What is your favourite single minute from the whole Dragon Ball Franchise?

[Lord Beerus]

Goku and Vegeta's Kaioken Kamehameha/Galick Gun beam struggle in the Saiyan arc.

[Asura]

For me it's got to be the sequence of Goku and Beerus fighting their way up into space in Battle of Gods. Between the animation, the insert song by FLOW and Sean Schemmel's epic scream in the dub, it might have been the package that got me back into Dragon Ball.

That scene is also my absolute favorite. I mean just... holy crap! That scene!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue5A_5zJPUc

I forgot about this one. It's great too.

[Amir]

When Vegeta fires a blast at Super Perfect Cell from behind, Cell is surprised, Goku yells to Gohan that now is his chance to win, and he obliterates Cell with the kamehameha.

I also loved 17 damaging Aniraza's energy reactor quite a bit, there are many more both in DB, Z and even Super.

[sangofe]

When Vegeta fires a blast at Super Perfect Cell from behind, Cell is surprised, Goku yells to Gohan that now is his chance to win, and he obliterates Cell with the kamehameha.

I also loved 17 damaging Aniraza's energy reactor quite a bit, there are many more both in DB, Z and even Super.

Oh, now I remember. The scene where Vegeta loses it after he thinks Trunks is dead is petty damn great. And when Gohan destroys the cell Jr's.

[KBABZ]

Even big fans of the series often say that Goku has no character development and he's the same from beginning to end, but I disagree. I think the reason I like the Tao stuff so much is because it was a very pivotal moment in Goku's journey. He wasn't always so ambitious and hard working, before meeting Bulma, he was just living in isolation in the woods and showed no signs of being discontent. It was only after Bulma introduced him to the larger world and showed him how many interesting people and places there are, that he decided to go train with Kamesennin, but even after that, he wasn't immediately thinking about how to further his training.

After Goku is defeated so brutally by Tao, and when he has Upa basically begging him for help, there's a series of panels with no dialogue where Goku looks at his hands, then looks up at Karin's Tower, and after thinking about it for several seconds, he makes the decision to climb it. This decision is what put Goku on his path towards endless self improvement, but if he hadn't lost the 21st Budokai, would he have made the same decision? He might have gotten caught up in arrogance after being declared the strongest under the Heavens. "Ain't no way that guy beat me! It was a fluke! I'm already the strongest in the world!" So he would have just sought Tao out immediately, rather than admitting his limitations and choosing to improve himself.

Tao came along at the perfect time, because Goku needed that hard defeat in order to realize his own limits. But it's the fact that Goku realized those limits, and didn't just accept them as the way things are, but instead chose to dedicate himself towards an arduous journey and improve, and the fact that he succeeded so wondrously, that makes that part of the story so good. Tao, who Toriyama established very effectively as being a badass killer, getting surpassed utterly in every way is such good payoff, it proves the fruits of Goku's hard work, it says very simply "If you put in the hard work, you will succeed" and that just makes me feel great.

ALL of this is encapsulated within that 10 seconds where Goku is on Tao's neck.

I'd say that Goku lacks character development after a certain point, but unfortunately that "certain point" is IMO after Goku kills King Piccolo, so most fans just stick to Z and see the same guy the whole way through. I do agree with your interpretation on the Tao conflict; while Goku was up against it when fighting Blue, he was the better fighter so long as he wasn't frozen (and him and Roshi were pretty much even). Tao is the first guy Goku faces whom he has to train up to defeat, and that influences his solo training in the time skip; Goku focuses on training away his old weaknesses like his tail and coming up with useful techniques, like moving so fast he cannot be seen.

