Changing the protagonist post-cell games

[JewyB]

Okay we've all heard the story, Goku dies, Gohan becomes main character and the rest is history.

But i have a kind of, alternate universe what-if theory, mroe to discuss what might have happened not if it could/would have happened.

So, Buu saga starts, Goku is dead, Gohan is main. Gohans popularity drops because he's goofy and not Goku or something, but Toriyama sticks to his guns and insists Goku stays dead. Does this lead to a possibility of Vegeta as the main character?

Just to spit ball how it could've gone(adjusting power levels too because of course):

Buu saga plays out mostly as normal, but Goku's only back for a day, teaches fusion boop be boop. Lets say something plays out that ends the buu arc not needing Goku, then we have a similar ending, everyones happy but Goku is still dead, Dragon Ball is over.

EoZ: Plays out the same, so we know at some point Goku does come back and its a somewhat happy ending.

SUPER

So, i would see it playing out like this:

Battle Of Gods: First film in decades, its basically the same, except Goku is on King Kais because he is dead and training there, but still , Goku story, been decades, lets see him fight Beerus, and lets ramp Beerus right up in power scaling same with Goku, we'll see why, lets make it an epic fight!

RoF: This is Vegetas movie. Goku is dead, this serves as the "reboot" to fixing Vegeta as the main character. Bring back Frieza, everyone fights him to stall, Vegeta turns up with Beerus and Whis, and turns SSG, takes down Frieza, it all ends nicely, ribbon on top.

U6vs7: We no longer need a Vegeta vs Frieza win, so Piccolo gets to win, thats my boy! No Goku? We can still have Monaka, Beerus is using him to trick Vegeta as well(He's not as dense as Goku but it could work for one saga until he sees him fight, since he's jsut found unsensable god ki, anything is possible). Gohan would also be invovled because Goku wouldn't shoot down the idea of him being a nerd, so we could have Gohan fight Botamo, then lose to Frost perhaps, before Piccolo teaches him power isnt everything who knows. Eventually Vegeta vs Hit and its less one-sided, then Monaka vs Hit. Something happens.

Vegeta Black arc: Because of course. There's so much here that can be used to good storytelling. Vegeta reflecting on the fact that this is who he could've been the destroyer of earth blah blah. He then finds out Zamasu did the switchy-child-wife-killy he did to Goku but to Vegeta with Bulma and Trunks, and Vegeta rages but eventually back to the past woop. Two things can happen now, one, Vegeta can humble himself asking Tien to teach him the mafuba(which sets up Tiens martial arts school), and go into the time chamber to train. Return to the future, Vegetas kidna winning as SSG, but its stalemate, Blacks still getting stronger, so Vegeta becomes SSB a new form he found out(typical of Vegeta, no rage boost, get it off screen to prove a point later) and starts winning, Black and zamasu fuse, all hope is lost! Its an unstable fusion though, Vegito doesnt happen, it all goes horribly wrong, timeline destroyed, consequences!

ToP: All the same but no Goku, Vegeta teaming up with Frieza for an ending would be jsut as sweet an ending, and with an extra spot we can throw in Yamcha for a few cool scenes then obvious jokes(Or if trunks sticks around him). Jiren is scaled down in pwoer and MUI isnt even a thing. We see Beerus demonstrate UI in the battle of destroyers but thats it. Vegeta does get SSBE which gives him the boost to weaken Jiren, and then get the team win.

Broly: I kinda skipped over this thinking about it, i need to consider how it can play out in a similar fashion without Goku.

Moro: Okay so, we see it all go as normal, Vegeta meets Moro on Namek, it goes kinda wrong, he goes to train, comes back, spirit fission, dicks all over Moro, Moro eats 7-3, destroys everyone, thing are going well. During all this we have the mystery of Merus unfolding, he's not teaching anyone but he's a galactic patrol officer who clearly knows Whis and has some weird connections to the otherworld. Moro 7-3 is about to win, forcefield goes down, we see Merus and dende in the same way we did before(vague hints of cloaks etc) but also a halo and a familiar set of hair spikes. Merus takes down the barrier and gets Dende to heal Vegeta, and tells Vegeta his student is handling things. Yo, it's me Goku! He's here, he goes into UIO to fight Moro but it doesnt work out because he's still doing it wrong, Merus steps in, fights Moro, does the crystal crushing, dies, Goku MUIs, but then, instead of the sensu bean and angel powers, MUI runs out like it did in the ToP. Our first tiem seeing Goku in years, with a new power, but he cant control it, shocking!

