Super Boo: The worst form of a main villain ever?

[ABED]

If the mindless beast wasn't as entertaining and had been kept around longer, then he wouldn't be as effective. Sometimes a mindless beast is all you need.

[90sDBZ]

I mean, if you really enjoy villains who keep their mouth shut, appear for a short amount of time and are all around absolutely insane, I suppose that that is fine. Otherwise, I really can't see how Kid Boo is better than Zamasu. Zamasu has sensible motivations (if I were a God, I too would try to restore peace and order throughout the cosmos. Not through genocide, but upholding divine laws should be the goal of every good God), an expanded backstory (several episodes were devoted to exploring Zamasu's mentality and descent into madness), a multi-layered personality (as much as you can expect from Dragon Ball, I suppose, though I love the various nuances of Zamasu's hypocritical personality), and a unique gimmick (being the only Kai in the history of Dragon Ball who went rogue).

Kid Boo makes for a scary villain, of course, and you are entitled to prefer him over Zamasu. But objectively, Zamasu, and Super Boo too, are much more complex than Kid Boo.

Point is, people are too harsh on Super Boo. Sure he might have not been so original or amazing, but in my opinion he was much more entertaining to watch than the following villain who was just a mindless beast.

Zamasu was something different so I'll give them props for that. He was interesting for a while but ultimately got slightly tiresome for me. I get that they were trying to present him as having good intentions, it's just that it was way too easy for him to go over the deep end and start committing genocide. If they were going for the sympathetic route then they should have had him go through some sort of terrible hardship rather than just getting pissed off watching mortals from afar. It's clear from the moment we meet him that he has a dark side, so we're just left to assume he was a monster on the inside all along waiting for something to trigger him off.

Kid Buu is technically the exact opposite of Zamasu in that he's an unapologetic bad guy plain and simple. I love how he doesn't give a fuck and just does what he wants on impulse, blowing up planets when he's still on them and regenerating for example.

And he has some really funny moments too, like when he bites Goku's arm causing Goku to retaliate by biting his head. Another hilarious moment is when Fat Buu's candy beam misses him, causing jawbreakers to fly everywhere which Kid Buu randomly grabs and starts munching on in the middle of battle. What makes it even funnier is that Mr Satan starts scoffing them too while rooting for Fat Buu. This sort of complete insanity is DB at its funniest, and something you don't get with an overly serious guy like Zamasu. But yes both approaches are valid and the story needs villains of both extremes to stay balanced.

And yes I totally agree that Super Buu is underrated. I think he and Kid Buu are both perfect for their respective places in the arc.

[Majin Buu]

I mean, if you really enjoy villains who keep their mouth shut, appear for a short amount of time and are all around absolutely insane, I suppose that that is fine. Otherwise, I really can't see how Kid Boo is better than Zamasu. Zamasu has sensible motivations (if I were a God, I too would try to restore peace and order throughout the cosmos. Not through genocide, but upholding divine laws should be the goal of every good God), an expanded backstory (several episodes were devoted to exploring Zamasu's mentality and descent into madness), a multi-layered personality (as much as you can expect from Dragon Ball, I suppose, though I love the various nuances of Zamasu's hypocritical personality), and a unique gimmick (being the only Kai in the history of Dragon Ball who went rogue).

A complex, multi-layered villain isn't inherently better than a simple villain. Which one works better depends on the type of story being told. Generally, villains with simple motivations work better for Dragon Ball. While I think Zamasu does mostly work as a villain, I think it's more due to the novelty of him being the first Dragon Ball villain that has complex motivations; because when I step back and think about it, he feels like a character from a different type of story that was inserted into Dragon Ball.

[sunsetshimmer]

I don't think he is that bad. I personally liked it. And overall all forms of Buu were better to me than 2nd form Cell and 3rd form of Frieza. Both in design and relevance.
Also, it's hard to call it "worst" or even "bad" when DBS exists with such abominations like Zamasu or Jiren. But even if we ignore DBS then i still don't think it's bad.

[ABED]

I don't think he is that bad. I personally liked it. And overall all forms of Buu were better to me than 2nd form Cell and 3rd form of Frieza. Both in design and relevance.

How were the intermediate forms of Buu more relevant than Cell's 2nd form?

[sunsetshimmer]

I don't think he is that bad. I personally liked it. And overall all forms of Buu were better to me than 2nd form Cell and 3rd form of Frieza. Both in design and relevance.

How were the intermediate forms of Buu more relevant than Cell's 2nd form?

Maybe not more than Cell, but more than Frieza's 2nd and 3rd forms that were just stupid and awfully designed excuses to not use full power.
If Ressurection 'F' did one thing right it was skipping those forms and making Frieza go right into his 4th form.

[ABED]

I don't think he is that bad. I personally liked it. And overall all forms of Buu were better to me than 2nd form Cell and 3rd form of Frieza. Both in design and relevance.

How were the intermediate forms of Buu more relevant than Cell's 2nd form?

Maybe not more than Cell, but more than Frieza's 2nd and 3rd forms that were just stupid and awfully designed excuses to not use full power.
If Ressurection 'F' did one thing right it was skipping those forms and making Frieza go right into his 4th form.

