ABED wrote: ↑Sun Jan 21, 2024 10:35 pm
offhanded must mean something different to you.
Offhanded means it's brought up once in one scene and then immediately gets forgotten about for fifty entire episodes, upon which it then becomes the main story... where a bunch of completely forgettable nobodies have a bunch of repetitive, boring, poorly-animated, poorly-written, poorly-paced fights for over 30 episodes straight in what's supposed to be 48 minutes in-universe. UGH.
Neither works well and for similar (though not the same exact) reasons. It doesn't work in GT because he comes into the narrative just to die. It feels just as hamfisted, though at least he stays dead in GT. In Z it works phenomenally well because not only is it the culmination of his character arc, his relationship with Gohan was cemented. The audience cares about their friendship and so we understand and feel why he would do what he did and are gutted when Gohan sees his mentor and friend die. In GT, while the friendship is in tact, it takes it for granted and brings him back after having him barely in the series. It's emotionally manipulative instead of sad and cathartic. We care if the characters die because we like them. Even if we know they are coming back, it still has the ability to break our heart if it's done well. In Super, it doesn't work because again, it's been done before and Piccolo and Gohan are- so on the periphery up to this point. Then there is the matter of the arc as a whole killing him off as reference to a moment we've already seen years prior. It serves no greater purpose in the story for Gohan or Piccolo. It has nothing to do with the timeskip and everything to do with the hard work not being done. Super and GT took a shortcut.
Could Piccolo's death in GT have been done better? Of course. As I admitted before, GT absolutely has plenty of problems, but overall it's soooooo much better than Dragon Ball Shitter. But it at least TRIED. There was a reason for his decision. Not the greatest reason EVER, but it DID make a certain amount of sense. People with evil intentions had come after the Dragon Balls time and time and time again, it's ABSOLUTELY NOT out of the realm of possibility that someone could find the Black Star Balls and put the Earth in danger again (and the fact that no one should be able to get to God's Temple without the bell had long ceased to matter because Toriyama already broke that rule a dozen times over before GT lol).
Hell, Kuririn's barely around in GT either and his death still feels emotionally impactful as well. No. 18's reaction, the fact that No. 17, her brother, has been brainwashed into doing it, and the appearance of the Evil Dragons soon after making the Dragon Balls inert and casting Kuririn's resurrection into doubt contribute to that. The fact that Kuririn and Piccolo aren't around as much in GT by itself doesn't hurt the emotional impact as much as you claim it does, because they're STILL MAJOR characters who had been around for HUNDREDS of episode at that point, and again... there's nothing at that point that spoils their further fates as is the case with Super. That may not make a difference to you, but it does to me and many others.
AND... Piccolo's death in GT impacts later events in the story. Only a few times and briefly, but it does, which is more than his Super death can say. First, when he's able to open up a hole out of Hell for Gokū by working with Dende (with a callback to a hilarious bit earlier from the fight with Lood). Then, the scene when Gokū travels to Hell at the very end of the series to say goodbye to Piccolo and shake his hand. I may be a little biased since I LOOOOOVE GT's final episode... but it's a GREAT, albeit a little short, scene that's an emotional cap to their decades of friendship and respect for one another.
Of course it's nowhere near as impactful as his first death in Z, I don't disagree one bit. But it has SOME emotional resonance. And yeah... his death in Super didn't put in any work to be emotionally impactful. BUT, even if it did, it wouldn't have changed anything. As I said in a previous post, I didn't care AT ALL about Agumon and Gabumon dying in Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution: Kizuna, despite the film putting in a LOT of work to make it super emotional... because I've known since 2001 that their deaths don't stick whatsoever. How much work the scene puts in is a factor, but its context in the series being a midquel absolutely is as well. It may be a factor that doesn't matter in the least to YOU, but that's NOT a universal view.
