first introducing Zamasu, it made perfect sense for Goku Black to be Goku from the future timeline but with Zamasu's influence. Goku Black would have been the God of Destruction while Zamasu would have been the Supreme Kai for Universe 10 and he would order Black Goku around in order and not do it himself to keep suspicions low.

Later on in #56, he shows up with an annoyed look because of how long it was taking Goku Black to decimate the human population. It would make so much sense to me.

Soooo, what's the actual problem?

[Kaboom]

I must have missed or looked past this thread when it first got created, but now I may as well share some of my ideas that have developed in the months since this arc ended (in the anime, anyway). Some of them will be more in-depth than others.

1) A Better Ending. None of this "Future Trunks loses the entire world and universe he's been fighting for since we first met him in Z" garbage. If any ruined, Zamas-infected universes end up being nuked by Omni-King, I'd make sure to use time travel shenanigans to prevent them from being the same timeline Trunks hails from. Plus, if important characters in his timeline like Future Bulma end up dying, I'd make sure to at least imply a hope of bringing them back somehow. Building on that, I'd also adjust the "Omni-King was already considering destroying under-performing universes" concept in the following arc just to ensure, firmly, that Trunks is not in danger any longer.

2) No dumb Trunks x Mai romance. 'Nuff said.

3) Consistent power progression. Kind of par for the course when considering how to fix bad DB stories. There would be a clearly-defined power chain, as is kind of necessary for serious stakes, and any big power-ups attained by the characters would be sufficiently explained. I have some ideas on how to accomplish a few of these (one of them involving some extra time-travel), but I'm not gonna divulge too much, just in case I decide to actually use these ideas for something eventually.

4) More focus on Goku Black. It feels like as soon as we finally found out just who he was and how he came to be, he stopped being special. This was the original Zamas who actually kicked off the "Zero Mortals" plan to begin with, and I'd make sure he was the primary villain and real mastermind, and that the future Zamas he teams up and eventually merges with doesn't end up stealing the show. This would probably also mean tweaking the design for Merged Zamas to reflect the Goku Black side a little more.

5) Heavily rework Vegetto's appearance, or just use Gogeta instead. If, and that's a big if, I were to retain the Potara mechanics retcon so Goku and Vegeta could merge into Vegetto against Merged Zamas, I'd make sure to reconcile it with what was said in the original manga. What bugs me most about it is that it makes the Old Kaioshin, of all people, seem ignorant or uninformed when he claimed that the merger would last forever. If the new story is going to pull this stuff, then it needs to be explained. Perhaps have the Old Kaioshin present and reveal that he had no idea, because the Potara had never been used by two non-gods in Universe 7 before, whereas Gowas has happened to witness it in Universe 10. That's all it would take, the bare minimum effort to just write an explanation instead of just saying "what you were told before was wrong all along."

Otherwise... just freakin' use Gogeta instead. There's very little reason to downgrade the Potara to more closely resemble the Fusion Dance when there's already a Goku/Vegeta Fusion Dance dude just ready and waiting to be featured. In fact, I think it would actually add to the tone of this story arc to have a godly Fusion method outdone by a mortal one, simply because the mortal ingredients were so much better.

6) Make sure the Mafuba's comeback doesn't amount to nothing. Having Goku learn the technique to deal with an immortal foe they can't dispatch any other way is a pretty nifty idea, but unless I'm forgetting something it just stupidly fell to the wayside. Well, I'd make sure that even if it doesn't save the day like they hope it will, it still at least contributes to Zamas and Black's downfall in a meaningful way.

7) Standard purple hair for Trunks. 'Nuff said once again.

8) Keep better track of the timeline-hopping and splits. Just in general, make sure the time-travel causes and effects are consistent with what's been shown in the past and whatever happens in this arc. Rework the way the Time Rings work if necessary, and explore the relationship they have with mortal time-travel, maybe even bringing them together in some way. Don't have the entire thing kicked off by a causal loop, either... I'd personally have Gowas and Zamas be spectators at the U6 versus U7 tournament, so that Zamas could witness the blasphemy of Goku using godly ki there and accelerate his fall into depravity.