From there who knows, but it was a fun idea i was messing around with and... thats it i guess?

[kemuri07]

I think if Vegeta were to be the main character, to do any justice to it, it would have to be a radically different show. Which I'd be all for.

Remember, Vegeta is in a very precarious state by this point of the story: His main rival is dead, the world is in a long-term peace, and he's watching the one person who could give him a run for his money throw it all away for his studies. But the worst thing? He finds that he might actually care about his family.

It'd be an interesting contrast, something that DBZ has always kinda been about I guess, between Goku who completely lost his memories of his Saiyan heritage and was able to transition into his earthling identity easily, and Vegeta a proud saiyan warrior, now forced into a life of domestication. I think any arc would have to deal with Vegeta as a extremely flawed hero. So I don't think I'd do the "Buu saga, but with Vegeta."

It'd be more of a character study. And I'll go one step further: it's one that ends in tragedy. Vegeta, despite his best intentions, succumbs to his insecurities, and becomes the big bad for another arc. And rather than kill a bunch of innocent bystanders, he kills several of the main Z casts.

[JewyB]

I think if Vegeta were to be the main character, to do any justice to it, it would have to be a radically different show. Which I'd be all for.

Remember, Vegeta is in a very precarious state by this point of the story: His main rival is dead, the world is in a long-term peace, and he's watching the one person who could give him a run for his money throw it all away for his studies. But the worst thing? He finds that he might actually care about his family.

It'd be an interesting contrast, something that DBZ has always kinda been about I guess, between Goku who completely lost his memories of his Saiyan heritage and was able to transition into his earthling identity easily, and Vegeta a proud saiyan warrior, now forced into a life of domestication. I think any arc would have to deal with Vegeta as a extremely flawed hero. So I don't think I'd do the "Buu saga, but with Vegeta."

It'd be more of a character study. And I'll go one step further: it's one that ends in tragedy. Vegeta, despite his best intentions, succumbs to his insecurities, and becomes the big bad for another arc. And rather than kill a bunch of innocent bystanders, he kills several of the main Z casts.

This is kinda what i meant by "buu saga with Vegeta" simplification, i hadnt thought it through, so i've jsut listed the events bu i think from Buu to Super would've been interesting because of Vegeta's character. The story would have changed to be more serious and a bit mroe adult-themed(morality, not porn), but still keep Vegetas silly side to add the humour. It would still be Dragon Ball, jsut adjacent to how it was.

I wouldnt want to see hum succumb to being evil though, outside of the Majin stuff, which would still work and be a better reason to bring Gohan into the fold. Basically Z would have ended with a Gohan/Vegeta balance, Vegetas last moments of pure villainy before his first step into being a hero, then Super explores Vegeta finally being a hero, but still dealing with the guilt of genocide, still trying to be a good father despite his saiyan pride, still training to get stronger despite losing his rival.

A lot of contrast like you say. Then bringing Goku back way later and having him overpower Vegeta in a completely different way, instead of Goku going God -> Blue -> SSBE Goku went God -> disappeared -> Ultra Instinct. It separates there path better than having Vegeta say "i'm gonna do my own thing" then wait for us to see him do his own thing.

And Gohan could be background nerd because heroic Vegeta is at least a little more pragmatic that Goku.

[Matches Malone]

Vegeta is my favorite character, with that said, he wouldn't fit the role of main character in the Buu arc, nor DB as a whole. Vegeta's entire character development in the Buu arc wouldn't have happened without Goku playing a major role in it. However, I've always believed that BOG should've been Goku and friends Vegeta's last major story, as I think everything after should've been set after EOZ with the old cast mentoring the next generation of fighters.

My idea is that DB would follow the adventures of Goten, Trunks, Pan, Uub, and other characters as they're brought up in martial arts by the likes of Goku, Tien, Piccolo, Vegeta, etc.. That way you can have a Resurrection F without having to find a way to power up Freeza, as he'd be fighting newer fighters who aren't on the level of Goku. You can have a tournament that feels fresh as it'll be the first time we see these new characters fight one another. You could have them leave earth to visit some planet and end up in trouble with no way to contact Goku and the other veterans.

