ABED wrote:
That wasn't the intention. It's part of it, but I also see a lot of talk about lore and world building (or lack thereof) and I want to know what people are looking for this deep into the story. The reason I made this its own thing is because the previous thread was called "non-thread worthy discussions". This is a topic that can carry its own thread.
Because lore makes a story interesting.
It is primarily a power up, but God ki did act as something of a nutrient to Goku. His base form was much stronger even after his SSJ God form went away. And to the best of my knowledge, ki as a concept is culturally understood in Asian countries like Japan and China, so there would probably be no need on the part of the writers to expand on what it does and what it is. And I believe they did explain what Ki is when Gohan teaches Videl how to fly. When you say they could push it beyond strength enhancement and ki blasts (you're forgetting about flight), give me an example of something else it could do.
For Ki, I'm just spitballing ideas that pertain to fighting there could be more uses for it outside of battle that influences the story. In other series such as Hunter x Hunter Nen (which is a Ki like energy) can be used to reinforce objects, perform exorcisms, reduce aging, and interacts with the world in unique ways. Either way, regular Ki and God Ki are both extremely simple to a fault, especially in regards to God Ki. It doesn't have to be as fleshed out as Togashi's Nen system, but some attention to detail would help bring out its applicability beyond strength enhancement, Ki blast, and training montages. In My Hero Academia, Quirks which are superhuman abilities that people are born with are incorporated into everyday society. Those are some examples, I'm not a writer nor am I too invested in this subject to actually brainstorm or find some other examples. I can just recognize Ki as a concept is not being fully utilized and has tons of potential; likewise, DB may have started a lot of tropes or cliches, but it hasn't gone beyond that initial stage. Whereas, other series have taken those tropes or ideas have either expanded upon them or subverted them.
As I said, they would just be new places and variations on a theme. Visually they could be somewhat more interesting, but how much more importance could they have to the story beyond another setting for the story?
Ok, new locations bring new characters, new characters could bring new story opportunities, new story opportunities could bring new abilities, new abilities could bring more creativity in fights. As you see, it's a domino effect, and the DB universe is multiversal in scope the fact that most of the story is still tied to one small location is laughable.
You bring up characters and then suggest the examples of new characters (how is that world building?) don't count for odd reasons. Is this a failure of story and characterization or of worldbuilding? What are you looking for with the gods - backstory? How is that more important than characterization?
Gods of Destruction are characters but also worldbuilding. Ultra Instinct is an ability but also worldbuilding, what I'm looking for is a well-written story and for these concepts to applied in innovative or useful ways. If the story can't do that, then it's a failure in worldbuilding, story, and characterization.
God Ki, universes, gods of destruction, multiverse, the Omni King. You may not like the execution, but those things are there.
Is that a joke? God Ki isn't unique it's the same as regular Ki; universes aren't unique, the multiverse isn't unique, none of those concepts are the least bit unique. Having Gods acting as judge, jury, and executioner as well as multiverses predate DB by a significant amount of time; maybe they were unusual to DB when they introduced them six years ago, except for the Omni King. However, these concepts have been incorporated into DB with baseline effort at best. Aside from the awareness that these concepts are now in DB, they have done little to change or affect the characters or story differently or interestingly. All we've seen has either happened in a previous arc in DB or movie that was presented or — written in a much better way.
All probably true, but also far more important than world-building. Honestly, I think the problems you attribute to Super's world-building are the result of poor execution (not a lack of quantity) and the sheer size of DB's story. There's so much well trodden ground, most of what comes after feels like mere variations on a theme. For instance, we've seen tournaments before, so tournaments with participants coming from different universes doesn't feel groundbreaking. In GT, searching for the DB's over a galaxy instead of just one planet is not fundamentally different.
No not even close that is your opinion, as many professional writers believe worldbuilding is essential to a story, and hold it to high esteem. And their position carries a lot more weight than whatever criticisms you have to say against it, no offense. But it also doesn't help that you're judging future or prior works on one book series, so mostly a whole genre of titles on example.
And as I've said before, there're applications of worldbuilding from in-universe and out of universe perspective. So, Goku learning and using Kaiōken from a martial arts teacher he meets in the other world would be an application from an in-universe perspective. In the same manner, Trunks coming from the past to seek help and warn the Z-fighters about their impending deaths to set up a much darker story tone or show a visual motif is an out of universe one. Some stories use those applications better than others. Also, regardless of what DB has previously done nothing about Super was groundbreaking. Tournaments irrespective of where it's participants came from is not groundbreaking.