Not seeing Final Form - good idea?

[Vijay]

From a storytelling perspective, what would be the point in telling the audience that there's another form and then not having them see it?

Recent wave of mindset goin on in social media ever since Everythin Great with The Dark Knight regarded Joker's lack of backstory bein a lot more frightening than it would've been had his story told/spoonfed to audience. Imagination is much more scary to reality...akin to that, havin rumored supposedly ultimate final boss form left for imagination is...supposed...to strike fear...or create an impression?

[Neo-Makaiōshin]

What if Super Goku used his brain for once, and didn't let one of potential future enemies achieve final form? I think it would be interesting idea, it would also gave fans chance to speculate what last form would look like

If you tease the existence of a "final form" and don't use it then you're doing a bad job and should have not introduced it at all in the first place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun

[TobyS]

While it'd be satisfying for the heroes to be proactive and stuff people would feel blue balled by not seeing it.

I can agree the villian being able to transform through their cunning is better than the heroes fucking up or their arrogance. It works when vegeta is a dickhead because he IS a dickhead. It's in character.

I guess if it was a form we already knew, for example an alternate timeline character, like trunks killing 1st form cell was satisfying because we weren't robbed of seeing a perfect Cell ever.

[JulieYBM]

At the very least I think a story could simply have the villain tricking Gokuu and friends instead of them pulling a Cell or whatever.

Starting out a story as a gag story with the main enemy comically failing to achieve their final form as a riff on the trope before transitioning to a serious story once they have managed to do so would be fun. Frame the enemy as our protagonist at first and then change the genre after a sufficient amount of gags.

[The Monkey King]

It would make for a funny gag/cool scene

Like how we never actually got to see Recoome's Hyper Fighting Bomber

[Anonymous Friend]

From a storytelling perspective, what would be the point in telling the audience that there's another form and then not having them see it?

Dragonball Z in the late 90s was the first show I encountered where the villain would "win" at the end of episodes. Most american shows had the villain start their scheme. Hero stops scheme. Villain might get somewhat far in their scheme. But the hero usually stops it before the villain gets what they wanted. DBZ would let the villain get what they wanted and the heroes have to stop them after that.

It's like a villain plan is to acquire a nuke gun, then they get it and now hero have to fight someone with a nuke gun. Sure it's intriguing to see some one with a nuke gun, but maybe it's enough to see them get the gun but not get a chance to use it. At least some of the time.

[Anonymous Friend]

What if Super Goku used his brain for once, and didn't let one of potential future enemies achieve final form? I think it would be interesting idea, it would also gave fans chance to speculate what last form would look like

If you tease the existence of a "final form" and don't use it then you're doing a bad job and should have not introduced it at all in the first place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun

Not every piece of minutia is important. If so, every fake movie or tv show or billboard or newpaper would need to be addressed.

[90sDBZ]

You know it's funny because Goku doesn't give an opinion one way or the other on Cell achieving his final form. Bulma, Krillin, and Trunks are the ones making the effort to stop Cell from reaching his perfect form.

And it actually would be interesting to see if Goku was in Vegeta's shoes in that one instance. This isn't like letting Freeza power up to 100 percent or giving Perfect Cell a senzu bean where its a misguided sense of honor thing. Letting Cell reach perfect means letting Cell devour 18 and makes Goku culpable in someone else's life being taken that isn't in combat.

So, it is interesting that Goku is absolved of having to compromise his warrior spirit by not letting Cell reach his perfect form as well as giving Cell the go ahead to kill someone, simply by not being around to give his opinion on the subject.

If I remember right he seems distressed when Cell absorbs 17. Perhaps because Cell was already far stronger than him even before that point. He seems to get excited when the villain is a bit stronger than him, but scared when they're too far beyond him, like with Tao, King Piccolo, and Raditz.

Honestly I don't think for a second he'd let Cell absorb 18 if he could prevent it. This is the guy who scolded Vegeta for killing the Ginyu Force in cold blood.

[Civic]

What if Super Goku used his brain for once, and didn't let one of potential future enemies achieve final form? I think it would be interesting idea, it would also gave fans chance to speculate what last form would look like

If you tease the existence of a "final form" and don't use it then you're doing a bad job and should have not introduced it at all in the first place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun

Not every piece of minutia is important. If so, every fake movie or tv show or billboard or newpaper would need to be addressed.

A final form of a villain is not "minutia." Fake movies/TV shows/billboards/etc. are there to give the world a lived-in feeling. They have no direct impact on the storyline other than setting.

[Vijay]

You know it's funny because Goku doesn't give an opinion one way or the other on Cell achieving his final form. Bulma, Krillin, and Trunks are the ones making the effort to stop Cell from reaching his perfect form.

And it actually would be interesting to see if Goku was in Vegeta's shoes in that one instance. This isn't like letting Freeza power up to 100 percent or giving Perfect Cell a senzu bean where its a misguided sense of honor thing. Letting Cell reach perfect means letting Cell devour 18 and makes Goku culpable in someone else's life being taken that isn't in combat.

