Tension ≠ Consequences

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LoganForkHands73
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Tension ≠ Consequences

Post by LoganForkHands73 » Mon Apr 26, 2021 7:18 pm

So this has been a long time coming. It doesn't help that I somehow lost a whole draft of it not too long ago, but hopefully this massive essay will be in a legible condition for the fine folks of Kanzenshuu.

The Dragon Ball revival since 2013 has been controversial for a litany of reasons. A small but vocal subset of fans dislike the fact that almost every piece of narrative media since Battle of Gods has taken place in the five year interim between Pure Buu's demise at the hands of the Earthling Genki-dama and the emergence of that Buu's human reincarnation, Uub, at the 28th Tenkaichi Budokai. Naturally, this makes Super an interquel, taking place within the timeframe of the original manga's story, a sharp contrast to the earlier Dragon Ball GT which takes place five years after Uub's introduction (and promptly ditches him for most of the story).

Super's place in the timeline presents a problem fairly typical of all interquels and prequels, namely the fact that we know fullwell that Goku and the gang will make it to the 28th Budokai alive and well to meet Uub. That's how the original manga ends, so Super's direction is invariably driving towards that point -- whether or not it will ultimately surpass it is still on the cards. This leads to a fairly common criticism that Super fundamentally "lacks tension and consequences" due to the characters' fates being a foregone conclusion.

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In this thread, I want to challenge that assertion, looking at the franchise's historic genre conventions, Super's track record and why tension and consequences are not necessarily equivocal.

Topics about Dragon Ball's genre can get... heated, to say the least. I'm not here to weigh in on Dragon Ball's wuxia/xuanhuan/jidaigeki inspirations, not directly anyway, but rather cover the ingrained conventions everyone unconsciously expects from all genre-heavy media in general. In terms of Dragon Ball, it's factually an ongoing fantasy/comedy/martial arts story serialised in magazines for the shōnen (i.e. young boys) demographic, formerly Shōnen Jump and now V-Jump. It has a large cast of quirky, likeable characters and for as violent as it can often be, it has a generally lighthearted tone owing to Toriyama's gag manga roots. Right, fairly obvious stuff.

Dragon Ball, like most franchisable "genre" media, follows formulas and narrative beats that experienced readers can predict with relative ease. At this point, we're all conditioned to expect every arc to have exciting high-flying battles and powerful antagonists who are climactically defeated after a long, twisty series of back-and-forths. And we know with some degree of certainty that our main characters will make it out alive. It's just a question of how. This is especially true of Dragon Ball, as the titular wish-granting orbs render any death (which there are many) an easy fix. Especially as the original manga was getting to its last legs, both named characters and unnamed civilians started dying so often that the heroes themselves started to become somewhat detached from the consequences of death. Of the entire main cast, how many characters have died and actually stayed dead? Android #16 is a memorable example, but he was important for roughly two arcs, died and never got resurrected for unclear reasons which is really discriminatory against gingers robots if you ask me. Almost every other protagonist and supporting cast member worth talking about has always been a wish away from a return trip to this fleshy existential hell after death.

BUT WAIT, I hear you cry, didn't our protagonist Son Goku die twice?

Well, in the first instance, he died and was resurrected in the space of one arc. Even then, we still followed him prominently in the afterlife as he crossed the Serpent Road to train under North Kaiō. The latter was framed as a permanent, status-quo-breaking, torch-passing situation and indeed lasted for seven years in-universe, but out-of-universe, Goku only stayed out of the picture between Chapters 413 and 426, a measly four months, before getting temporarily revived in #430 and then getting fully resurrected in #500. So even in this instance, Goku doesn't stay out of the picture for very long at all.

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That all said, Dragon Ball's overall structural predictability doesn't make it wholly predictable in every sense. Quite the opposite. Although the term "subverting expectations" is looked down upon these days, Toriyama truly was a master of misdirection, particularly in regards to maintaining the moment-to-moment tension of fights. Every blind-siding twist, every unlikely saviour, every surprising gag. In the original manga alone, who could've anticipated Oolong saving the world from Pilaf by wishing for panties, Jackie Chun destroying the Moon, Goku sparing Piccolo Jr., Yajirobe slicing Vegeta's tail off, a lavender-haired teenager turning Super Saiyan to defeat Freeza and Cold, Majin Buu absorbing Gotenks and Piccolo to turn the tides against Gohan's potential-unlocked form, etc etc etc. Toriyama has always managed to surprise readers in spite of the foregone conclusions that our protagonists will survive somehow.

