How would you have handled GT?

[ABED]

Wait, in this hypothetical example, the Evil Dragons are released because Pan wants to resurrect a brand new character? It's not a bad idea but I don't think it carries as much weight, and I'm over the idea of one overarching villain for an entire series.

I honestly like what we got. Build a sense of foreboding and bring back a character we care about.

Narrowing the focus of the story on a handful of main characters works well, and in my estimation works best. I get that DB has a great cast of characters and we want to see them get used better but I'm not the biggest fan of splitting up the cast like this. Narrow the focus and develop the core characters.

[WittyUsername]

Goku regaining his adult body after unlocking SS4. 3 arcs with Chibi Goku were too much for me.

Way shorter search for the db arc. The bonpara Brothers, yikes.


I would make the rest of the squad useful against Super 17. Why couldn't adult Gotenks be a thing? Or Vegeta cheat his way into SS4 during that time?

Against the Shadow Dragons DEFINITELY NOT have Goku and Pan deal with 6 of them. Why couldn't Vegeta defeat the ice one? Or the sun one? Include Gohan, Uub, Gotenks. Where were they?????

Better fights. I never liked how ohzaru Baby and SS4 played out.
I would make Goku less stupid vs Super 17.

The reason for the lack of an adult Gotenks is simple. The character designers most likely couldn’t figure out what he was supposed to look like, especially since Goten’s hair style was different at that point. There was a similar problem with Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta, since they opted to just more or less make him a palette swapped Super Saiyan 4 Goku.

[Matches Malone]

Search for the Black star DB arc:

Spoiler:

Obviously, I wouldn't have turned Goku into a kid, instead Pilaf's wish would've been wishing for a kingdom or something.

I'd keep the space adventures, but turn each DB hunt into a mini arc.

Instead of just 3 characters going after the DBs, it'd be the entire cast splitting up in space.

Goku,Pan&Uub / Gohan&Piccolo / Trunks&Bulla / Goten,Satan&Buu / Tien,Yamcha&Krillin / Androids 17 and 18 / Vegeta.

The length and difficulty of getting each DB depends on the team going after it, With Goku's seemingly being the hardest.

Pan would actually be useful, going as far as to show hints of her Ssj potential, but not reaching it here.

Trunks is now closer to his future counterpart in terms of power and fighting competence due to his training with Vegeta. Both he and Goten can now use Ssj2.

We'd get to see every story play out except Vegeta's.

Vegeta is the last one to return to earth, despite calculations stating he should've been the 3rd or 4th.

His ship door opens, but it's empty, with just the DB being there.

Bulma sends 2 teams to where he was, but they only find a planet that's on the verge of destruction, evidence of a massive battle taking place there. The arc ends with no one knowing what happened, or if Vegeta's alive.

The Baby arc part 1:

Spoiler:

After failing to find Vegeta on earth, everyone decides to ask Shenron what happened to him.

Once they collected the balls, they find out they're cracked, which shocks everyone. Goku decides it may be best to hold off on summoning the Dragon, as they don't need any more trouble to deal with.

Goku then asks King Kai if he knows what happened, but that fails too, as he wasn't keeping up with their little adventures due to him believing they wouldn't run into anyone major in space.

A few days later, a visitor from space shows up, identifying himself as Baby, a Tsufruian.

He informs them that he followed Vegeta's ship there, coming to the conclusion that he lived on the planet.

He states that they're in his debt, as he killed the tyrant Vegeta and saved their planet from enslavement.

Trunks loses it and attacks him, but with no results. Goten tries to help him but is taken out just as easily.

Gohan powers into his mystic form and manages to push him back, but as the fight drags on, Baby gets the upper hand and eventually takes him out.

Baby states that had he knew there were other Saiyans on the planet he would've planned an attack, but Goku tells him he's a Saiyan as well. Goku tries to reason with him, saying that the current Saiyans and Vegeta aren't tyrants, and that those Saiyans were killed years ago by Freeza.

Baby informs him of his past, stating that King Vegeta and his young son wiped out his people after decades of enslavement, vowing to not allow any Saiyan to live due to the risk they pose to the universe.

Goku powers up into Ssj3, but Baby isn't phased one bit, stating that Vegeta took on the same form and got himself killed.

In a flashback, we see a Ssj2 Vegeta struggling against Baby, before overpowering him after going Ssj3. As the fight goes on, Baby is forced to power up and gets the upper hand again.

As Vegeta realizes he may not survive, he throws the DB into his ship and sends it back to earth. Vegeta charges a final flash while Baby charges his own attack, revenge death ball. A massive explosion occurs and Vegeta is nowhere to be seen.

Back to the present, Goku and Baby go all out, and Baby states that despite being a bit weaker than Gohan, he's more skilled.

Despite his best efforts, he does no better than Vegeta and is completely defeated.