9) Have Bra around. If nothing else, I'd make sure she's already born by this arc's onset (like she actually should have been in Super), just so Future Trunks can meet the baby sister he never got to have in his timeline.

[Alee9977]

I really believe that this isn't Trunks ending, I mean, the ending, although I liked it because of being unique, doesn't fit with Trunks character and story. Now, Bra is being born and if they really wanted that to be Trunks finale, they would have made him meet her.
Also, if something happens once, It can happen twice, and if it happens twice, It will happen a third time.

[Lord Beerus]

I've recently re-watched the Future Trunks arc, and there are a few more things I would have like to be have been tweaked:
- Scrap the whole Time Paradox bullshit that plagued the narrative of the Future Trunks arc
- Give Future Trunks SSJ3 because I can't stand the idea that SSJ2 Future Trunks can given SSJ3 Goku a run for his money
- Have the Mafuba actually seal Future Zamasu leading to Goku Black to break the Mafuba Jar and release him
- Have Future Trunks train with Whis so that his Super Saiyan Rage transformation has more of a basis for existing
- Merged Zamasu take no damage from anyone until he battles SSJB Vegetto
- The SSJB Vegetto/Merged Zamasu fight lasts 10 more minutes
- Have Goku gather the energy for Genki Dama and then channels the energy into Future Trunks' sword as he uses it to kill Merged Zamasu, just like the original story.

[The gr]

-Have Black use his super Saiyan form against his first encounter to Goku and Vegeta​ and he needs to have more screen time

-make Vegeta train trunks in the hyperbolic plot chamber and building up super Saiyan rage

-no time paradox

-have trunks learned the genkidama from goku to kill zamasu,or at least have trunk learned the mafuba and permanently seal merged zamasu

-a better ending and Don't have Zeno or the gods to save the day

-explain some damn things and fix the power scaling

-gowasu and zamasu needs more character and the shin and kibito needs​ a bigger role.

-vegito figth need to be longer and don't retcon the potara, instead have merged zamasu broke the potara earring from vegito leading to the unfusion

- in the ending make Gohan have a conversation to trunks instead of the stupid fan service we got

- better pacing and make it only two trips instead of three

- and lastly Don't make goku forget things because the plot demanded

[Esfír Dedragón]

OPTION A:
No Goku Black, No Future Trunks, No "Timeline-needs-help-plz" gimmick. Therefore, the Goku Black Arc would not have existed and we would not have complained about a blue-haired Future Trunks, a cliched Evil Goku, or a pretentious half-baked "romance".

OPTION B:
Include a how, what, when, where, why did (Future) Zamasu know Future Goku, instead of falling back on time travel shenanigans. I like the idea of Goku being possessed or controlled by Zamasu, despite how cheap it is. I can see this being plausible when he (or they) arrive on Earth and do their thing, or whatever.
Toei should not assume that we have some kind of Mandela Effect of Future Trunks's hair color.
Let Future Bulma live and actually see how different Vegeta is. Bonus points if we get to see Future Chi-Chi realize that her husband is back but must deal with the realization that it's an evil/possessed version of the man she knew.
I'm indifferent on Future Yajirobe being alive or dead.
No Future Mai... (-.-)... enough said.
As much as I liked Super Saiyan Blue Vegito, I would write him out of it.
Maybe introduce SSG/SSB to Future Trunks?
Hyperbolic Time Chamber?
Let Future Trunks get the kill this time, successfully speaking.
No Future Omni-King. Therefore, the alternate timeline and all the alternate universes aren't destroyed.
Don't include Gohan into the picture, even as a spectator. He was quite embarrassingly useless, even when he said good-bye to Future Trunks.
Perhaps introduce Future Trunks to Goten? I would love to see THAT reaction!

OPTION C:
Just include Zamasu as some kind of a Makaio/Makaioshin. Future Trunks may or may not be even needed for this. Whatever.

