Dende as God in Movie 6. Forshadowing or random thing.

[GTx10]

I've been watching Dragon Ball from episode one of DB up through the Android arc. (That's where I'm currently at) I have been watching the movies between the episodes and so that means I just finished Return of Cooler. So in that film Dende is Earth's God, now keep in mind that in the Manga Piccolo was battling Imperfect Cell. The Anime was at the point of Dr. Gero running to his lab, so how does Dende play into this?
Was Toriyama playing around with the idea of Dende as God? Or did he take a random cue from the Anime staff? How did Dende becoming God become a actual thing?

[precita]

Its quite possible Toriyama might have mentioned it, because it does seem rather random to guess it. At the time nobody had any idea we'd ever see Dende again after the Freeza arc.

Funny thing is if that scene wasn't in the movie, you could have said it took place in the 3 years between Androids shortly after the first Cooler movie. Since only Goku saw Vegeta's Super Saiyan form in the movie and nobody else did.

[Ki Breaker]

I honestly have no idea on this one..
Maybe it's a coincidence, or toriyama might have mentioned this idea once amd they went with it

[jjgp1112]

By the time Movie 6 came out, Piccolo had already merged with Kami, though you figure the movie had been in production for a few months prior. Movie 6 came out in march '92 and Piccolo flew to Kami's lookout in chapter 355, which came out January 6, 1992. I believe manga chapters are finished a couple of weeks before they're actually published and he probably had the idea in his head beforehand, so that's enough time for Toriyama to let Toei know, "Hey, I'm gonna have Kami merge with Piccolo and I'm thinking of making Dende his replacement!"

[Hellspawn28]

Most likely a coincidence or Toei may have ask Toriyama on what he is plan on doing next.

Funny thing is if that scene wasn't in the movie, you could have said it took place in the 3 years between Androids shortly after the first Cooler movie. Since only Goku saw Vegeta's Super Saiyan form in the movie and nobody else did.

Everyone is forgetting that Goku didn't know where New Namek was when he visit King Kai during the Cell saga. So how could they build a Space Ship three years before Dr. Gero & #19/#17 and #18 show up if they didn't know where it was.

[ekrolo2]

Most likely a coincidence or Toei may have ask Toriyama on what he is plan on doing next.

Funny thing is if that scene wasn't in the movie, you could have said it took place in the 3 years between Androids shortly after the first Cooler movie. Since only Goku saw Vegeta's Super Saiyan form in the movie and nobody else did.

Everyone is forgetting that Goku didn't know where New Namek was when he visit King Kai during the Cell saga. So how could they build a Space Ship three years before Dr. Gero & #19/#17 and #18 show up if they didn't know where it was.

You could maybe handwave that as New Namek being relocated to another, much harder to find location in response to Cooler nearly destroying their home again?

[GTx10]

I mean its definitely possible that Toriyama threw the idea of Dende being the new God of Earth at the Movie staff. But yet their are no Guidebooks that I know of that mention such a idea was indeed fabricated. Its very "jarring" for the Anime viewer to see Dende as God since no such thing is ever implied or forshadowed. Maybe Toriyama indeed threw the idea around and the staff tossed that scene in as a fun "this is coming next" tease for the Manga readers.
Toei teases new Super Sentai teams in their Sentai VS Sentai movies so its very much up their alley.

[Adrian Malacoda]

I kinda feel like something like this would have to be planned in advance with Toriyama's approval. Making Dende God of Earth is a major change which affects the rest of the story going forward. It's not something you can easily isolate to a movie.