I feel that Dragon Ball fans have increasingly and erroneously conflated the idea of narrative tension and stakes exclusively with character-death. In reality, character-death is FAR from the only way to elucidate suspense. In some ways, it's understandable -- Dragon Ball escalation of the characters' power and the often genocidal intentions of the primary antagonists naturally starts to push the boundaries outside of lighthearted tournament settings and into intergalactic battles for the continued survival of the universe. But even when the series has reached these unfathomable stakes, the question of who's gonna die next isn't always the most important concern. In a series where death is literally a slap on the wrist, how can it be?

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Martial arts has been the overriding focus of the series since the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai. As readers, we get sucked into the characters' motivations and concerns, namely the sportsmanlike competition of combat. The many tournament battles are among the very best the series has to offer even without the threat of death or global detonation, because we're more concerned about the uncertain events of the immediate conflict: who's gonna win, and how? Goku or Jackie Chun? Kuririn or Chaozu? Tenshinhan or Taopaipai? Long-term consequences, the fate of the universe, the inevitability of Uub, fuck all that, none of that matters nearly as much as our base, primal need to see whether Invested Character A defeats Invested Character B and who achieves their goal. Best of all, the protagonists don't always win. This ties into the franchise's core philosophy of self-improvement through conflict. It's all fairly simple stuff but I feel that much of the mainstream fandom dialogue has lost sight of these basic tenets.

Dragon Ball is regarded as timeless for a reason. It manages to be supremely fun, enjoyable and suspenseful even when we've read or watched or played the story hundreds of times, enough to recall it all by heart. It's the same as any well-regarded story. Show of hands, how many of you have seen the original Star Wars more than once? You know exactly what's gonna happen, you know Luke's gonna blow up the Death Star, but doesn't the trench run scene still get you on the edge of your seat every single time? Don't you get the same tingle when watching Kuririn throw the Genki-dama at Vegeta and Gohan barely manage to rebound it back after he dodges it? When seeing Goku barely intercept Ginyu's Body Change technique against Vegeta by hurling that frog in its path? And yes, when seeing Goku and Freeza barely manage to ring-out Jiren after a hard-fought battle? That's real tension at work.

Arcs in Dragon Ball often lead into each other, so there are often consequences to the events in each one, but a sense of stable status quo is usually regained at some point. It may take longer to get there than usual as with the Saiyan-Freeza arcs, some new characters may replace older ones and have a greater impact later, etc. Goku's second death does have fairly large consequences for the setting as the characters grow and change in a peaceful world without his presence. But, especially in the manga, the peaceful interludes are almost never seen in much detail or scrutiny.

Now, finally, let's look at Dragon Ball Super's track record with tension, stakes, consequences, all that.

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Super initially sets out to be a more lighthearted affair than the non-stop gory slugfests of the later Z era arcs. We have a fluffy introduction to our divinely eccentric new supporting characters Beerus and Whis, a no-consequence fanservice arc where Freeza returns for no particular reason (that may or may not even be included depended on the medium) and a low-stakes tournament arc involving new warriors from Universe 6. Let's focus on the latter example, which is often brought up as a searing indictment against Dragon Ball Super's supposed lack of stakes.

The Universe 6 arc isn't especially groundbreaking or mindblowing. Structurally, it's an obvious throwback to tournament arcs of early Dragon Ball, except now with Super Saiyan God transformations and parallel universes. It's not intended to be anything more than lighthearted fluff. But despite that, I think this Super arc is in many ways among the best at recapturing Toriyama's offbeat, expectation-shattering style and maintaining a sense of tension without the threat of universes combusting. The only potential negative consequence of defeat is that Universe 7's Earth might get moved into Universe 6 if Team U7 lose. That's it. But sometimes that's enough.

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This arc has all the twists and turns you'd want from a great Dragon Ball tournament arc. Deceptively powerful foes, gag fights, serious fights, gratuitous rule-bending, the heroes generally screwing up at many points. And ultimately, Goku doesn't defeat Hit in favour of conscientiously objecting to Beerus and Champa's petty squabbling and eliminating himself. Who could've seen that coming? This leads to the brilliant character moment of Hit reciprocating Goku's honour by allowing himself to be defeated by Monaka, Universe 7's unassuming Chekhov gun. Again, pure Toriyama genius. Yeah, the anime is plagued by iffy animation and the manga is stifled by Toyotaro's early awkward panelling, but that's irrelevant to the main point that this arc effortlessly grabs audience investment without any promise of serious long-term consequences.

