Super's Time Setting: The 10 Year Window

[omaro34]

We all know that Super takes place after Kid Buu's defeat and before the 28th World Martial Arts Tournament. The time between these 2 events is roughly ten years.

1) Restriction: I honestly feel that Super is limited in what it can and cannot do because of the time constraint. Sure, people can progress in ten years from a character development standpoint but they are pretty limited in what they can do from a story perspective. We all know Super will run as long as its generating revenue, but depending on how long Super goes, how many arcs can reasonably fit in this ten year time frame?

2) Loss of Tension: We all know in Dragonball death has insurance, but just knowing what happens in the future, where everyone is present at the 28th tournament with Uub, shows me that this whole "terrifying" concept of the losing universe getting destroyed in this upcoming arc isn't such a big deal after all for the main cast. Sure, we probably already knew that from the start because its Dragonball, but knowing how the ten year window ends where Goku and Uub go off for training just doesn't do it for me.

3) Power Levels: Goku and Vegeta are stronger than they have ever been now even during the events in GT, but the prospect of Goku becoming excited at the end of Z because he's going to fight a fighter on Kid Buu's level shouldn't be all that enticing. Any fighter at Kid Buu's level should be a fly to Goku the way he's progressed in Super.

Do you think this 10 year period will cause problems for Super in the long run if they maintain that all of these arcs occurred during this time frame? Or do you think it won't cause much hassle? Do you also think that they will eventually go past the ten year period and completely change the original ending of Z?

Let me hear your thoughts on all of this.

[Boo Machine]

I think starting in the 10 year time gap was a pretty cool idea. The problem is if they decide to stay there for the entirety of it's run. Obviously very small progress is being made in that pan and Bra are being born, but if they stuff too many stories in this window it's going to get ridiculous.

Eventually I'm hoping to see a time skip. I just couldn't say when would be a good time for it.

On the note of Uub, I don't mind Goku being excited for him, even now. Goku is happy to fight/spar with anybody if they're willing. At least I think so.

[Ki Breaker]

Naah, it really isn't limiting itself too much, sure some there's restrictions but that's fine, super wasn't supposed exist sometime before..

About goku fighting uub is exciting or not, he was excited to train with Krillin.. so... Yeah...

[Lord Beerus]

I think it's just a case of Bandai/Toei playing it safe with Super, with a consideration of how GT was received. I believe Bandai/Toei realised that the drastic changes to the plot or how characters in GT looked never went down that well with the core fanbase in Japan, the fanbase that ultimately matters to most. And fans in Japan ultimately prefer to have new content but not to the degree where the status quo is radically changed. i.e. characters looking old, major characters no longer fighting, popular character getting killed off for real etc. I think this would mean that Super is likely going to stay in the 10 year gap for the foreseeable future which would be a shame, but, that doesn't mean good plots can't be churned out from that period. It just means that the stakes and tension will never be a high as it can be as it was in DB, Z or even GT, because you ultimately know that none of the main characters will be killed off for real.

[omaro34]

And fans in Japan ultimately prefer to have new content but not to the degree where the status quo is radically changed. i.e. characters looking old, major characters no longer fighting, popular character getting killed off for real etc.

They tried the very same thing with DBZ. They tried to pass the torch so to speak with Gohan in the Cell saga but fans really didn't want that to happen. Hence they made Goku come back from the dead and went on from there with the Buu Arc. Its just human nature, people eally dislike change, that's why introducing a major character in any show well into the the show's duration sometimes doesn't work, because the audience is so accustomed to the status quo.

[omaro34]

I think starting in the 10 year time gap was a pretty cool idea. The problem is if they decide to stay there for the entirety of it's run. Obviously very small progress is being made in that pan and Bra are being born, but if they stuff too many stories in this window it's going to get ridiculous.

Eventually I'm hoping to see a time skip. I just couldn't say when would be a good time for it.

On the note of Uub, I don't mind Goku being excited for him, even now. Goku is happy to fight/spar with anybody if they're willing. At least I think so.

i think after this big Universal Survival arc they should do a time skip. And yeah episode 75 showed Goku doesn't care who he spars with.

[MKCSTEALTH]

Honestly, GT lost its continuity placement when Supreme Kai showed up defused from Kibito back in the Universe 6/7 tournament. Where Super will go from here can be anyone's guess. But we seem to be moving at a fairly skipping pace. After all we've gone at least a couple years from the end of Z due to the birth of Pan and [spoiler]the birth of Bulla in the next few episodes[/spoiler]

How they plan to work into the end of Z I honestly don't know. Vegeta mentions that the next time he and Goku fight they'd "need an entire planet", plus we never really saw Goku take the fight against Uub seriously. So I honestly don't know how they'll end things.

[namekiansaiyan]

I don't really care about the end of Z and I will probably consider the end of Super to be the actual end of the franchise as it will be the most up to date.

If Uub does get introduced I don't really want him, and the current children to play big roles as I would prefer the old cast and probably the new characters in the universal survival tournament due to their interaction with the current cast.

[Eternal Super Saiyan]

I understand the loss of tension as well. Whis can reverse anything that happens. For a while things actually were looking worrisome in the Black arc... and then.. "oh yea, Whis... THAT guy.. lol" Reality hit again.

Even if all the dragon balls just disappear or are destroyed, possibilities do not end.

[precita]

Why would Goku not be excited about Uub even after Super? He has the power of Kid Buu as he is now without any real training. Kid Buu is one of the strongest fighters in their universe. Why on earth would Goku not want to train with him and make him even more powerful?

