Dragon Ball GT Would’ve Been Rated A Masterpiece If It Used The Plot Of The Metarex Saga From Sonic X

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Dragon Ball GT Would’ve Been Rated A Masterpiece If It Used The Plot Of The Metarex Saga From Sonic X

Post by NeoKING » Thu Mar 09, 2023 8:07 pm

If you literally take the idea of the DBs and triage them with the Chaos Emeralds, cast and aesthetics, you get an excellent example of a story telling adventure.

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Re: Dragon Ball GT Would’ve Been Rated A Masterpiece If It Used The Plot Of The Metarex Saga From Sonic X

Post by Zephyr » Thu Mar 09, 2023 9:27 pm

ok but what was the plot of the metarex saga in sonic x

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Re: Dragon Ball GT Would’ve Been Rated A Masterpiece If It Used The Plot Of The Metarex Saga From Sonic X

Post by Kid Buu » Fri Mar 10, 2023 8:35 am

Zephyr wrote: Thu Mar 09, 2023 9:27 pm ok but what was the plot of the metarex saga in sonic x
The plot was Gotta Go Fast, duh.
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Re: Dragon Ball GT Would’ve Been Rated A Masterpiece If It Used The Plot Of The Metarex Saga From Sonic X

Post by dbgtFO » Fri Mar 10, 2023 8:37 am

If you want a discussion, you can't just make a thread revolving around the obscure plot points of a specific series of another entire franchise and then not explain what the actual plot points are, as if everybody just knows the details of every other franchise.

Come on now, bro.

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Re: Dragon Ball GT Would’ve Been Rated A Masterpiece If It Used The Plot Of The Metarex Saga From Sonic X

Post by nineko » Fri Mar 10, 2023 8:49 am

The Metarex saga was the lowest point of Sonic X, by far, I could never force myself to watch it in its entirety, whereas I generally enjoyed the previous arcs.

I'm not GT's biggest fan, but it's still way better than that.

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Re: Dragon Ball GT Would’ve Been Rated A Masterpiece If It Used The Plot Of The Metarex Saga From Sonic X

Post by Xeogran » Fri Mar 10, 2023 9:51 am

:lolno:

Evidence shows that it's the other way around.

People talk about GT every day, while the Metarex arc has never even been adapted to a single Sonic game to this day.

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Re: Dragon Ball GT Would’ve Been Rated A Masterpiece If It Used The Plot Of The Metarex Saga From Sonic X

Post by Scientist Fu » Fri Mar 10, 2023 11:56 am

I did watch the Metarex arc, but I don't remember much about it.

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Re: Dragon Ball GT Would’ve Been Rated A Masterpiece If It Used The Plot Of The Metarex Saga From Sonic X

Post by Wrigglything » Fri Mar 10, 2023 10:07 pm

Xeogran wrote: Fri Mar 10, 2023 9:51 am People talk about GT every day, while the Metarex arc has never even been adapted to a single Sonic game to this day.
To be fair, none of Sonic X were adapted into later media AFAIK. Not in a direct manner anyhow. And i'm not counting the Adventure retellings, but that's a reverse where the anime was taking from the game. The most they ever did was use the Sonic X English dub cast for the 2000s games. Hell, I don't even think they take elements from spinoff media until Frontiers, but those were just small mentions of characters that appear in the IDW comics and the writer for the game also worked in the comic too.

And as for why I think the post is made like it is, because honestly some of the responses seem kind of a bit on the unsympathetic side if you'd allow me to be a bit more sensitive, I think it's because a lot of Sonic fans also enjoy Dragon Ball (see 2000s Sonic fan animations on Newgrounds) so it might concur that the opposite occurs too, therefore some of us here might be more privy towards a plot point in that show as well. Though I also would like some clarification as I did not watch Sonic X to completion, mostly due to its rather shaky reputation in the fanbase if I'm being honest.

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Re: Dragon Ball GT Would’ve Been Rated A Masterpiece If It Used The Plot Of The Metarex Saga From Sonic X

Post by 90sDBZ » Sat Mar 11, 2023 8:41 am

I don't remember much about Sonic X, but GT's Planet M2 arc has always reminded me of Sonic.

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Re: Dragon Ball GT Would’ve Been Rated A Masterpiece If It Used The Plot Of The Metarex Saga From Sonic X

Post by NeoZ Duwang » Sat Mar 11, 2023 10:28 am

Giving some context for those who don't know about the story of the Metarex Arc:
When I was a kid, I found very amusing how both GT and the Metarex Arc shared the same basic idea of taking the characters on a space trip in search of the main seven maguffins they have to collect. I'm not sure if the comparison is fair, not only because Metarex is like, one of the best Sonic storylines in general, while GT is... less than impressive, but the audiences of both series have somewhat different expectations.