So, it is interesting that Goku is absolved of having to compromise his warrior spirit by not letting Cell reach his perfect form as well as giving Cell the go ahead to kill someone, simply by not being around to give his opinion on the subject.

If I remember right he seems distressed when Cell absorbs 17. Perhaps because Cell was already far stronger than him even before that point. He seems to get excited when the villain is a bit stronger than him, but scared when they're too far beyond him, like with Tao, King Piccolo, and Raditz.

Honestly I don't think for a second he'd let Cell absorb 18 if he could prevent it. This is the guy who scolded Vegeta for killing the Ginyu Force in cold blood.

Goku had same reactions with various forms of Majin, esp Bootenks & Boohan

That bein said, he does seem interested in fightin guys like Perfect Cell & later Bootenks (even if he had to fuse with Gohan) etc

[90sDBZ]

Goku had same reactions with various forms of Majin, esp Bootenks & Boohan

That bein said, he does seem interested in fightin guys like Perfect Cell & later Bootenks (even if he had to fuse with Gohan) etc

He was very reluctant to fight Buutenks/Buuhan and even regular Super Buu without Fusion.

He knew Perfect Cell was stronger than him, but didn't know the full extent of his power until later, so still wanted to fight him. He also knew that he ultimately had Gohan to fall back on, so in his mind he could just fight Cell for fun before letting Gohan finish things.

[coola]

It would make for a funny gag/cool scene

Like how we never actually got to see Recoome's Hyper Fighting Bomber

Loved Goku casually punching Jeice face too, "Shouldn't you guys start taking it seriously?" one of few times adult Goku is completely relaxed, he knows he outclass his opponents.

[coola]

Guess closest one to "chekov gun" we've got, was Zeiun from DBZ Movie 4, dude was important enough to get featured in poster, yet he got killed off by Slug, for saying he gets old so we never saw his techniques or how strong he was...

[MasenkoHA]

Guess closest one to "chekov gun" we've got, was Zeiun from DBZ Movie 4, dude was important enough to get featured in poster, yet he got killed off by Slug, for saying he gets old so we never saw his techniques or how strong he was...

That's not what a Chekov's gun is

[Godo]

An idea would be to introduce a villain that is defeated by Goku or someone else in the gang, whilst getting to know that there was another form whilst the villain is dying (claiming that there wasn't time to transform or something).
Years later in the chronology, the villain is introduced again, returning via the Dragonballs (I know, the Dragon Balls are already overused, but it's convenient ) and is then able to use their final form, having time before anyone reaches them. That's when we get to know that he would have wrecked the heroes if allowed to transform the previous time, being stronger than all of them in the present.
This method has been used before but with changing the characters, much like introducing lesser Cyborgs and later 17 and 18, and the power jump wouldn't be strange considering the significant power jumps pretty much every transforming villain does.

[theherodjl]

Here's a scenario: Goku faces off against a very strong villain that is not in their final or true form and due to some circumstance, said-villain dies before they could show off their full power. Later on, minions or individuals sympathetic to the villain steal a set of DBs to revive their master/ally and Goku has the chance to shut that down right then & there. Would Goku do the sensible thing and prevent a powerful villain from living again or would he actually allow the villain to rise once more just so he can have that fight that he missed out on?

[TobyS]

An idea would be to introduce a villain that is defeated by Goku or someone else in the gang, whilst getting to know that there was another form whilst the villain is dying (claiming that there wasn't time to transform or something).
Years later in the chronology, the villain is introduced again, returning via the Dragonballs (I know, the Dragon Balls are already overused, but it's convenient ) and is then able to use their final form, having time before anyone reaches them. That's when we get to know that he would have wrecked the heroes if allowed to transform the previous time, being stronger than all of them in the present.
This method has been used before but with changing the characters, much like introducing lesser Cyborgs and later 17 and 18, and the power jump wouldn't be strange considering the significant power jumps pretty much every transforming villain does.

That's an idea, avoid it initially to see it again later.

[capsulecorp]

An idea would be to introduce a villain that is defeated by Goku or someone else in the gang, whilst getting to know that there was another form whilst the villain is dying (claiming that there wasn't time to transform or something).
Years later in the chronology, the villain is introduced again, returning via the Dragonballs (I know, the Dragon Balls are already overused, but it's convenient ) and is then able to use their final form, having time before anyone reaches them. That's when we get to know that he would have wrecked the heroes if allowed to transform the previous time, being stronger than all of them in the present.
This method has been used before but with changing the characters, much like introducing lesser Cyborgs and later 17 and 18, and the power jump wouldn't be strange considering the significant power jumps pretty much every transforming villain does.

That's an idea, avoid it initially to see it again later.

This is probably what's happening with 73 and his angel powers in the current arc of DBS, actually...