[Totamo]

Just have it make sense and don't rush it.


Thats really it.

[SaiyanZ]

I would just remove the entire thing from existence. The entire arc in anime form is just downright terrible, and the manga is only marginally making it better. I guess if I were to get specific I'd do these (I apologize for the length):

1) Explain why Trunks has blue hair
2) Remove Future Mai as a whole, and her relationship with Trunks in the present is treated as a gag rather than her seriously falling for him
3) Remove Goku Black as a whole, since an evil Goku is fanfiction and something we don't need, though the Rose form looks cool (also gets rid of another Goku looking character, when we already have Bardock, Goten and Tullece...also gets rid of the dumb "Zamasu using Goku's body despite hating humanity" plothole); in turn, make Zamasu better, by rationalizing his hate for humanity better, as well as what godhood means to him...make his dialog better too instead of generic "filthy ningen, superior kami" stuff that he was spouting 24/7 (make it different than your typical JRPG endgame boss stuff too) and add some sort of interesting characteristic to him
4) No Vegeta being proud that Trunks cut missiles moment (hooray for the manga!)
5) No dumb "one becomes a Kaioshin by wearing Potara" plot point since it completely messes with Kibito
6) Get rid of resistance fighters and stupid Mango Hill battle
7) Don't make Zamasu strong as a SSjB because of immortality (hooray for the manga!)
Don't give Trunks bullshit powerups that makes him as strong as a SSjB...especially no stupid SSj Rage mode (hooray for the manga!)
9) No stupid smoke grenade moment (hooray for the manga!)
10) Give a better explanation for why Zamasu does this in the future as opposed to the present (the "no gods are present" thing does not work since he killed all the Kaioshin there when the GoDs were alive to begin with; since he takes pleasure in killing humanity, he should be doing this in the present where humanity is plentiful for him)
11) Remove Yajirobe being alive (hooray for the manga!...wait, I don't remember if he was in or not)
12) Make Gowasu better instead of having spout Zamasu as his catchphrase; maybe change it up and make him competent too, since all the other deific beings before him are all incompetent in some respect (hooray for the manga!...somewhat)
13) No stupid Trunks trying to cheer Future Trunks up moment (hooray for the manga!)
14) No glove that stops Zamasu from killing Gowasu (hooray for the manga!)
15) Explain what happens to Zamasu after he is killed by Beerus, since when Old Kaioshin gave his life to Goku to fuse with Gohan, he got his body back right there in the afterlife; in short, show where Gowasu's and Zamasu's planet is, if its in the afterlife or mortal world or what
16) No stupid "a god killing a god will interfere with space-time" bullshit
17) No Goku has never kissed Chi-Chi bullshit
18) No Goku, Vegeta and Trunks earnestly trying to go back and fight them after they lost the first time without a plan (hooray for the manga!)
19) No Zamasu criticizing Trunks for using time travel plothole (when they have killed the gods who upheld that law...also removing this gets rid of the plothole of Black being surprised by Trunks's time machine's existence despite knowing that Trunks time traveled with it)
20) Give an explanation for why Zamasu did not wish for all mortals to be killed when he gathered the Super Dragon Balls (hooray for the manga by explicitly stating his sadism!...which still makes his plan of doing it in the future rather than the present all the more dumb)
21) I'm ok with the Mafuba, just animate it better; don't make Goku dumb by wondering how it works since he saw it being used by Kami against Piccolo
22) No awful "use the Mafuba while they stand still" line
23) No Trunks somehow surviving Black and Zamasu once Goku, Vegeta and Bulma leave the 2nd time (hooray for the manga by having Shin and Gowasu save them!)
24) No Vegeta using the RoSaT to get stronger than Black if we were to believe what he said in the previous arc about them being at their limits was true (also, state that the new RoSaT does not prevent them from entering a second time)
25) No self-proclamation by Vegeta calling himself Vegeta-sama, since it shits on all his character development in Z
26) No Bulma trying to stop Zamasu for 5 min
27) No Goku forgetting the talisman for the Mafuba
28) No Vegetto Blue or Potara 1 hour retcon (at least give him some different clothes now that Vegeta is wearing a different outfit)
29) No garbage Genki Dama Bankai shit
30) No laughable Zamasu becomes the universe garbage
31) No stupid shitting on Androids arc ending of Trunks going to a different timeline to live peacefully, completely fucks with his "Azure Hope" tagline
32) Teach Toei how to properly edit scenes and write dialog and place appropriate music at appropriate times; every episode this guy Atsuhiro Tomioka has written is hot garbage, Trunks and Mai are always repeating the same shit over and over: "This is the power of mortals!", "Mai!", "Oka-san!", "Yogata!" etc.
33) Correct the power scaling to make it more believable (no SSj Ikari, or Vegeta and Trunks double Galick-Gunning Zamasu's attack, or SSjB Goku overpowering Zamasu's most powerful attack etc.)