This is, admitely, very anecdotal on my part, but a common criticism for GT that I've seen out there is the bad action the series has. I personally don't care about it too much, but It's definetly there, and Sonic X doesn't do much better, because 1) the anime wasn't focused on the action itself before, but more on the adventures themselves and I assume that the anime writing staff weren't exactly in their element doing it 2) Shiro Maekawa, one of the main writers for the Metarex Arc, was one of the main writers for the games at the time and he doesn't seen to have a lot of experience outside of Sonic, and writing for a game means that you're not doing the action. So an alternate version of GT written by the same people that made X wouldn't really work that well for a lot of people anyway, Dragon Ball is a very action heavy series and following the story-focused route that Metarex does could still alienate a lot of fans... or maybe they would enjoy it for being different, I don't know.

As for the actual story, as I said, Metarex is one of my favorite Sonic stories in general, and a lot of these elements COULD be translated do Dragon Ball, but it would work much worse imo. Sonic is already a series that has themes of enviromentalism, so it makes sense for them to make a story about villains like that.

Maybe you could make villains that hate martial arts because of violence or something? I don't know, there are many paths you could explore with this premise in the context of Dragon Ball. Now that I think about it, Baby's motivation could be compared to the Metarex's in a way, so they kind of are doing their own takes on similar ideas already, it just happens that GT is pretty boring and forgettable
Wrigglything wrote: Fri Mar 10, 2023 10:07 pm Hell, I don't even think they take elements from spinoff media until Frontiers, but those were just small mentions of characters that appear in the IDW comics and the writer for the game also worked in the comic too.
Shadow's limiter rings come from X, the only times the games used then was in 06, which was written by Kyoko Yoshimura, one of the main writers of the anime. There are plenty of examples of elements from other media being brought to the games, but I'll refrain from listing them here because I don't want to derail the topic
she/they.

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Re: Dragon Ball GT Would’ve Been Rated A Masterpiece If It Used The Plot Of The Metarex Saga From Sonic X

Post by Shaddy » Sat Mar 11, 2023 12:18 pm

The stories are just not analogues.

People love to bring up Sonic since it takes some superficial stuff from Dragon Ball, but it's fundamentally a very different story. Sonic's themes relate to freedom as much for oneself as for others, and an innate curiosity for the world and its many cultures, with the villains almost always representing homogenity and stagnation.

Dragon Ball is not that. Dragon Ball is about Goku's journey towards self-actualization and the infinite pursuit of a skill. It can contain similar themes, but the villains are almost always obstacles for the heroes to overcome, and the thematic challenge is usually that of the legitimacy of their skill and their methods of improvement.

Both series value teamwork, both have flat-arc protagonists that like to go off and do their own thing rather than pursue justice outright, but the way the stories navigate these characters are too different to just say "take this story and put it here". A story where Sonic has to fight Freeza or Cell would be a bad story, because Freeza and Cell from Sonic's perspective would just be big angry dudes to fight. This is the mistake a lot of stuff like the early Archie comics made, where villains like Enerjak or Mogul were simply not interesting because "a really strong dude" has no reference against a cast of people where relative strength isn't really a factor. Knuckles got shitloads of arbitrary powerups for this reason, and it was downright pathetic.

Similarly, a story where Goku has to fight, say, the metal virus and Starline would be...admittedly interesting, but would probably feel like a filler arc because it's not a battle Goku or anyone else can win by attaining new strength and skills, since nobody specializes in biomechanics or magic fuckin' rocks. Goku would probably just burn the virus off by going a new level of super saiyan and everyone would complain about the arc on twitter for being shallow.

This is why it irks me whenever people want Hyper Sonic back, or were in hysterics at the idea of Sonic getting a new form in Frontiers. Super Sonic, however much it may take inspiration, is not a vessel by which Sonic can acquire power and reach new heights. It is the reward Sonic gets for fulfilling the specific task he (and by extension the player) is set to in a respective story. He is invincible, and does not get tired. The only way the player can fail is by not being fast! Why would you add more layers onto that?

Relative to Sonic X, what people need to understand is that Sonic X is not a story about Sonic. It is a story about Chris Thorndyke interacting with Sonic's world and characters. The series does a bad job at this, given that our "relatable sad lonely child" is filthy rich with tons of friends, but whatever. The Metarex arc, then, is for Chris a coming-of-age story about learning to move on from Sonic and friends, something he failed to do at the end of the prior arcs, and has been given a second chance at (with newfound youth) in the Metarex arc. Since he's an adult in a child's body, he has to deal with being treated like a kid even though he doesn't feel like one, and has to witness as his childhood friends, Tails in particular, grow up without him.

This just isn't GT. GT is a space adventure (for one arc) with a de-aged Goku, but it's not about maturity any more than Z was. If it's about anything, it's about legacy. Hence "a hero's legacy", I suppose, but everyone has grown old around Goku, but him being young is framed as a way to say things don't end, he can keep pursuing new heights forever, and he just has to make sure he's leaving the world in a better place than he entered it.

EDIT: It's been upwards of ten years since I've seen either Metarex or GT, and it's going to be about half a year before I rewatch Sonic X for our youtube reviews (stay tuned!), so sorry if there are inaccuracies here.

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