Should the Dragon Team have more internal conflicts?

[Doctor.]

All of the "good guys" are all flawed in their own way, with various different points of views regarding different subjects. Yet, they're all portrayed as being extremely friendly towards each other in every possible situation. When there's a possible point of conflict, such as whether or not to kill Dr. Gero, it's brushed aside quickly and everyone ends up agreeing on what to do. It seems the only source of internal conflict within the group stems from Vegeta, who, besides keeping his rivalry with Goku, has stopped being a liability and became much more cooperative.

I find it unrealistic that they all have the same mindset regarding the same subjects and nobody ever speaks up regarding something like, as an example, Goku's reclessness. It would be an interesting concept for a story arc, as well, imagine characters like Gohan and Goku disagreeing on how to handle a problem, it could provide some interesting interaction, development and further character dynamics.

[Saturnine]

That's Seinen stuff. Too complicated to be appreciated by the target audience probably.

[Doctor.]

That's Seinen stuff. Too complicated to be appreciated by the target audience probably.

It's not, really. One Piece had an internal conflict in the form of Usopp challenging Luffy to a duel and leaving the crew for a shortwhile. They ended up making up and everything returned to the status quo, because it's still a Shounen, but I don't expect the hypothetical conflict in DB to end badly either. It would just add a bit more drama to the story arc.

[Ki Breaker]

Oh hell no, already the not so subtle tries at character development are getting on the verge of drama..
Toriyama did it right, get straight to the point, nobody sat down and imagined would they be able to beat the Androids, they got up from their asses and did trainined their asses off..

Now every other character is a goddam drama queen, "Oh I don't fight anymore!"
"Oh no, I need a strong daddy"
"He killed me! How I can ever beat his minions"
This is all needless drama and having super create internal conflicts would take this to a whole new level of craziness

[Doctor.]

Oh hell no, already the not so subtle tries at character development are getting on the verge of drama..
Toriyama did it right, get straight to the point, nobody sat down and imagined would they be able to beat the Androids, they got up from their asses and did trainined their asses off..

Now every other character is a goddam drama queen, "Oh I don't fight anymore!"
"Oh no, I need a strong daddy"
"He killed me! How I can ever beat his minions"
This is all needless drama and having super create internal conflicts would take this to a whole new level of craziness

I wouldn't say Toriyama did it right. He was in a rush to get to the fighting and neglected the character-driven aspects of the story. That's fine, since Dragon Ball is a story written mainly for entertainment, but you don't need to neglect development to get to the action. He just made it so that you wouldn't be able to recognize any of the characters as real people, real people get into arguments over things they disagree with.

It's not needless drama if it's done right, Super just hasn't done drama right yet.

[Ki Breaker]

Oh hell no, already the not so subtle tries at character development are getting on the verge of drama..
Toriyama did it right, get straight to the point, nobody sat down and imagined would they be able to beat the Androids, they got up from their asses and did trainined their asses off..

Now every other character is a goddam drama queen, "Oh I don't fight anymore!"
"Oh no, I need a strong daddy"
"He killed me! How I can ever beat his minions"
This is all needless drama and having super create internal conflicts would take this to a whole new level of craziness

I wouldn't say Toriyama did it right. He was in a rush to get to the fighting and neglected the character-driven aspects of the story. That's fine, since Dragon Ball is a story written mainly for entertainment, but you don't need to neglect development to get to the action. He just made it so that you wouldn't be able to recognize any of the characters as real people, real people get into arguments over things they disagree with.

It's not needless drama if it's done right, Super just hasn't done drama right yet.

That's what I was getting at, super as of now isn't capable of doing it satisfactorily, so trying of have conflicts between characters would be a total mess..
And frankly, Dragonball would have a big tone shift if these elements were introduced, it would gear towards seinen

[Doctor.]

And frankly, Dragonball would have a big tone shift if these elements were introduced, it would gear towards seinen

Again, One Piece has already done this.

Even Harry Potter, a terribly written book series for children, has done so to an extent in book 4.

[Ki Breaker]

And frankly, Dragonball would have a big tone shift if these elements were introduced, it would gear towards seinen

Again, One Piece has already done this.

Even Harry Potter, a terribly written book series for children, has done so to an extent in book 4.

Those aren't full blown conflicts, all of them have it toned down..
Dragonball nearly never had those, I can't see it fitting with the original db..

[Doctor.]

And frankly, Dragonball would have a big tone shift if these elements were introduced, it would gear towards seinen

Again, One Piece has already done this.

Even Harry Potter, a terribly written book series for children, has done so to an extent in book 4.

Those aren't full blown conflicts, all of them have it toned down..
Dragonball nearly never had those, I can't see it fitting with the original db..

Of course, but I didn't say it should have permanent consequences. Dragon Ball has already done an internal conflict before via Goku and Majin Vegeta, except it clearly portrayed it in a black-and-white manner instead of making it so that both sides had their points.

[dbgtFO]

I don't see why kids wouldn't appreciate some internal conflicts?
Digimon had it and I don't know of anyone who thought that was shit (specifically the major one between Tai and Matt). I don't go to Digimon message boards, so my sample size is limited.
DB as you say have rare cases of them, but they blow over quite quickly. Besides the 2 obvious ones, there was also Piccolo berating Goku in the Cell Games in regards to Gohan fighting Cell, which also was not elaborated on further.

[sintzu]

Yes, I think there should've been some kind of issues regarding certain actions made by the characters, especially Vegeta.

I think the reason Toriyama doesn't do this is because he wants to keep things simple and focused on the fighting. that's not a bad thing cause he knows what he's good and bad at so he leaves the bad behind and focuses on what he's good at which is the fighting.

