Unpopular DB opinions

[JulieYBM]

Transformations are just tools to progress character arcs and try new things. Black Freeza's strength—other than being a cool design—is that with that development we have a new opportunity to develop Freeza and other characters. As such, all that remains is having the courage to use 'Black Freeza' as a concept to achieve a greater goal. Unfortunately, Toriyama seems unwilling to take full advantage of most of the decisions that he makes and possibilities that he opens up, and the other creative minds involved in the franchise often simply handcuff themselves to Toriyama for fear of actually doing anything.

Frieza is just a generic pure evil villain, what kind of development or progression could he possibly have?

He is a villain who, as per his own admission, doesn't care about being evil even when the Gods/Saiyans threaten him that they'll kill him if he continues being evil.

The peak of whatever character development Frieza could have had was in the ToP arc, when Frieza mellowed out and put his existence on the line to help the Saiyans. Since then, Frieza has just regressed to his DBZ days.

Black Frieza is just nostalgia bait. It's no secret that the Namek saga is one of the most iconic/beloved/nostalgic arcs of the Dragon Ball franchise, so the writers just keep Frieza around to cash in on the nostalgia of most of the fanbase (middle-aged and with very fond memories of early DBZ). It's obvious that they don't actually know what to do with him, which is why Frieza hasn't done anything since he unveiled his new form in August 2022.

You write whatever you think is fun and exciting to write. It's not like you need to follow any rules about what development to not give Freeza.

"Freeza's evil!" Okay, then break that rule. Not the first time it's been done.

[Scsigs]

I've always had the opinion that GT has better narrative pacing than the original version of Z. Because it wasn't based off a manga, the writers were more easily able to give a more natural pace to the arcs due to them not needing to pad out each. episode to make sure they don't catch up and overtake it.

[GhostEmperorX]

To steelman that perspective for a moment, I think it's more like "people who like Dragon Ball for what made Z so popular in the first place and actively reject Dragon Ball whenever it's not like Z". The stereotype is that these fans only care about the fights and edginess and act like Dragon Ball isn't worth watching when it's not in hardcore action mode.

This I think is the point that most out there miss. Because there's indeed those sorts of people out there (and we probably already know what contributed in large part to that line of thought).

[sunsetshimmer]

I've always had the opinion that GT has better narrative pacing than the original version of Z. Because it wasn't based off a manga, the writers were more easily able to give a more natural pace to the arcs due to them not needing to pad out each. episode to make sure they don't catch up and overtake it.

This is true. GT feels like watching manga but animated very often. Note how unlike DB/Z/Super it has no typical filler and slice of life type of episodes. The only exception is single episode tournament between Baby and Super 17 arcs and that's it. There is some goofy stuff like Goku playing a board game or hanging out in hell but these are part of main story that proceeds at the same time.

[ABED]

GT has no "filler" but it still drags.

[Scsigs]

GT has no "filler" but it still drags.

That's a result of shitty writing. GT's biggest flaw is bungling good ideas with bad writing, sadly.

[Psajdak]

I miss Frieza's 2nd, and 3rd transformation.

Like, I get that the whole point about Frieza is that he shouldn't be underestimated based on his size in his small forms, but there is something about simply being bigger, and/or more monstuous.

[ABED]

GT has no "filler" but it still drags.

That's a result of shitty writing. GT's biggest flaw is bungling good ideas with bad writing, sadly.

Agreed, although another point I'm making is filler isn't inherently bad. Not everything in a story is serving the plot. I used to believe that, but over time have seen enough that dissuaded me of that belief.

[Scsigs]

Agreed, although another point I'm making is filler isn't inherently bad. Not everything in a story is serving the plot. I used to believe that, but over time have seen enough that dissuaded me of that belief.

I mean, yeah. I don't mind a bit of filler here & there. It's just a matter of what the filler is & when it shows up. Filler that exists only to pad out an existing storyline being adapted, I usually don't care for. Filler that doesn't hurt the story & comes in between the big events or arcs, I'm ok with, since I can just skip over those episodes. Bleach has filler that I can easily just skip over to get back to the canon stuff that actually matters when binging it for example. Not all filler is bad, mind you, it just has to be entertaining or service the characters in some way. Super has a lot of stuff that people could consider filler, but the writers were smart with how they did it & made it primarily stuff in between the bigger arcs that's short & to the point, as well as most of it services the characters or ongoing stories decently.

[ABED]

Agreed, although another point I'm making is filler isn't inherently bad. Not everything in a story is serving the plot. I used to believe that, but over time have seen enough that dissuaded me of that belief.

I mean, yeah. I don't mind a bit of filler here & there. It's just a matter of what the filler is & when it shows up. Filler that exists only to pad out an existing storyline being adapted, I usually don't care for. Filler that doesn't hurt the story & comes in between the big events or arcs, I'm ok with, since I can just skip over those episodes. Bleach has filler that I can easily just skip over to get back to the canon stuff that actually matters when binging it for example. Not all filler is bad, mind you, it just has to be entertaining or service the characters in some way. Super has a lot of stuff that people could consider filler, but the writers were smart with how they did it & made it primarily stuff in between the bigger arcs that's short & to the point, as well as most of it services the characters or ongoing stories decently.

And not all "canon" is good. It's TV, so naturally there's going to be padding. You don't want padding, watch a movie. All it needs to do is be entertaining. When people bring up filler, it feels like what they want is for everything to be on plot and nothing else, as if storytelling is about hitting a bunch of plot points in a mad dash to the finish.