I also agree on the methodology thing, and you can get a clear demonstration of this by comparing how he acts in the 21st and 22nd Tournaments. In the 21st he's really treating it like a fun day out; he never takes the fights seriously and is more excited about what moves they'll use in the next bout. He even falls asleep at one point between matches he doesn't care! In the 22nd however he's a completely different fighter. He takes a vehement interest in every one of the fights so he can analyze his opponent's techniques and fighting style, such as coming up with the glasses solution to Tien's Solar Flare. He also becomes a lot more analytical, and has already dropped the cocky angle to fights like saying that "of course my favourite guy's gonna win! That Tien jerk is just a chump!" like Krillin does, and instead sees combatants for who they really are as fighters. This is also where Goku becomes, as I call it, a battle tactician, where he thinks two or three clashes ahead when figuring out his next move, such as not firing a Kamehameha because it'd be a waste of energy at that point, and that becomes important when he takes on Vegeta and Frieza later.

[Hyena_Yamcha]

- Goku realising he was the one who killed his grandpa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKrmFQ1Ucto

- Goku vs Black & Trunks VS Zamasu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAronIv0P7k

- i won't let you destroy my world

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV3xB-bxD1k

- Goku's meteor combination against piccolo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnxF8qnZMAg

and many more....

[Vijay]

SSJ Gogeta finishin off Super Janemba (Fusion 12) using Star Breaker/Dust or somethin. I swear its less than 1 minute

[Doctor.]

Probably Goku dodging Kefla's attacks and unleashing the Kamehameha on her face. It's kinda hard to name something that isn't from Super because a) Super is fresh on our minds and b) most of Z's pacing is very slow, so most of the cool scenes take place over the span of multiple minutes.

[nickzambuto]

Even big fans of the series often say that Goku has no character development and he's the same from beginning to end, but I disagree. I think the reason I like the Tao stuff so much is because it was a very pivotal moment in Goku's journey. He wasn't always so ambitious and hard working, before meeting Bulma, he was just living in isolation in the woods and showed no signs of being discontent. It was only after Bulma introduced him to the larger world and showed him how many interesting people and places there are, that he decided to go train with Kamesennin, but even after that, he wasn't immediately thinking about how to further his training.

After Goku is defeated so brutally by Tao, and when he has Upa basically begging him for help, there's a series of panels with no dialogue where Goku looks at his hands, then looks up at Karin's Tower, and after thinking about it for several seconds, he makes the decision to climb it. This decision is what put Goku on his path towards endless self improvement, but if he hadn't lost the 21st Budokai, would he have made the same decision? He might have gotten caught up in arrogance after being declared the strongest under the Heavens. "Ain't no way that guy beat me! It was a fluke! I'm already the strongest in the world!" So he would have just sought Tao out immediately, rather than admitting his limitations and choosing to improve himself.

Tao came along at the perfect time, because Goku needed that hard defeat in order to realize his own limits. But it's the fact that Goku realized those limits, and didn't just accept them as the way things are, but instead chose to dedicate himself towards an arduous journey and improve, and the fact that he succeeded so wondrously, that makes that part of the story so good. Tao, who Toriyama established very effectively as being a badass killer, getting surpassed utterly in every way is such good payoff, it proves the fruits of Goku's hard work, it says very simply "If you put in the hard work, you will succeed" and that just makes me feel great.

ALL of this is encapsulated within that 10 seconds where Goku is on Tao's neck.

I'd say that Goku lacks character development after a certain point, but unfortunately that "certain point" is IMO after Goku kills King Piccolo, so most fans just stick to Z and see the same guy the whole way through. I do agree with your interpretation on the Tao conflict; while Goku was up against it when fighting Blue, he was the better fighter so long as he wasn't frozen (and him and Roshi were pretty much even). Tao is the first guy Goku faces whom he has to train up to defeat, and that influences his solo training in the time skip; Goku focuses on training away his old weaknesses like his tail and coming up with useful techniques, like moving so fast he cannot be seen.

