The good and bad of Boo as a villain

[DonAce]

I always felt like a lot of the discussion of the villains in Dragon Ball stay focused on a lot of the other more popular villains like Cell, Freeza, but I don't see a lot discussion about Boo as a villain. True, he is really inconsistent in terms of the way he behaves depending on what state he's in, but I feel like there's a lot to be said about him. He does lose quite a bit of personality once he ceases being Fat Boo, but we do get a cool looking and a sort of "chaos incarnate" kind of villain in the other forms of the other Boos. What do you all have to say?

[precita]

Buu being a mindless killing machine after Fat Buu was a nice change of pace for a villain. Sometimes just going with the "ultimate evil" trope and a villain with no morals is fun.

Super Buu and Kid Buu were just maniacs who wanted to kill everything and anything, and it worked well in the context of the story. I also like that he was a shape shifter which made for some cool fights that you can't do with any other villain. You can see him blown to bits and reform, extend his arms and legs, rip off a piece of his body like silly putty, etc.

[sintzu]

I didn't like his origin being a copy of Cell's but thankfully Toriyama changed it.

Buu's multiple personalities was a plus for me cause it was like having 3 villains in 1 which was completely different from Cell and Freeza who more or less acted the same in all their forms.

[Cipher]

1) Boo's ever-changing look and personality really aids the frenzied feeling of the final arc.

2) I like the role each plays. His first form is a typical Toriyama joke -- the eternal god-killing monster we've heard of for so much of the arc is this bizarre, cheerful genie thing -- but becomes really fun to follow during the lull in the middle of the arc as he meets Mr. Satan while the main cast preps Gotenks. "Super" Boo is appropriately strange and creepy and effective in returning tension to the arc in an unexpected way. Pure Boo is more of an obstacle than a character, but it helps to remove dialogue and personality from the villain at a point when drama between the main characters is taking center stage. Pure Boo works because he's still strange enough to be entertaining, but he isn't chewing scenery or stealing the show. I'm glad we don't end on the hammy villainy of Gotenks- or Gohan-Boo, who really do feel like Cell-lite, but thankfully aren't more than interlude forms/personalities.

Also, can I just say? I love the way we get Super Boo. Boo spawning a copy of himself who winds up eating him is one of the weirdest, most unexpected things in the series.

[DonAce]

1) Boo's ever-changing look and personality really aids the frenzied feeling of the final arc.

2) I like the role each plays. His first form is a typical Toriyama joke -- the eternal god-killing monster we've heard of for so much of the arc is this bizarre, cheerful genie thing -- but becomes really fun to follow during the lull in the middle of the arc as he meets Mr. Satan while the main cast preps Gotenks. "Super" Boo is appropriately strange and creepy and effective in returning tension to the arc in an unexpected way. Pure Boo is more of an obstacle than a character, but it helps to remove dialogue and personality from the villain at a point when drama between the main characters is taking center stage. Pure Boo works because he's still strange enough to be entertaining, but he isn't chewing scenery or stealing the show. I'm glad we don't end on the hammy villainy of Gotenks- or Gohan-Boo, who really do feel like Cell-lite, but thankfully aren't more than interlude forms/personalities.

Also, can I just say? I love the way we get Super Boo. Boo spawning a copy of himself who winds up eating him is one of the weirdest, most unexpected things in the series.

Yeah, a lot of what you said here reflects my feeling on the guy. Sure, he isn't quite the sickly polite tyrant of Freeza or anything, but he is a very strange creature, almost incomprehensible in a way. What he lacks in personality in his later forms he makes up for in just being a cool monster almost kind of like a Godzilla. Sure, Godzilla doesn't really say anything but he is a very cool creature with strange powers which is sometimes all you need. Pure Boo pounding his chest like a primal gorilla and having him Goku through the ground the way he does really go a long way to making me enjoy him in a cool monster kind of way rather than as a more classical villain.

[kinisking]

I love all forms of boo. He's my favorite villian. His kid boo design might just be the best in the series. I love his goofy antics and his special abilities also. Btw, Boo is more popular than Cell in Japan so he's got that going for him.

[RandomGuy96]

Super Buu and Fat Buu are my in my top three favorite Dragon Ball villains. I've ranted about why many times before.

[DBZAOTA482]

+All his forms are all very different and enjoyable, except maybe Booten and especially Boohan where he basically became a generic arrogant villain.
+He's really unpredictable and scary
+He has the highest on-screen kill count of all villains
-He's too OP
-His backstory is lackluster
-No personal connection with any of the heroes

[precita]

Yeah, it says a lot that when Buu becomes intelligent during Gotenks and Gohan Buu forms...he becomes less appealing.

He more or less starts acting like a Cell clone at that point, and his character waned. Thankfully Kid Buu came around not too long after and was a great finish.