Is it entertaining? That should be the point in all this.
Does it service the characters? Even better.
Does it advance the plot? Fine but not necessary.

[PurestEvil]

Filler can be really damn good tbh. The Gohan training arc in DBZ and several episodes of DBS prove that imo

[LoganForkHands73]

Filler can be really damn good tbh. The Gohan training arc in DBZ and several episodes of DBS prove that imo

Yeah, you can make some good arguments for filler. Although it’s by definition not needed for the main plot to work, it can give the story some added texture and it goes a long way in making the Dragon Ball world feel more lived in. I get some comfort in knowing that the main characters get periods to simply live life with minor problems rather than constant back-to-back martial arts apocalypse scenarios. There are some cases like in the Tournament of Power where I can genuinely enjoy seeing more of what the other universes had to offer in at least one medium.

[ABED]

Filler can be really damn good tbh. The Gohan training arc in DBZ and several episodes of DBS prove that imo

Yeah, you can make some good arguments for filler. Although it’s by definition not needed for the main plot to work, it can give the story some added texture and it goes a long way in making the Dragon Ball world feel more lived in. I get some comfort in knowing that the main characters get periods to simply live life with minor problems rather than constant back-to-back martial arts apocalypse scenarios. There are some cases like in the Tournament of Power where I can genuinely enjoy seeing more of what the other universes had to offer in at least one medium.

Not everything in storytelling is about plot. A great plot can add a lot, but it's not the most important part of any story. The Freeza arc doesn't need the Ginyu Force portion of the story, but it is one of the strongest parts of that story arc.

[Scsigs]

Granted, I vastly prefer Kai pacing-wise. I tried watching vanilla Z's first episode a few years ago &, man, is the pacing slow as shit. I get why it was like that, but even with the filler they added on to the beginning of the arc, Kai's cut makes the pacing drastically better. The only fillers that they kept in Kai & TFC that I really consider intrusive to any degree are the Ginyu in Bulma's body filler on Namek & the Hell filler in the Buu Saga. I really have no idea why they kept the frog stuff outside of maybe pacing of the full episodes, since it services nothing & isn't really that entertaining. The Hell filler as well is not only also that, but also has the problem of contradicting not only what Piccolo says the afterlife is like for bad people to Vegeta, but also what happens in Resurrection F & Super with Frieza's personalized Hell.
If people like the shorter filler episodes or arcs, they can easily slot them in between the episodes they'd take place in for Kai. Me, though, I'm fine with most of it being excised.

[Skar]

Granted, I vastly prefer Kai pacing-wise. I tried watching vanilla Z's first episode a few years ago &, man, is the pacing slow as shit. I get why it was like that, but even with the filler they added on to the beginning of the arc, Kai's cut makes the pacing drastically better. The only fillers that they kept in Kai & TFC that I really consider intrusive to any degree are the Ginyu in Bulma's body filler on Namek & the Hell filler in the Buu Saga. I really have no idea why they kept the frog stuff outside of maybe pacing of the full episodes, since it services nothing & isn't really that entertaining. The Hell filler as well is not only also that, but also has the problem of contradicting not only what Piccolo says the afterlife is like for bad people to Vegeta, but also what happens in Resurrection F & Super with Frieza's personalized Hell.
If people like the shorter filler episodes or arcs, they can easily slot them in between the episodes they'd take place in for Kai. Me, though, I'm fine with most of it being excised.

I don't think that opinion is too unpopular. At least based on the reception to fan recuts that remove even more filler than Kai. I don't think I could rewatch DBZ in its entirety again. There was some filler I did like but I rather rewatch those individually in between recut episodes.

It makes me appreciate that newer anime is seasonal because I didn't get into Naruto and Bleach when they first aired due to all the filler. I did end up watching a Kai recut of them and I'm glad I waited. I'm sure they had some good filler but a few hundred episodes worth of filler is a lot to look through to maybe find some good ones.

[Majin Buu]

I don't think that opinion is too unpopular. At least based on the reception to fan recuts that remove even more filler than Kai.

"Filler can be good actually" is the actual unpopular opinion.

[Psajdak]

I love fillers.

[super michael]

Filler episode can be really good. Non canon episode can also be very good.
Filler and canon has nothing to do with the quality of a anime episode.

[Scsigs]

I don't think that opinion is too unpopular. At least based on the reception to fan recuts that remove even more filler than Kai. I don't think I could rewatch DBZ in its entirety again. There was some filler I did like but I rather rewatch those individually in between recut episodes.

It makes me appreciate that newer anime is seasonal because I didn't get into Naruto and Bleach when they first aired due to all the filler. I did end up watching a Kai recut of them and I'm glad I waited. I'm sure they had some good filler but a few hundred episodes worth of filler is a lot to look through to maybe find some good ones.

I think all anime based on manga should go seasonal, ngl. Less filler, better animation quality, & other things. Naruto & Bleach at least do filler arcs rather than added filler to canon stuff most of the time. There's also guides so you can skip those arcs & just stick with the main episodes, which I very much recommend looking up. because the filler for those shows can be PAINFULLY dull. Studio Periot can produce great things, but their writing quality for filler is less than stellar.

[GhostEmperorX]

I think all anime based on manga should go seasonal, ngl. Less filler, better animation quality, & other things.

Seconded. Edens Zero for example does this, and everything moves along rather quickly, even if it takes time between seasons.
Same for Spy X Family, and likely other new series.
The old model is definitely on its way out, and that's a welcome development.