[nickzambuto]

This is what happens when you have a bunch of pure hearted characters led by the most charming fool in anime. Everyone is just like "aw shucks Goku you and your fighting hahaha".

Seriously though, I could definitely appreciate some disagreements breaking out among the Dragon Team.

[TheZFighter]

My main issue with this is that, as things stand, I could only really see "internal conflict" coming from Vegeta. Over the years the "main" Dragon Ball team has been cut down so much that it is basically very Son/ Briefs family-centric, with Vegeta being the outsider, so to speak. As nickzambuto said, everyone else in these series just idolises Goku without question, and nobody ever pulls him up on anything.

My other issue is that this series isn't particularly well written, so I think anything that would take modicum of creativity probably wouldn't be done well.

OP, just for my sake, could you try and come up with a few example conflicts please? I assume you had some more in mind when you originally posted?

[Doctor.]

OP, just for my sake, could you try and come up with a few example conflicts please? I assume you had some more in mind when you originally posted?

The main series had plenty of things that could have been done, but weren't. Super, too, has some aspects:

Goku being pratically responsible for the destruction of Trunks' world doesn't get called out, nor does his insistence on not going full power against an opponent despite Freeza using this to his advantage two arcs back.
Beerus being the one responsible for planet Vegeta's destruction and treating Vegeta like a slave could make for some interesting conflict between the two if Vegeta finds out about the truth.
The whole situation surrounding how dangerous the Gods are would do good for some internal conflict within the group. Who thinks the Gods are safe and their friends, and who thinks they aren't? Tenshinhan, for instance, always had a problem with Vegeta in the original series but that was never really explored much, his distrust of new allies could come into play as more and more Gods keep getting introduced. Bulma also doubted Beerus' intentions back in the universal tournament arc, and disliked how friendly Goku and Vegeta were with him, but this never went anywhere once again.
Yamcha displayed that he still holds some kind of emotion towards Bulma and has some kind of grudge towards Vegeta in the baseball episode, though this isn't a route I'd personally like the series to go in, it's still an option.

[TheZFighter]

OP, just for my sake, could you try and come up with a few example conflicts please? I assume you had some more in mind when you originally posted?

The main series had plenty of things that could have been done, but weren't. Super, too, has some aspects:

Goku being pratically responsible for the destruction of Trunks' world doesn't get called out, nor does his insistence on not going full power against an opponent despite Freeza using this to his advantage two arcs back.
Beerus being the one responsible for planet Vegeta's destruction and treating Vegeta like a slave could make for some interesting conflict between the two if Vegeta finds out about the truth.
The whole situation surrounding how dangerous the Gods are would do good for some internal conflict within the group. Who thinks the Gods are safe and their friends, and who thinks they aren't? Tenshinhan, for instance, always had a problem with Vegeta in the original series but that was never really explored much, his distrust of new allies could come into play as more and more Gods keep getting introduced. Bulma also doubted Beerus' intentions back in the universal tournament arc, and disliked how friendly Goku and Vegeta were with him, but this never went anywhere once again.
Yamcha displayed that he still holds some kind of emotion towards Bulma and has some kind of grudge towards Vegeta in the baseball episode, though this isn't a route I'd personally like the series to go in, it's still an option.

Those are some good examples, but I agree going down the Yamcha-Vegeta route wouldn't be a wise move. I think Yamcha's apparent maturity in how he's handled that whole mess has done wonders for his character.

Tenshinhan's hostility could've been a route to go down but I think that ship has sailed. Much like Piccolo before him, Vegeta has been part of the main group for so long now it seems that all has been forgiven.

[Doctor.]

Those are some good examples, but I agree going down the Yamcha-Vegeta route wouldn't be a wise move. I think Yamcha's apparent maturity in how he's handled that whole mess has done wonders for his character.

Tenshinhan's hostility could've been a route to go down but I think that ship has sailed. Much like Piccolo before him, Vegeta has been part of the main group for so long now it seems that all has been forgiven.

I spoke of Tenshinhan because he's noteworthy of being doubtful of new allies. So, if he starts doubting Beerus and Whis, for example, that could bring up some other doubts amongst the rest of the cast too and they could start debating about whether or not having a petulant God that can wipe them out in an instant so close to them is a good idea.

[JulieYBM]

Toriyama can't really be bothered to write that sort of thing, so I wouldn't want to push it upon him. If someone else had an idea and wanted to execute it, sure, why not, but Dragon Ball in general doesn't have the strong dramatic core that, say, Naruto has.

[emperior]

Ever since Goku saved the Earth and revived everyone a few times, they all have extreme respect for him. He can do whatever the fuck he wants because he is still the one who solves the situations and if everyone's alive it's thanks to him.

We got the dynamic you're talking about when Goku didn't agree with Vegeta killing the Ginyu force, when Vegeta wanted Cell to absorb 18 and Trunks tried to stop him (that's the major one) and Goku was later called out by Piccolo at Cell games.
Vegeta and Goku mostly agree with everything nowadays, and the fact they are both Saiyans makes both of them quite similar in battles.

So the serie doesn't completely lack these sort of conflicts, they are just very rare and it's not like Trunks or anyone else held a grudge on Vegeta for letting Cell absorb 18.

[floofychan333]

I'd be open to seeing these conflicts happen and then be worked out.

[kinisking]

So far we've had Piccolo and Goku about Gohan in the Cell saga, Trunks and Vegeta about Cell becoming perfect, Vegeta and Goku versus boo. I don't understand why people seem so opposed to this when it's already happened before. I would love to see some more.