For all we know, now Goku might be training Uub for a future tournament or meet Beerus.

[Shi_Neko13]

I don't feel any loss of tension really, I'm more interested in the character interactions, the fights, the world building, and when you get down to it just plain ol' more dragon ball!
I'm of the generation that saw DBZ on toonami during the 1998-2003 run and at that time thanks to the internet I already knew all the characters made it through, I knew about Cell and Buu, but knowing that didn't make the explosions any smaller, the characters less cool, and the internal story twists and turns any less exciting. It was still worth watching and enjoying.
I'm 32 now and honestly never expected new movies or a new tv series at all, I had dreamt about it for years though and I'm extremely happy with the way things turned out, this is the first time in so long I can watch new stories and fights with my childhood heroes. I had never seen GT and the ending of Z was always lame and stupid so retconning or ignoring it is totally fine, and even if it still happens no big deal, it'd be worth it to have a full uninterrupted story narrative of Dragon Ball.

[Cetra]

Considering Oob is for Goku an avatar of potential and he trains this potential to fight what results, I think there is no loss of tension. He is not just excited to fight 10-year old Oob but what he knows that can come.

[funrush]

Why would Goku not be excited about Uub even after Super? He has the power of Kid Buu as he is now without any real training. Kid Buu is one of the strongest fighters in their universe. Why on earth would Goku not want to train with him and make him even more powerful?

For all we know, now Goku might be training Uub for a future tournament or meet Beerus.

The longer Super goes and the more powerful Goku gets in it, the more impressive Uub's strength in the 28th Budokai is. Completely untrained 10 year old had Goku, a god, wince in pain.

[Eternal Super Saiyan]

I suppose you could look at it this way. Buu reborn with more potential untapped. Kind of like a combo of kid Gohan and Buu as one character.

Is it actually confirmed that Uub is as strong as Kid Buu? If not, then my potential theory is in question. Maybe he just has loads of it.

[precita]

Why would Goku not be excited about Uub even after Super? He has the power of Kid Buu as he is now without any real training. Kid Buu is one of the strongest fighters in their universe. Why on earth would Goku not want to train with him and make him even more powerful?

For all we know, now Goku might be training Uub for a future tournament or meet Beerus.

The longer Super goes and the more powerful Goku gets in it, the more impressive Uub's strength in the 28th Budokai is. Completely untrained 10 year old had Goku, a god, wince in pain.

Goku doesn't even go Super Saiyan during his fight with Uub. He clearly wasn't giving it his all at all.

[Doctor.]

I'd like to retort regarding the loss of tension part. First off, you're going to feel tension provided you're emotionally invested in any of the new characters (those being Beerus, Whis, universe 6, Gowasu and any new fighters you may like in the tournament). Second, do you never feel tension when you watch a prequel? Because the tension isn't present only because we don't know if the heroes will live or die.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

I'd like to retort regarding the loss of tension part. First off, you're going to feel tension provided you're emotionally invested in any of the new characters (those being Beerus, Whis, universe 6, Gowasu and any new fighters you may like in the tournament). Second, do you never feel tension when you watch a prequel? Because the tension isn't present only because we don't know if the heroes will live or die.

The type of tension that Super tries to employ doesn't work though, because all the enemies do it try to destroy Earth or the Universe or some shit, and we already know how it turns out because of the time period. The only case where that isn't true was the U6 arc, which obviously had very little tension for other reasons.

It's not only the time period, it's also the method of storytelling that makes DBS in its current state a thorough bore.

[Doctor.]

The type of tension that Super tries to employ doesn't work though, because all the enemies do it try to destroy Earth or the Universe or some shit, and we already know how it turns out because of the time period. The only case where that isn't true was the U6 arc, which obviously had very little tension for other reasons.

It's not only the time period, it's also the method of storytelling that makes DBS in its current state a thorough bore.

Sure, but just because we know the end result, doesn't mean we can't fear for the new characters. We don't know the fate of characters like Beerus and Whis, both of which have been established and developed for 70+ episodes and have had enough time to form a connection with the audience. Or, in a smaller scale, characters like the U6 crew and Gowasu, like I said. Or hell, characters we already know about but don't appear in the epilogue, like Tenshinhan (?) and #17. Who knows if those are going to die?

Dragon Ball, as a whole, is limited in how much tension it can have due to the fact that it's, ultimately, a kid's show. We know the bad guy isn't going to win, so what matters is what happens to the characters, not the world, and how the characters deal with loss and consequence. The only times where this isn't the case, where the world actually gets destroyed and the characters die, are the alternate timelines. But we don't really have any connection with any of the timelines besides Trunks'. Imagine how it would be if we saw the Goku we've been following for the entire Dragon Ball series and 70+ episodes of Super got killed on-screen by Black, that would be shocking. Instead we're left with a revelation that an identical-but-not-really Goku got killed by Black, and we couldn't end up caring any less.

Even so, I don't think the time period is a good excuse not to have consequences. The Zamasu arc had tension and consequences. Not because we were afraid of what could happen to Goku and Vegeta, but instead of what could happen to Trunks and his world. Super, unlike Z, spent a good amount of time developing Trunks and letting us, the audience, get to know him better to form an emotional connection with him. And I think most people felt for him when he lost everything. Even if it got reset in the end due to Whis, he's not going to forget those experiences and his failure is going to haunt him.