Here are the moments with Goku Black and Mai I would fix if they had to be kept:


34) Make Mai actually interesting and not useless and annoying by firing her gun and having her say "this is the power of mortals" all the time
35) No energy bullet bullshit and her missing after taking aim with a sniper
36) If SSj Rose must be kept, explain why the hair is pink (hooray for the manga!)
37) Don't let Black and Zamasu use a cabin as a hideout, just use the Kaioshin world and the Shunkan Ido to travel back and forth
38) No Goku Black identity mystery (hooray for the manga!)
39) Explain how Zamasu knows Goku in the timeline in which he became Goku Black if Future Trunks coming back to the past is what spurred him to meet Goku in the first place (hooray for the manga by having Zamasu watch GodTube)
40) No horrible scythe power and smoke clone dialog bullshit, where he doesn't even know what he did and how his power is anger incarnate or the future or the past or some stupid thing or whatever
41) No Merged Zamasu while Black is still a SSj Rose, keeping the "no fusing as a SSj" point that Old Kaioshin was talking about intact
42) No dumb purple goo half or immortality being his weakness (there is no reason that a mortal that was able to become immortal should lose that when fused with a body originally like his)

[Basako]

I would fix the power scale like this:

Vegetto SSB > Zamack > Goku SSB, Vegeta SSB & Trunks SSG > Black SSB > Goku SSG = Vegeta SSG = Trunks SSG > Black SS > Trunks SS2 > Black base > Trunks base > Zamasu > Kibito

No rose.
SSG for Trunks by ritual in the present.

[JulieYBM]

As much as I like the mystery aspect of the Future Trunks arc, I do have to wonder if we could accomplish something new and interesting by focusing more on Black and Zamasu. In fact, it would be interesting to literally frame those two as the main characters and even end the arc with Merged Zamasu's death, from their point of view. It's like removing the Gokuu scenes in the Namek arc before he appeared on Namek to build up the tension more.

[ekrolo2]

As much as I like the mystery aspect of the Future Trunks arc, I do have to wonder if we could accomplish something new and interesting by focusing more on Black and Zamasu. In fact, it would be interesting to literally frame those two as the main characters and even end the arc with Merged Zamasu's death, from their point of view. It's like removing the Gokuu scenes in the Namek arc before he appeared on Namek to build up the tension more.

They're the most interesting characters out of the whole arc with the good guys not doing much but reacting to them. One problem is that Future Zamasu needs a personality overhaul, at the very least an evolving personality because I don't know how long people could stomach him repeating his trite bullshit from the end of the arc right from the get go, especially if he got a main character spot.

[Freeza9000]

I would fix the power scale like this:

Vegetto SSB > Zamack > Goku SSB, Vegeta SSB & Trunks SSG > Black SSB > Goku SSG = Vegeta SSG = Trunks SSG > Black SS > Trunks SS2 > Black base > Trunks base > Zamasu > Kibito

No rose.
SSG for Trunks by ritual in the present.

SSJB on Goku Black is extremely unfitting and downright horrible imo. Rose FTW!