[ShadowBardock89]

What makes Buu special than the previous main villains is that he really does not have a long term goal (Vegeta and Freeza had immortality as a goal and Cell had "perfection" to complete). Its just spur of the moment. He truly is a monster with no qualms or remorse.

[nickzambuto]

So do we prefer his original backstory as a creation of Babidi, or the revised backstory where he has existed since the dawn of the universe?

[Desassina]

I prefer a mix of both: there was an evil that existed since the dawn of the universe; Bibidi materialized it in the form of Boo. It wasn't by science, but wizardry, and that's why Baby, for example, could only shape shift without the immortality. If you play Phantasy Star on the Genesis, you'll realize that Boo is Dark Force, while his evil is Profound Darkness

[dragonballhero]

Heck, his story arc is my favorite arc in all of Dragon Ball Z. Personally, I loved how Toriyama was able to make the Majin Buu arc both unbelievably dark in terms of the stakes, yet still be the most most light-hearted arc in all of DBZ, more or less.

In terms of dark tones, we have the death of (almost) EVERY single character on Earth, obviously including characters you wouldn't EVER expect to die in Dragon Ball as a whole such as Gohan, Goten, Chi-Chi, Bulma, Trunks, Videl, Ox-King, 18, Marron, Oolong, Puar, Mr. Popo, and every other character either who doesn't participate in battle at all, doesn't fight OFTEN, and/or has just been lucky enough to not die in battle up to this point.

In terms of light-hearted things, we had Gohan going to school with other kids his age for the first time, the antics of the Great Saiyaman, the wacky stuff going on at the World Tournament, almost ANYTHING related to Goten, Trunks, Gotenks, Fat Buu, Hercule, Bee, and ESPECIALLY Vegito.

[RedShift]

I have always hated Fat Buu's childish personality and squeaky voice. He's also mentally deficient until he absorbs Piccolo and can form proper sentences. He is, narrativly speaking irrelevant and adds nothing to the story by himself. He's more like a force of nature that the cast needs to stop.

On the other hand, Majin Buu is what I would imagine would happen if a genie fell off the deep end. He's so full of bullshit hax and raw power that nobody can keep up with him for very long. He's very nearly a out of context problem for the cast. At least until they introduced fusion.

I really wish that Gotenks fusion never wore off inside Buu. Having Vegito show up to help Gohan, then Gohan gets absorbed out of desperation. It wouldn't have changed much, but it would have had a lot more fireworks.

[FoolsGil]

The good: Buu is just one big clusterf*ck and watching everything unfold was half the fun.

The bad: Buu exists because the heroes were poorly written.

[Akyon]

I can't say he did much for me personally honestly. I'd easily rank him the worst canon villain Dragonball's ever had.

I think the fact he basically came out of no where was a bit jarring. The sudden introduction of high powered magic was weird too. With so many people using ki, you would have thought someone other than Babidi and Roshi's sister would have used magic throughout the course of the story.

His arc overall felt very last minute, which I suppose it was, but unlike Cell or the Androids there was no build up to this creature appearing, and unlike these villains from the future; Buu having had existed since the dawn of time and hidden on Earth, you would have thought someone who had as profound an effect on the spiritual world would have been mentioned at least once in passing before hand.

He lacked direction, motivation or a defined overall personality. A lot of people seem to think of this as a pro; saying he's chaotic and that's refreshing and exciting, but honestly to me he just seems like an incredibly poorly written villain. Basically Broly with less motivation(and that's saying something) and more unique skills.

[Lord Beerus]

Majin Boo changes in behaviour were quite unique in themselves. He started out a bit of blank slate but then his child like innocence really shows how easily he could be moulded into a completely different person. The epitome of "nature vs nurture".

[precita]

He lacked direction, motivation or a defined overall personality. A lot of people seem to think of this as a pro; saying he's chaotic and that's refreshing and exciting, but honestly to me he just seems like an incredibly poorly written villain. Basically Broly with less motivation(and that's saying something) and more unique skills.

Its not so much Buu's lack of personality, its what he does and how his character keeps changing. His fights were all unique and great too because he was a shape shifter, I loved his fight with Gotenks in the time chamber in particular because he kept getting blown up. He would extend his arms and legs to fight Goku, Gohan, and the others, etc.

He was a monster with no real motive but it was played both comically and serious at the same time that it was fun.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

I was enjoying him until the Kid Buu mess where he there was nothing fun about him anymore they were just fighting someone OP who squabbles like a baby and that's it.

[Attitudefan]

One thing I liked about Buu was how, at every moment, the end was nigh. Piccolo Daimao came close but even he let up and waited (alloting that every certain time of month a district is destroyed rather than demolishing everything) whereas with Buu, the end was imminent every second. I think that's pretty cool. Plus, Super Buu did Perfect Cell better than Cell. Super Buu (Gohan absorbed fyi) is relentless. He's so evil!