One agreeable complaint against Super is the general lack of clear connective tissue between arcs. Arcs generally seem more segmented, though there are fairly important details that carry over from each one. The first arc obviously introduces Beerus, Whis and the Super Saiyan God transformation, the second plants the seeds for Freeza's permanent return, the third introduces Zeno and sets up Universe 7's comradery with Universe 6, etc. The one arc that does feel slightly random and closed-off is the Future Trunks arc, though it introduces Future Zeno and, in the manga, sees Goku fully master Super Saiyan Blue.

I've often seen fan proposals to improve Dragon Ball Super by introducing more extreme consequences for each arc. Some are better than others. The usual tropes include gratuitously killing characters off, having the planets and universes permanently stay erased, tonnes of #angst, and so forth. I don't agree with this approach. Reiterating the points stressed throughout this post, we don't need to see the Dragon Ball universe massively change with each arc. We definitely don't need to see the setting turn into a bleak, depressing hellhole as a result of the protagonists' bad decisions. It's just not the kind of series that permanently punishes the heroes like that. What would be better is seeing more defined character growth and expansion of horizons, not the destruction of those only just introduced.

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To conclude, I ask this: would all of the series' issues be magically fixed if the timeframe shifts to after the "End of Z" era? Well, perhaps we may see some interesting new possibilities past that point and I agree it's high time for this shift to occur. However, it's unlikely much will truly change if that ever happens. Big fights will still happen, laughs will be had, Goku will get his fill of paneltime, bad guys will still get defeated. The certainty of these outcomes won't become any more doubtful. What will be exciting is, as always, the possibility of new adventures, new characters, new battles, perhaps now with Uub as Goku's apprentice.

Thanks for reading.

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Re: Tension ≠ Consequences

Post by Skar » Mon Apr 26, 2021 10:03 pm

Interesting topic! I think it comes down to expectations. This isn't really criticism of DBS since I believe the point of making it a midquel was to have extra stories without changing the status quo too much since it's supposed to lead into EoZ (or Peaceful World arc which is what it was called in the 30th anniversary timeline). Goku and Vegeta are training to learning new techniques and transformations. Other Z fighters have had some development but we have an idea where the characters are by the end so I think it's temporary in order to give them something to do. For example, Krillin came out of retirement and shaved his head but we know he has gray hair by EoZ so he likely retires again.

All the existing characters are going to be fine by the end but I still believe there have been stakes and tension since we don't know what happens to the new characters. When I watched BoG, I wasn't expecting Beerus to destroy the Earth because Earth was already been destroyed and wished back in the Buu saga. I was interested in seeing what happens to Beerus. Does Goku have to kill or beat him in order to stop him? It was still a surprise that Goku technically lost but Beerus decided to spare the Earth.

The Champa saga had a relatively low stakes tournament. All the main characters live on Earth so the characters they would miss if Earth was moved are the Nameks and a few gods who they don't see that often. We still had some great moments like Vegeta training Cabba, Goku gaining Hit's respect, and Beerus showing a nicer side by using his victory wish to restore U6's Earth. Same with DBS Broly. Was he going to be a monster in LSSJ that they have no choice but to put him down, will he spare them like Beerus did, or will something else happen to him?

Personally I don't think there's any intention to go past EoZ. Toriyama said he felt the characters were too old by then as to why he chose this time period for BoG. The Tarble special was technically the first storyline in this revival and also took place between Buu and EoZ. Heroes borrowed elements from Online which took place hundreds of years into the future and instead has to happen around the same year as DBS. If there's any intention to go past EoZ, it raises the question of why they would have so many stories take place before. It's been almost ten years since BoG and Toriyama's reasoning for why he chose this time period still applies. I think that's fine. The original series ended decades ago and Toriyama will be 70 years old in a few years. He could always change his mind but it becomes less likely the older he gets. As much as I love DB, I rather respect the author's decision of when he wants to end it. It had a good run and we had some good stories since it returned although some better than others.