Gohan tells Goku to escape via instant transmission and figure out a way to beat him, which Goku refuses.

The humans beg Baby to see reason, but this only angers him, as he can't believe anyone would defend the likes of the Saiyans. He then decided that he himself will enslave them and their planet, so that they can experience what he lived through.

Tien, Yamcha, and Krillin arrive, with Goku and the others getting back up. Goten and Trunks fuse and everyone attacks him at once, but Baby manages to take them all down. Gohan tells Goku it's now or never, and that escaping will only be temporary. Goku hates the idea but agrees to it anyway. He tries to take someone with him but Baby is already pointing a massive blast at him, forcing him to leave alone.

Baby then captures the Z fighters with his technology that can break the link of their mind and Ki, resulting in them being as weak as average humans.

The Baby arc part 2:

Spoiler:

Goku arrives on King Kai's planet, asking him for any advice on how to get stronger, he unfortunately doesn't have an answer for him.

Back on earth, Tien asks Baby why he's holding them instead of just finishing them off. He says it's simple, if Goku's loved ones are killed, he may never return to earth.

Buu and Uub are on Kami's lookout, both being forbidden from getting involved earlier by Dene until they can be sure to get positive results.

They ask him where Piccolo is, but Dende isn't sure.

We then skip back to King Kai's world, who tells Goku there's only one person who might be able to make him stronger, an angle.

Far out in space, we see that Piccolo has traveled to planet Namek, as he sensed trouble was on the way once Vegeta never returned.

Piccolo demands to get stronger at once, but Moori tells him that at his current level, fusing with more Namakians won't result in much of a boost.

Back on Kami's lookout, Mr. Popo tells Uub about who he really is, the reincarnation of the evil side of Buu.

Dende and Mr. Popo decide to train both of them on how to perfectly work together, as they can only reach their full potential by becoming one in combat.

On namek, Piccolo is informed of the situation on earth, which makes him very impatient with Moori and the other elders.

As he insists on getting stronger, Moori tells him there's only one method that would work now, studying one of the most complex books in the galaxy, the Namakian book of legends

King Kai manages to get in contact with the angle, who arrives on his planet shortly after. King Kai informs him of Goku's many accomplishments, such as taking down Buu and Freeza. He assures him that he's a worthy student.

The angle agrees to train him, but on one condition, he must give him the best food available once he takes down Baby, to which Goku agrees. The angle introduces himself as Whis, and both take off to another planet to train.

If it seems like I'm making this up as I go along, that's because I am.

[JulieYBM]

Character designers' job is to create a design. Animation not based on comics do exist, after all. Original characters need to be made. Not designing and adult Gotenks and a different Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta is not Nakatsuru's fault, especially since he's the original designer of Digimon Adventure, which aired just two years later.

[Lord Beerus]

Have Oob, Pan and Bra as the central characters with Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Goten and Trunks serving as supporting characters.

[UpFromTheSkies]

Even if you’re someone who considers thinks that making a sequel series was completely unnecessary, what direction would you say it should’ve gone in?

I'm not sure if they did this and Toriyama declined, but I would have asked him if he could write a basic story outline. I would have also put more focus on Uub. I felt like his character was really built up to be something special at the end of Z, so I was expecting a lot more from him than what Toei ended up doing with his character. I would have also made a second Goku Jr special and had the series go off into Goku Jr's story after Goku defeated the dragons.

[WittyUsername]

Even if you’re someone who considers thinks that making a sequel series was completely unnecessary, what direction would you say it should’ve gone in?

I'm not sure if they did this and Toriyama declined, but I would have asked him if he could write a basic story outline. I would have also put more focus on Uub. I felt like his character was really built up to be something special at the end of Z, so I was expecting a lot more from him than what Toei ended up doing with his character. I would have also made a second Goku Jr special and had the series go off into Goku Jr's story after Goku defeated the dragons.

He apparently declined Toei’s offer to work on a new Dragon Ball series back in 2008, which was how we ended up with Kai, so I’d imagine that Toriyama probably had no interest in coming up with a story outline for a new Dragon Ball series so soon after he finished the manga’s 11 year run.

[GreatSaiyaJeff]

I would have kept the first two arcs roughly the same. Except the wish of Porunga made Goku his normal size again.

Super 17 I would do a hard rewrite, I am not sure how I wuld do that but I would beef up Uub's role as he would give 17 more of a fight.

As for the Shadow Dragons i would do a few one on one's since we had Seven dragons against the seven heroes. Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Uub, Trunks, Goten and Pan.

[MyVisionity]

The Evil Dragon arc is rewritten into a turning point for the series. At the end of the arc Shen Long as we knew him is gone. Maybe he's replaced by seven individual dragons. Maybe he becomes human. Maybe he trains in the martial arts. Or maybe he's reborn as a baby and the gang has to protect him.

