What is the general consensus of the "Moro saga"?

[foxfang4]

No spoilers of course. I was wondering what people thought of "Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga". For a long time, I had little interest in reading it. But, recently, I gave it a shot out of curiosity. Early on, I felt it had potential and seemed to be taking the franchise in a new direction. I really wanted to like it...

But, overall, I thought it was absolutely awful and "stock". I can't believe that Toriyama would have written something like this. In fact, it really feels like a committee wrote this and stapled Toriyama's name onto it. The villain, Moro, is maybe the most cliched, uninspired and uninteresting villain in the franchise's history. The story is so formulaic, with nostalgic pandering for the sake of it. Moreover, it has the laziest / most poorly written contrivances I've ever seen in Dragon Ball [this is counting the Tournament of Power]. At first, I was hoping that this would be an excellent sequel to Broly. But, now, I'm actually glad that this was never released in anime form.

What are your thoughts on it overall?

[Matches Malone]

From the start until Goku and Vegeta go to train is great. Everything after until Goku returns to earth is overall decent, but slow. The final part starting with Omen Goku's fight with Moro until his (seemingly) defeat is also good, except a certain thing Goku does that's without question the worst thing ever written in the franchise for him. Overall I believe it's taking the franchise in the right direction, and I'm excited to see what's next.

[Vijay]

I never believed in the general consensus tbh

Lots of ppl dislike Buu Arc, Broly trilogy, Super 17 Arc, Gotenks but I enjoyed them. Like wise ppl also somewhat love Baby Arc, Omega Shenron, Zamasu Arc, Beerus, Whis, etc...but personally dislike all of em. It's ultimately personal preference

On topic, thought this Arc had fantastic start, buildup to Goku/Veggie vs Moro/his minions

It became monotonous the moment he became Perfect Cell wannabe...and the finish was DBS for ya

[precita]

Most people don't know it exists, so there never will be a consensus until it gets an anime adaption.

Most people don't read the Super manga, certainly not casual fans who never visit a Dragonball forum.

[Chuquita]

I had high hopes at the start (Galactic Patrol! Outerspace! Buu!) and it slowly went downhill from when they introduced Moro (not a fan of his character designs or personality) to really downhill once the retreading ground stuff began

Spoiler:

(Planet Namek again!? All those parts ripped from the Cell and Buu arcs not to mention King Piccolo arc and the Z movies. Also that borrowed Naruto move with the giant ki Goku that I would've been impressed by if I hadn't learned it wasn't Toyotaro's original idea)

I wanted a fun, reality warping magic villain in a Dr. Slump but threatening kind of way and didn't get anything even resembling that until the

Spoiler:

strange Moro Mountain at the end.

Moro the character disappointed me on multiple fronts.

Not taking advantage of the entertaining chemistry Goku and Vegeta are capable of having was also something that left me dissatisfied. They played it way too straight.

This one arc did not need to last 2 years. I wish I knew what happened behind the scenes. Was Toyotaro forced to stall for time due to whatever put the return of the anime on hold? Why the early pivot from taking risks into nostalgia/recycling Z?

Why did they waste the potential of the fun sci-fi imagery from the covers to volumes 10, 11, and 14? Leaning into that could've been fresh and exciting.

As negative as I got with other DBS arcs it was never bad enough for me to cut myself off from posting here as I worried I was contributing more depressing thoughts than positive ones. I lurked a long time waiting for this arc to end. I'm happy it's finally over and I'm cautiously optimistic about the next arc whatever it may be.

[DestructoDisc]

I thought it was fun. Cool fights, I just wish Moro had more character to him and that the final battle wasn't so dragged out, but most DBZ sagas have this problem, so like, whatever. I also wish it was a little more comedic, I don't remember ever laughing at anything in this saga. I know Toyo intended the 3 girls fusing into a fat chick to be "funny" but it was more disgusting than anything. It's such outdated, childish, stupid humor that I couldn't help but facepalm myself.

[precita]

I'm hoping the anime salvages this arc. Keep the better parts, get rid of everything else.

[Melee_Sovereign]

I stopped reading once Moro got his generic seven-three form.

I'm sure I'll get back into it at some point, but I'm a huge critic of visual design and god I hate that form! Other than that, I liked it up until that point. Its not a perfect arc, but Moro is a solid villain. I also think Vegeta's spirit control training is interesting.

If this gets adapted into an anime, if nothing else, I just hope they don't reuse that seven-three form. I don't even get the reason why Moro can change form. He's not Cell and he's not Buu. Cell is specifically designed to transform (not to mention he has Frieza's DNA), and Buu transforms by his very nature. Its a core power-set of his. Why can Moro physically change form? It doesn't make sense, naratively speaking. He can just absorb Seven-Three's powers without changing in physical appearance.

[Psajdak]

Second best arc in Super era.

[VegettoEX]

Couple reminders:

(1) We have a "Dragon Ball Super"-specific sub-forum that this would be great for, and could probably even fit into one of several already-ongoing threads.

(2) There is no such thing as a general consensus; everyone likes different things for different reasons, and it's so great to get all of these differing perspectives through traditional conversation formats like forums!