I also agree on the methodology thing, and you can get a clear demonstration of this by comparing how he acts in the 21st and 22nd Tournaments. In the 21st he's really treating it like a fun day out; he never takes the fights seriously and is more excited about what moves they'll use in the next bout. He even falls asleep at one point between matches he doesn't care! In the 22nd however he's a completely different fighter. He takes a vehement interest in every one of the fights so he can analyze his opponent's techniques and fighting style, such as coming up with the glasses solution to Tien's Solar Flare. He also becomes a lot more analytical, and has already dropped the cocky angle to fights like saying that "of course my favourite guy's gonna win! That Tien jerk is just a chump!" like Krillin does, and instead sees combatants for who they really are as fighters. This is also where Goku becomes, as I call it, a battle tactician, where he thinks two or three clashes ahead when figuring out his next move, such as not firing a Kamehameha because it'd be a waste of energy at that point, and that becomes important when he takes on Vegeta and Frieza later.

Those are both great points to add. I remember in the "What If" thread, somebody asked what would have happened had Goku won the 21st Budokai, and literally everybody who responded, said nothing about the series would change. I thought, that's extremely lame, the whole plot of the arc was set into motion because Kamesennin thought it was extremely important Goku not win. Are you guys saying Kamesennin was just plain wrong and that whole arc was pointless? I think it's better to say that losing is what taught Goku that there will always be a higher ceiling to keep striving towards, and the fact that this lesson is employed very shortly afterwards with Tao supports that. Like I said, if Goku won the 21st Budokai, he might not have accepted his loss to Tao and improved himself, he might have just tried fighting again and died. Do you agree with that?

However Goku definitely continued evolving after the defeat of Daimao. His best stuff takes place after Daimao. The whole revelation of the saiyans, and the idea that Goku's spent so much of his life stopping villains like Tao, the RRA, and both Piccolos, when all along he was destined to be worse than all of them, and the disgust Goku feels for this, is super juicy stuff. In the beginning he rejects his heritage to both Raditz and Vegeta, and this inhibits him from achieving his true potential, Super Saiyan. The whole conflict is the idea that Goku can't achieve his full potential, unless he becomes like his people. Over time he grows to accept his heritage, after it becomes clear that several of his traits and passions are due to his heritage, and also when Vegeta earns his respect. And when Freeza kills Kuririn, Goku doesn't just accept his heritage, but for a moment, he succumbs to it, and revels in rage and bloodlust like a Super Saiyan is supposed to. He outright threatens Gohan and tortures Freeza sadistically, and Kaio even laments over the fact that Goku has given into his heritage and become an asshole. It was only after experiencing true saiyan nature, and knowing what he COULD be like, what he COULD have been like, that Goku makes the decision, "I don't want to be like this. I am going to choose the type of person I want to be." and so he not only cuts the fight with Freeza short, but repeatedly tries to spare him. This way, it wasn't a sheer twist of luck that Goku is a good person. It's actually him, he chooses to be the great man that he is, even when he had the option of reverting back to his roots and becoming a typical saiyan monster.

[ABED]

It's hard to say, but Kuririn being the first one there to greet Goku after the conclusion of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai always makes me emotional.

[KBABZ]

Those are both great points to add. I remember in the "What If" thread, somebody asked what would have happened had Goku won the 21st Budokai, and literally everybody who responded, said nothing about the series would change. I thought, that's extremely lame, the whole plot of the arc was set into motion because Kamesennin thought it was extremely important Goku not win. Are you guys saying Kamesennin was just plain wrong and that whole arc was pointless? I think it's better to say that losing is what taught Goku that there will always be a higher ceiling to keep striving towards, and the fact that this lesson is employed very shortly afterwards with Tao supports that. Like I said, if Goku won the 21st Budokai, he might not have accepted his loss to Tao and improved himself, he might have just tried fighting again and died. Do you agree with that?

The 21st is certainly important in Goku's life, and yeah I'd agree that Goku's approach is influenced by the result as doctored by Roshi. And in a funny way it ties into Frieza; one of Frieza's major issues is that he completely believes himself to be the top dog (Beerus and Buu are dormant and his dad stays on his chair), and he is called the strongest person in the universe multiple times. Goku however doesn't have that approach, and even after mopping the floor with the Ginyu Force, he doesn't lose perspective that Frieza is still tough, unlike Vegeta who believes he can be bested at that point. And because Goku dedicates himself to fighting and improvement, he's more prepared to face Frieza than any other challenger and wins (with a bit of luck and motivation). Frieza meanwhile loses because he gets far too cocky about being able to win (and as we learn later he doesn't even train), and is unable to comprehend himself being bested, and that results in his defeat a staggering three times, more than any other villain in the series.