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Re: Tension ≠ Consequences

Post by PurestEvil » Tue Apr 27, 2021 3:53 am

People like to say that there is a lack of tension because the characters will just turn out fine in the end.
This is, of course, disregarding the idea that we wouldn't know HOW the characters will turn out fine.
The HOW question is the most major factor in creating tension. Like, how is Trunks gonna beat Black, or, how will U7 win the tournament.
It irks me when Super haters say that there is no tension, even though it CLEARLY builds it up in their faces. It's more like they don't care about the story IMO (although that is a valid point).
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Re: Tension ≠ Consequences

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Tue Apr 27, 2021 5:31 am

God this was so long that I had to read it as an audiobook. But I love it and I massively agree.
Marz wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 11:27 pm "Well, the chapter was good, the story was good and so were the fights. But a new transformation, in Dragon Ball? And one that's ugly? This is where we draw the line!!! Jump the Shark moment!!"

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Re: Tension ≠ Consequences

Post by MasenkoHA » Tue Apr 27, 2021 9:06 am

Dragon Ball isn’t a series known for its consequences. Quite the opposite actually, it’s kind of infamous for its abuse of “death is but a minor inconvenience”’trope. Really, in its entire original run from 1986-1997 the closest we get to “consequences” is Piccolo choosing to die and stay dead in GT so the black star balls can never be used again. And even then we still see him throughout the remainder of the series. Even if Super had been a proper sequel like GT I don’t know why anyone would expect something of major consequence to happen.

And is it not the destination but the journey? Many of us saw Z before Dragon Ball but did you really enjoy the Daimao arc less knowing Kuririn, Roshi, Chaozu, and Shen Long would be alright? I don’t think knowing somehow someway the heroes would find a way to restore Shen Long and bring back their dead friends made it any less of a “Oh shiiiiiiiit” moment when we saw Piccolo annihilate Shen Long on the spot. Did knowing Goku would only win the 23rd World Martial Arts tournament (assuming you already saw the Z episode where Roshi gets into the history of the tournaments) make those arcs any less suspenseful and engaging?

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Re: Tension ≠ Consequences

Post by Koitsukai » Tue Apr 27, 2021 11:44 am

I share the sentiment that it's the how things unfold, and not exactly what unfolds. When somebody tells you a story about how they survived a certain situation, you don't go immediately OH THAT'S BORING, YOU ARE ALIVE AND WELL, SO WHO CARES HOW YOU ESCAPED A SAWMILL FILLED WITH ZOMBIES.

I do think having Beerus and Whis standing around, in RoF for instance, throws any kind of tension out the window. That was acknowledged in the Moro arc, and they had to be removed through a staff-call before they kicked the whole arc in the nuts, because they chose to have Beerus still unreachable and around at the same time. But there are ways around this, and most of the times they choose those ways.

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Re: Tension ≠ Consequences

Post by LoganForkHands73 » Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:22 pm

Koitsukai wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 11:44 am I share the sentiment that it's the how things unfold, and not exactly what unfolds. When somebody tells you a story about how they survived a certain situation, you don't go immediately OH THAT'S BORING, YOU ARE ALIVE AND WELL, SO WHO CARES HOW YOU ESCAPED A SAWMILL FILLED WITH ZOMBIES.

I do think having Beerus and Whis standing around, in RoF for instance, throws any kind of tension out the window. That was acknowledged in the Moro arc, and they had to be removed through a staff-call before they kicked the whole arc in the nuts, because they chose to have Beerus still unreachable and around at the same time. But there are ways around this, and most of the times they choose those ways.
I agree in that instance, but ROF is such a dry lifeless movie anyway (before Beerus shows up, Freeza just sits there to have a chat with the Z-Warriors rather than, ya know, kill them) that it just felt like one of many little peppercorns that broke any suspense that could be had.

And you're bang on with that analogy with the oral tale. :lol:

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Re: Tension ≠ Consequences

Post by TheSaiyanGod » Tue Apr 27, 2021 2:39 pm

Skar wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 10:03 pm If there's any intention to go past EoZ, it raises the question of why they would have so many stories take place before.
That's a good point. Most people want DBS to reach EoZ already, but at this point it could mean the end of the series. I would like to see the series go past EoZ since DBS has created so many possibilities for new stories with the introduction of 12 universes and apparently unreachable beings for the heroes that barely seems explored so far (which could work even in a setting where most of the cast is older), but that raises doubts as to why there's so many arcs in such a small space of time in-universe if there's any intention for the series to go beyond its original end

I also think it would be a good time to change things, but considering what Toriyama has previously said about EoZ, it is uncertain whether that will happen (although there is always the possibility that he has changed his mind)