Despite this being mainly a next gen show, I'd also bring in villains like Moro who're simply too much for the newer fighters, shifting the focus back to Goku and the others as they take him on. Another thing I'd do is have SsjG be a one time form that the Saiyans only use at the most desperate times, and one that requires the ritual each time it's needed.

[JewyB]

Vegeta is my favorite character, with that said, he wouldn't fit the role of main character in the Buu arc, nor DB as a whole. Vegeta's entire character development in the Buu arc wouldn't have happened without Goku playing a major role in it. However, I've always believed that BOG should've been Goku and friends Vegeta's last major story, as I think everything after should've been set after EOZ with the old cast mentoring the next generation of fighters.

Well, that's what we're here to discuss, how it would have changed

My idea is that DB would follow the adventures of Goten, Trunks, Pan, Uub, and other characters as they're brought up in martial arts by the likes of Goku, Tien, Piccolo, Vegeta, etc.. That way you can have a Resurrection F without having to find a way to power up Freeza, as he'd be fighting newer fighters who aren't on the level of Goku. You can have a tournament that feels fresh as it'll be the first time we see these new characters fight one another. You could have them leave earth to visit some planet and end up in trouble with no way to contact Goku and the other veterans.

Despite this being mainly a next gen show, I'd also bring in villains like Moro who're simply too much for the newer fighters, shifting the focus back to Goku and the others as they take him on. Another thing I'd do is have SsjG be a one time form that the Saiyans only use at the most desperate times, and one that requires the ritual each time it's needed.

This is what i would love to see from a sequel series too, bring in two levels of threats so we have Goku and Vegeta on the higher end with Jiren and Broly and co, then the Earth level threats they really dont need to worry about anymore. I did have an idea at one point about a multiversal judstice league type set up in the DB universe, Ribrianne, Jiren, Goku etc, they're too busy fighting DB Doomsday to save the earth from ... i dunno, Ra Cell ghul

[Matches Malone]

Bring in two levels of threats so we have Goku and Vegeta on the higher end with Jiren and Broly and co, then the Earth level threats they really don't need to worry about anymore. I did have an idea at one point about a multiverse justice league type set up in the DB universe, Ribrianne, Jiren, Goku etc, they're too busy fighting DB Doomsday to save the earth from ... i dunno, Ra Cell ghul.

I'd love this. I think this would help expand everything compared to what they're doing now by trying to have their cake and eat it to. I'd pay a lot of money to see Goten and Trunks go up the likes of Gero Luthor and Tao Osborn.

[BWri]

If Vegeta were the MC, they should probably bring Tarble in for a few arcs and have Vegeta deal with the remnants of Frieza's forces and at some point, Frieza himself. I'd be down for that. Other than that though, I think things would get pretty awkward with Vegeta as OC, unless you phased out most of the current cast and focused on new people since the existing characters mostly bounce off Goku, or it would have to be pretty Saiyan centric. I'm talking Gohan, Goten, Trunks, and maybe even Future Trunks along with Pan and Bulla. Bulma would feature heavily of course. I guess I wouldn't mind if there was a healthy dose of Piccolo and Yamcha present. It'd basically be Vegeta leading a bunch of young Saiyans.

Just give me some buddy comedy shenanigans with him and Yamcha and I'm game for it.

[Kakkaroto735]

If Vegeta were the MC, they should probably bring Tarble in for a few arcs and have Vegeta deal with the remnants of Frieza's forces and at some point, Frieza himself. I'd be down for that. Other than that though, I think things would get pretty awkward with Vegeta as OC, unless you phased out most of the current cast and focused on new people since the existing characters mostly bounce off Goku, or it would have to be pretty Saiyan centric. I'm talking Gohan, Goten, Trunks, and maybe even Future Trunks along with Pan and Bulla. Bulma would feature heavily of course. I guess I wouldn't mind if there was a healthy dose of Piccolo and Yamcha present. It'd basically be Vegeta leading a bunch of young Saiyans.

Just give me some buddy comedy shenanigans with him and Yamcha and I'm game for it.

Future trunks? In the main plot??
EW