GodVegetto91 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 19, 2020 2:55 pm
Is anyone else as hyped about next month’s manga chapter as I am? I can hardly wait already, even though this month’s manga chapter has yet to come out officially tomorrow. I’m already stoked for the next! I just want to see the HISTORIC moment of Goku attaining and mastering the fully completed Ultra Instinct for real this time!
What I really like is that Beerus and Whis are right there to witness it! The great “awakening” of Son Goku is happing right before their very eyes! Beerus and Whis, the two that started this all and introduced us to a whole new world! It’s now come full circle!
I wish I could be excited. Maybe if the arc wasn't so stupidly dragged out I would have. And I blame Toei and Toyataro both for this. Because I believe Toei is asking Toyo to stretch it out, and Toyo does not have the writing ability to write long-form arcs without relying on convenience and happenstance and general bullshittery to write himself out of a corner.
You can take out the prisoners being freed and them looting planets. They ultimately did nothing and served no purpose to the arc. The only hench person that mattered were Raspberry and 7-3. None of the other prisoners mattered from a plot perspective. They were there to get jobbered by the other Z warriors. You can take all the prisoners out except the aforementioned two and the whole arc wouldn't be changed.
You can take Majin Buu out (because it's clear he isn't going to be relevant again) and even to this point, nothing he did has changed the overall arc. Neither has the Daishinkai.
Ultimately....what was the purpose of this arc? What does it contribute overall in terms to the overall franchise? It has nothing going for it besides "Whelp, here's a arc specific power for Vegeta that he'll most likely never use again and let's have Goku master UI Omen." But story wise...what is there?
With the Battle of Gods, it continued the themes of there always being a strong foe, with Goku becoming complacent in his power and being introduced to a new realm of power, while opening up the world of DB to the canon introduction of a multiverse and other universes to explore.
Ress. F, as bad as it was, gave us the start of Vegeta and Goku developing the aspect of working together, and getting the ball rolling for Ultra Instinct, introducing the concept there. It also gave Freeza some development (as unbelievable as it may be).
Universe 6 Saga established and gave us a glimpse of another Universe and the types of fighters that were there. This was also the first usage and appearance of the Super Dragon Balls and their power.
The Future Trunks saga gave us a look into the God hierarchy and highlighted how the Gods are flawed creatures and don't have their shit together as well as some may have thought. They aren't all knowing, all seeing. They're cocky, incompetent, and sometimes flat out awful. It's also the first arc that (for the most part) introduced a villain with understandable and relatable motivates who from a certain perspective could be viewed as absolutely sympathetic. His downfall came about from his master's incompetence and passivity, and ultimately helped spin the wheel of his fall to a villain as much as Goku did. Beerus is to blame as well in it as he got the ball rolling when he challenged Goku and pushed to find the Super Saiyan God.
The ToP arc brought about the importance of teamwork and an antagonist of pure strength that only relied on himself. Jiren, while a not fully compelling character, was a great foil to Goku. And his power brought about a trait that we've never seen from a character we least expected it from: Freeza. It brought elements and teachings from Ress. F and ideas from Battle of Gods, and provided them throughout the arc. Whether it was satisfying or well written is another story and up for debate entirely, but it IS there. There IS attempts being made for themes to be connected from past arcs and relevance to the story as a whole and growth.
And yes, I know that many of the examples I listed are anime only (but also many of them are present in the manga.) Contrary to popular belief, there actually is a through line between arcs and several connectors. Strong or not, they are there. You just have to look for them.
But as previously mentioned...what is new or fresh about the Moro arc? What is it adding as a whole? What is relevant? How are the background pieces relevant? Why can so much of this arc be cut and the whole story threads would remain wholly unchanged?
That for me is the biggest failure of this arc. That's why I cannot be invested in it. And every chapter I just passively read as if it's a Boruto manga chapter.
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