Goku winning the 21st I think would also have done a number on Krillin's outlook as well. At that time Goku seemed within shooting distance of him and so Krillin would have trained to defeat Goku and likely succeeded in the 22nd (if you go under the assumption that Goku doesn't train in the interim) and he would have become even more "Yeah, this guy's a chump!" than normal!

However Goku definitely continued evolving after the defeat of Daimao. His best stuff takes place after Daimao. The whole revelation of the saiyans, and the idea that Goku's spent so much of his life stopping villains like Tao, the RRA, and both Piccolos, when all along he was destined to be worse than all of them, and the disgust Goku feels for this, is super juicy stuff. In the beginning he rejects his heritage to both Raditz and Vegeta, and this inhibits him from achieving his true potential, Super Saiyan. The whole conflict is the idea that Goku can't achieve his full potential, unless he becomes like his people. Over time he grows to accept his heritage, after it becomes clear that several of his traits and passions are due to his heritage, and also when Vegeta earns his respect. And when Freeza kills Kuririn, Goku doesn't just accept his heritage, but for a moment, he succumbs to it, and revels in rage and bloodlust like a Super Saiyan is supposed to. He outright threatens Gohan and tortures Freeza sadistically, and Kaio even laments over the fact that Goku has given into his heritage and become an asshole. It was only after experiencing true saiyan nature, and knowing what he COULD be like, what he COULD have been like, that Goku makes the decision, "I don't want to be like this. I am going to choose the type of person I want to be." and so he not only cuts the fight with Freeza short, but repeatedly tries to spare him. This way, it wasn't a sheer twist of luck that Goku is a good person. It's actually him, he chooses to be the great man that he is, even when he had the option of reverting back to his roots and becoming a typical saiyan monster.

I actually never thought of that! I only saw the angle of Goku accepting his Saiyan heritage through exposure in characters like Raditz and Vegeta. The Cell saga has some too where he is abjectly wrong about something for the first time in his life and nearly loses his son over it.

[ABED]

It's not a great change. He rejects it at first, but he doesn't for long. He's okay with it well before he ever steps foot on Namek. Goku changes a little after turning Super Saiyan, but it's temporary. Yes, he beats the crap out of Freeza, but it's not anything he hasn't done to someone before. You call him an asshole, but that's not true. He had every reason to beat up Freeza and revel in it. He's fully justified in his actions.

even after that, he wasn't immediately thinking about how to further his training.

How was he not? He left to retrieve the 4 star DB and get in more fights and train.

Goku does grow a little, but he's fundamentally the same as the person we meet at Mt. Paoz. His circumstances change, but his personality is the same. He's usually the catalyst for others' changes. To keep this on topic, the reason I prefer Kuririn being there for Goku to any of these moments is because it all felt organic.

[Super_Divine_Genki]

Favorite single minute from the whole franchise? My mental processes just shorted out for a bit there.

Ok. It would probably be much easier to narrow it down to a character moment, comedic moment, battle moment, and so on. I can't say favorite, but perhaps the most dramatic moment in the franchise is when Piccolo -- in no uncertain terms -- is explaining to Vegeta that he and his entire life experiences are going to be completely wiped away as his soul will be cleansed and then be changed into another life form after all of the atrocities that he's committed. No redemption... just everything gone. And Vegeta accepting that and going through with the moment anyway. That's one of those scenes that makes me stop whatever else I may be thinking or doing every time.

I mean:
[spoiler][/spoiler]
The expression in Vegeta's eyes tell the whole story. Nice touch, TOEI.


Also, on the other side of the spectrum, a comedic scene that stands out to me is when "Jackie Chun" and naive little Goku are about to square off in the finals at the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai... only to get a fun song and dance in before things get underway. That scene can help make anyone's day more enjoyable.