Koitsukai wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 11:44 am I do think having Beerus and Whis standing around, in RoF for instance, throws any kind of tension out the window. That was acknowledged in the Moro arc, and they had to be removed through a staff-call before they kicked the whole arc in the nuts, because they chose to have Beerus still unreachable and around at the same time. But there are ways around this, and most of the times they choose those ways.
I think that will only change (for some people) when Goku and Vegeta definitively overcome Beerus, to the point that his presence in the fights doesn't lessen the tension (since Whis alone cannot theoretically help), or when we see Beerus helpless in front of some villain. The first option is most likely tho

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Re: Tension ≠ Consequences

Post by JulieYBM » Tue Apr 27, 2021 5:41 pm

Separate from my opinion as an adult, purely as a reader, I enjoy the revival era for its new ideas and character interactions. I don't really blame staff wanting to make fun works that aren't too detailed in plot but I do wish we could get a wider variety of storylines from different types of creators.
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Re: Tension ≠ Consequences

Post by ABED » Tue Apr 27, 2021 6:58 pm

Koitsukai wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 11:44 am I share the sentiment that it's the how things unfold, and not exactly what unfolds. When somebody tells you a story about how they survived a certain situation, you don't go immediately OH THAT'S BORING, YOU ARE ALIVE AND WELL, SO WHO CARES HOW YOU ESCAPED A SAWMILL FILLED WITH ZOMBIES.

I do think having Beerus and Whis standing around, in RoF for instance, throws any kind of tension out the window. That was acknowledged in the Moro arc, and they had to be removed through a staff-call before they kicked the whole arc in the nuts, because they chose to have Beerus still unreachable and around at the same time. But there are ways around this, and most of the times they choose those ways.
But in that case, you're telling a story in retrospect. It's not structured as a surprise.

While I think surprises aren't everything in a story, there's something to be said for a story not unfolding as expected and getting a few surprises along the way.

At the end of DBZ, we know where all the characters are - well, the heroes anyway.
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Re: Tension ≠ Consequences

Post by Skar » Tue Apr 27, 2021 9:37 pm

MasenkoHA wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 9:06 amAnd is it not the destination but the journey? Many of us saw Z before Dragon Ball but did you really enjoy the Daimao arc less knowing Kuririn, Roshi, Chaozu, and Shen Long would be alright? I don’t think knowing somehow someway the heroes would find a way to restore Shen Long and bring back their dead friends made it any less of a “Oh shiiiiiiiit” moment when we saw Piccolo annihilate Shen Long on the spot. Did knowing Goku would only win the 23rd World Martial Arts tournament (assuming you already saw the Z episode where Roshi gets into the history of the tournaments) make those arcs any less suspenseful and engaging?
I agree about the journey but I think that's a little different. DB was a prequel to DBZ for western fans who watched DBZ first but it wasn't intended to be. Raditz revealed that Goku was sent to Earth to conquer it so DB would kinda bridge the gap between that and Goku's encountering Raditz as an adult for fans watched it after DBZ.

DBS is presented from the beginning as a midquel taking place between two existing points in the original story. It's not necessarily bridging the gap between these two points because originally nothing eventful happened and the timeskip to EoZ followed immediately after the Buu saga. All the characters who retired by the Cell and Buu sagas are still retired by EoZ so none of them participated in the 28th world tournament. We learn Goten and Trunks lost interest in training and were forced to enter. Goku and Vegeta were the only ones who continued to train seriously and Goku is implied to still be one step ahead of Vegeta like at the end of the Buu saga.
TheSaiyanGod wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 2:39 pmThat's a good point. Most people want DBS to reach EoZ already, but at this point it could mean the end of the series. I would like to see the series go past EoZ since DBS has created so many possibilities for new stories with the introduction of 12 universes and apparently unreachable beings for the heroes that barely seems explored so far (which could work even in a setting where most of the cast is older), but that raises doubts as to why there's so many arcs in such a small space of time in-universe if there's any intention for the series to go beyond its original end
I think the story involving the other universes might've ended with the ToP. We saw the strongest beings in the multiverse at the time in a tournament held by the most powerful and highest ranking god. After that we've had three story arcs about new antagonists emerging in U7. The theme of DBS since the first arc was surpassing Beerus and UI was first implied in the second arc. Goku has surpassed some GoDs assuming UI > Jiren > Belmod and Goku us currently training to gain better mastery over UI. I have no idea how long it will last but I think the story is close to coming full circle with what was established early on in DBS as Goku's goal.

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