I loved Freeza's 2nd form. It's creepy and menacing and some really brutal moments happen when he uses it. It also lasts a bearable amount of time. I'll give you the third form, but at least it lasts only an episode. Of course Freeza's going to skip those forms in his later appearances.

Buu however lasts way too long in every single form. I'm not sure what you mean by relevant, but most of his forms feel like a complete waste of time. His transformations don't make much sense, either.

[DBZAOTA482]

There's way more similarities between Cell and Boo than there is between Freeza and Cell.

In terms of personality, Cell is more or less Freeza without the faux politeness that makes Freeza interesting. Cell and Buu are very different in terms of personality until Buu absorbs Piccolo and Gotenks.

The faux politeness is like the only similar personality trait Freeza and Cell share but that's different as Freeza was more condescending while Cell seemed genuinely polite unless he was pushed.

They're very different ability and backstory-wise while Boo's abilities and backstory are repeats of the androids and Cell in many ways (if you pay casual attention to the details).

[MasenkoHA]

Boo's abilities and backstory are repeats of the androids ).

In that not at all sort of way

[Majin Buu]

The faux politeness is like the only similar personality trait Freeza and Cell share but that's different as Freeza was more condescending while Cell seemed genuinely polite unless he was pushed.

In that case they're both faux affably evil, another similarity.

In addition to them both being dignified types that are very arrogant and boastful about their power and resort to sore loser tactics when they're outmatched.

They're very different ability and backstory-wise while Boo's abilities and backstory are repeats of the androids and Cell in many ways (if you pay casual attention to the details).

In terms of personality though, which was my point from the start, Freeza and Cell are more similar to each other than either are to Buu.

[DBZAOTA482]

The faux politeness is like the only similar personality trait Freeza and Cell share but that's different as Freeza was more condescending while Cell seemed genuinely polite unless he was pushed.

In that case they're both faux affably evil, another similarity.

In addition to them both being dignified types that are very arrogant and boastful about their power and resort to sore loser tactics when they're outmatched.

So Freeza is also a watered-down Vegeta when he was a villain?

[Majin Buu]

So Freeza is also a watered-down Vegeta when he was a villain?

Not really, because Freeza's core character trait was different enough to make him feel distinct from Saiyan arc Vegeta in spite of any similarities he shared with that version of Vegeta. Cell in contrast doesn't have much in the way of a distinct core character trait to mitigate the fact that most of his core personality overlaps with Freeza's, so he feels more like a watered-down version of Freeza than Freeza ever did compared to Saiyan arc Vegeta.

[ABED]

I think Freeza's fundamentally someone who enjoys dominating people and the benefits that come with it. He loves to rule. Cell is more like Vegeta than Freeza. He wants ultimate power and wants to test it against others to show how much of a better fighter he is. Freeza doesn't seem to care as much about the fighting aspect.

[Majin Buu]

Cell is more like Vegeta than Freeza. He wants ultimate power and wants to test it against others to show how much of a better fighter he is. Freeza doesn't seem to care as much about the fighting aspect.

Yes, Freeza doesn't care so much about fighting, but he does get off on being the most powerful person around and does seek some kind of ultimate power. Broadly speaking, these are traits most Dragon Ball villains have in some form. For Freeza, the ultimate power he seeks is immortality. For Cell, ultimate power simply means becoming the strongest (in this case by absorbing the 2 androids). When you break it down, they both want the same thing: To be the biggest, baddest, most powerful person around with nothing or no one to stop them.

[ABED]

The immortality is a means to an end. I think his endgame is just to rule over people. Yes, he and Cell have similar, but not the same specific goals. Cell loves winning fights. Freeza likes hurting people and living in luxury.

[Majin Buu]

Cell loves winning fights. Freeza likes hurting people and living in luxury.

They both like hurting people.

[ABED]

Cell loves winning fights. Freeza likes hurting people and living in luxury.

They both like hurting people.

The details are important. Freeza likes being the emperor. Cell doesn't give a shit about those sorts of things, he likes getting stronger and being stronger than others. He likes to fight as long as he ultimately wins. Freeza could do without ever throwing a punch.

[DBZAOTA482]

Cell loves winning fights. Freeza likes hurting people and living in luxury.

They both like hurting people.

The details are important. Freeza likes being the emperor. Cell doesn't give a shit about those sorts of things, he likes getting stronger and being stronger than others. He likes to fight as long as he ultimately wins. Freeza could do without ever throwing a punch.

Cell does enjoy hurting others but in a way that's worse than Freeza because he prefers to psychologically torture his victims while Freeza is more physical.

[Majin Buu]

The details are important. Freeza likes being the emperor. Cell doesn't give a shit about those sorts of things, he likes getting stronger and being stronger than others. He likes to fight as long as he ultimately wins. Freeza could do without ever throwing a punch.

Yes, the two are not 100% the same, I haven't been saying that they are.

[ABED]

The details are important. Freeza likes being the emperor. Cell doesn't give a shit about those sorts of things, he likes getting stronger and being stronger than others. He likes to fight as long as he ultimately wins. Freeza could do without ever throwing a punch.

Yes, the two are not 100% the same, I haven't been saying that they are.

I'm saying he doesn't overlap with Freeza much beyond being a villain. Their goals aren't the same.