[JulieYBM]

Oh, another thing: shorter arcs. The Baby arc is 18 episodes when it could easily just be a more effective nine episodes. The Evil Dragons arc is about sixteen episodes but not really well used. I'd engage other characters and keep Gokuu to a minimum to really diversify the arc a bit. Really, it depends a lot on how faithful to the original one has to be.

[Matches Malone]

I'm not sure if they did this and Toriyama declined, but I would have asked him if he could write a basic story outline.

The issues wasn't Toriyama's lack of involvement as much as the writers' lack of time to plan things and figure out what worked.

[ABED]

I like the idea of Piccolo giving his life and going to Hell to keep bad guys in line. It feels like a fitting end for him. That said, his death doesn't have the impact it should because he's barely in the series.

[sunsetshimmer]

I would have kept the first two arcs roughly the same. Except the wish of Porunga made Goku his normal size again.

If Porunga could do that they would've done that in series already.

[WittyUsername]

I would’ve just permanently kept Goku as an adult after he became Super Saiyan 4.

[Matches Malone]

I would’ve just permanently kept Goku as an adult after he became Super Saiyan 4.

That was by far the biggest opportunity they missed. They made some brave decisions, but my god did they make some terrible ones as well.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I also found the writing of certain scenes in some episodes to be really badly executed at times, for instance in the tournament episode where Goku literally gets goose tickled out of the ring by some whiny cry baby kid who doesn't look like he should even be there (seriously, Goku could've just as likely flicked him and he'd go down) is such a pathetic way to have Goku lose. They should have at the very least had him matched against a more worthy opponent that would actually be good, instead of something so stupid that it even drives Vegeta up the wall in absolute stunned embarrassment which i'll admit is a pretty funny moment despite the preceding bit above being not so much.

[ABED]

I also found the writing of certain scenes in some episodes to be really badly executed at times, for instance in the tournament episode where Goku literally gets goose tickled out of the ring by some whiny cry baby kid who doesn't look like he should even be there (seriously, Goku could've just as likely flicked him and he'd go down) is such a pathetic way to have Goku lose. They should have at the very least had him matched against a more worthy opponent that would actually be good, instead of something so stupid that it even drives Vegeta up the wall in absolute stunned embarrassment which i'll admit is a pretty funny moment despite the preceding bit above being not so much.

But there's no point in him fighting in the tournament. There's no grand purpose beyond Goku amusing himself. The fights by that time were so pathetically dull and Goku outmatched everyone that none of it mattered. So he could beat the kid easily but I don't see why there's an issue here. It's not pathetic for him to lose like that just like there's no grand victory. It's not like Goku was taking it seriously.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I also found the writing of certain scenes in some episodes to be really badly executed at times, for instance in the tournament episode where Goku literally gets goose tickled out of the ring by some whiny cry baby kid who doesn't look like he should even be there (seriously, Goku could've just as likely flicked him and he'd go down) is such a pathetic way to have Goku lose. They should have at the very least had him matched against a more worthy opponent that would actually be good, instead of something so stupid that it even drives Vegeta up the wall in absolute stunned embarrassment which i'll admit is a pretty funny moment despite the preceding bit above being not so much.

But there's no point in him fighting in the tournament. There's no grand purpose beyond Goku amusing himself. The fights by that time were so pathetically dull and Goku outmatched everyone that none of it mattered. So he could beat the kid easily but I don't see why there's an issue here. It's not pathetic for him to lose like that just like there's no grand victory. It's not like Goku was taking it seriously.

Ok, well thinking about it now i suppose him losing like that in general just upset me more than it should for some reason. But yeah, that tournament there in GT is quite removed from the Budokai's height during the original DB series which had far more formidable competitors.

Even still, it doesn't really faze Goku much because he just laughs it off in a "Well, that's how the cookie crumbles." sort of fashion though of course Vegeta being Vegeta takes it a lot more personally.

[Koitsukai]

The TB was a nice opportunity to give the rest of the cast some spotlight. Maybe Vegeta vs Uub, Goten vs Trunks the rematch, Gohan vs Pan? I don't know. Considering they weren't giving them any real thing to do later on, they could've used that to do some non-Goku Time stuff for a while. I tend to skip or do other stuff when that tournament occurs. Papayaman, damn. Well, Great Saiyaman vs Papayaman would've been funny.

Also, why not have Goku fight with the adults? fuck that rule. Goku vs Uub fighting again... I don't know, I feel they could've given us the promising tournament the Buu arc didn't.

[GreatSaiyaJeff]

I would have kept the first two arcs roughly the same. Except the wish of Porunga made Goku his normal size again.

If Porunga could do that they would've done that in series already.

They side stepped it by saying it would put a strain on his body. Or something close to that. I think they just said that so they had an excuse to keep him a kid.