It's impossible for me to narrow it down to one favorite. Maybe one hundred... maybe

[sunsetshimmer]

Gets me everytime, especially with original music.
It's really hard to pick one tho. But this would be one of the favourite for sure.

1:00-2:00
https://youtu.be/zDbdXOB3pbc?t=1m

[Cipher]

Gotenks' volleyball attack.

Me. Satan's first scene with Boo.

The entire end of the Goku va. Freeza fight, from the moment Freeza is sliced in half to Goku's shaken reaction after "killing" him.

Meeting everyone after the seven-year timeskip in the Boo arc.

Vegeta explaining to Goku that they're probably the strongest in the universe after seeing Kaioshin's reactions. There are a lot of small moments around that part of the series that I love, actually, and which help sell the madcap tension of things to come and move the series into finale mode.

Goku's good-bye scenes with Piccolo and Kuririn at the end of GT.

Those are the ones that come to mind most immediately.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

SSJ Gogeta finishin off Super Janemba (Fusion 12) using Star Breaker/Dust or somethin. I swear its less than 1 minute

That's why I don't like movie 12 much. They spent the ENTIRE movie trying to fuse and then they do and with a snap of the figure the fight is over movie done. Just so unsatisfying, all of a sudden this OP villain is suddenly powerless, as the audience there's nothing to sustain me it's a moment that passes and then you realise you just wasted 40 mins or however long of your time. Make there be an actual fight or something.

[Bullza]

SSJ Gogeta finishin off Super Janemba (Fusion 12) using Star Breaker/Dust or somethin. I swear its less than 1 minute

That's why I don't like movie 12 much. They spent the ENTIRE movie trying to fuse and then they do and with a snap of the figure the fight is over movie done. Just so unsatisfying, all of a sudden this OP villain is suddenly powerless, as the audience there's nothing to sustain me it's a moment that passes and then you realise you just wasted 40 mins or however long of your time. Make there be an actual fight or something.

I think they spent more time on the Fat Gogeta than the proper one.

It was a good movie by the original DBZ movie standards but that did let it down, had they reduced the scenes with Goten and Trunks fighting Hitler and made a better fight out of Gogeta and Janemba then it could have been the best one.

[RedShift]

The original funimation dub where Vegeta admits to Goku will never be able to catch him:

https://youtu.be/lG5wFW9H-X0

27:00 - 28:30 or so.

Though, if I'm honest Vegeta's final atonement against Majin Buu is my favorite part of the entire franchise.

[MajinMan]

Favorite single minute? Uhh, this is a tough one. My favorite episode is Vegeta's sacrifice against Buu, so I guess it would be from that episode. One moment I really like that doesn't get brought up much is the ending of the episode. You can hear the wind howling, with no music in the background, while staring at a giant explosion. It gives me chills every time I watch that scene. Imma pick that one as my favorite single minute.

[Avenant]

For me, it has to go back to the two most defining moments of the series for me as a child. I can think of others equally worthy of the upper echelons of Dragon Ball moments, but what cemented the series as a life-long passion of mine were these two moments:

https://youtu.be/eMKepsqrC6I?t=1m8s
Goku becoming a Super Saiyan. There are a handful of series re-defining moments that preceded this, of course, but this is the one that changed DragonBall the most. Not only that, but I can remember being a wide-eyed preteen who could barely handle the amount of badassery present on screen when Goku's eyes turn that lovely shade of green. This moment literally changed everything I thought I knew and made me an even bigger fan than I was before.

Secondly, this little gem:

https://youtu.be/5oaTZ0CfeI8?t=2m10s

Man, when Trunks showed up, I was hooked. He was instantly my favorite character and still is to this day. His story is one of the best developed sub-plots of the entire series and The History of Trunks is one of the best Dragon Ball movies of all time, in my opinion. Top that all off with a kick-ass entrance where he completely mops the floor with the most powerful, developed and terrifying villain in the entire series. Plus, the animation here is on point!