Alternate sequels to other story arcs

[Yuji]

So far the Boo arc has received several unique standalone sequels that all conflict with each other. We know the original manga is sacred so if any arc is to receive a sequel, it will be the Boo arc, but what if this was not the case?

How would an alternate sequel to the Cell arc/Namek arc /23rd TB etc go if they chose to pick up from those time periods with an original story?

[Jord]

You should check out the alternate paths in Sparking Zero then.

[JulieYBM]

One could really do anything, but I do think it would be interesting to see them do alternate post-Twenty-Third Tenka'ichi Budoukai arcs to flesh out the cast from that era without relying too heavily on aliens and such. What if other rival schools were right on the tail of Gokuu and friends after the fall of Piccolo and made themselves known after the Artificial Human arc?

What if there was no Planet Namek Dragon Balls? What if the cast was not just Gokuu, Gohan, Kuririn? Maybe Yajirobe? Blooma? Would they still go out into space?

One of the things that I enjoy about the older films is that you can kind of have these what-if scenarios, like you see in the Tullece movie. Everyone's alive and fighting together! Except no Freeza and Vegeta or a focus on Super Saiyans! What if that was an opportunity to do something that brought the series back to the aforementioned martial arts school?

What other genres could be explored, if the Saiyan arc or the Namek arc was the 'sci-fi' arc? We've already done wuxia, RPG, and sci-fi...what else? Period drama? War film? Revenge of the Red Ribbon Army, but this time more so as a war film?

[MCDaveG]

Sparking Zero kinda went this way, where you have alternate routes and story branches with arcs happening differently.
What if Goku didn't die during the fight with Raditz? How will this arc go if Gohan didn't slack his training as he did in the OG story? etc.
It's just sadly missing the Broly fight and I don't expect it to do an episode treatment to Daima either.

But before that, everything went with alternate stories during or after Buu arc, so even tho everyone was bickering how the story mode in SZ is cheap, I actually liked the writing and alternate options... there are just tons of missing opportunities with more stories and characters, especially from other arcs than Super and Z.

[Yuji]

Sparking Zero kinda went this way, where you have alternate routes and story branches with arcs happening differently.
What if Goku didn't die during the fight with Raditz? How will this arc go if Gohan didn't slack his training as he did in the OG story? etc.
It's just sadly missing the Broly fight and I don't expect it to do an episode treatment to Daima either.

But before that, everything went with alternate stories during or after Buu arc, so even tho everyone was bickering how the story mode in SZ is cheap, I actually liked the writing and alternate options... there are just tons of missing opportunities with more stories and characters, especially from other arcs than Super and Z.

It's not the same as what I'm saying. Those are "what ifs", they follow essentially the same story still. What if Gohan trained? It doesn't change much, he still fights Freeza, Hit, Zamasu, etc - same story progression as Super.

I'm saying full on reimaginings of the story like how GT/Super/Daima/DB Online/Neko Majin are all vastly different in terms of plot, themes, tone, etc.

So for instance a new Cell arc sequel would not be "what if Gohan kept training when Babidi arrived?" It wouldn't be about Boo at all, it'd be a new story completely post Cell, maybe following Goku in the afterlife, maybe following Gohan's adventures with a new villain, maybe Goku is revived after a year, maybe something else entirely.

[Majin Buu]

One of the things that I enjoy about the older films is that you can kind of have these what-if scenarios, like you see in the Tullece movie. Everyone's alive and fighting together! Except no Freeza and Vegeta or a focus on Super Saiyans! What if that was an opportunity to do something that brought the series back to the aforementioned martial arts school?

It's funny that folks are citing Sparking Zero as providing this when as you point out- The old Z movies are more like what Yuji is talking about as they more or less function as "alternate sequels" themselves. You could probably just flesh those out into proper story arcs to fully realize what Yuji is getting at.

[JulieYBM]

One of the things that I enjoy about the older films is that you can kind of have these what-if scenarios, like you see in the Tullece movie. Everyone's alive and fighting together! Except no Freeza and Vegeta or a focus on Super Saiyans! What if that was an opportunity to do something that brought the series back to the aforementioned martial arts school?

It's funny that folks are citing Sparking Zero as providing this when as you point out- The old Z movies are more like what Yuji is talking about as they more or less function as "alternate sequels" themselves. You could probably just flesh those out into proper story arcs to fully realize what Yuji is getting at.

Yeah, pretty much. It would work a lot better if they committed to a sense of "anything could happen" by not worrying about how the arcs interconnect, too.

[taikufuru]

Before its inclusion in the continuity of the TV series, the Garlic Jr. movie seemed like an alternate sequel to the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, using specific points from the battle against Raditz to create that original story.

The Dr. Uiro movie also seems to function as an alternate sequel to the Saiyan Saga, where Piccolo and the others were resurrected without any problem, as if Freeza had never appeared on Namek and Goku did not need to go there to face him, becoming a Super Saiyan.

The Bojack movie seems to indicate a different path than what we had after the Cell arc. There, Gohan seems committed to continuing to get stronger and stronger, assuming his role as protector of the Earth. It also functions as a alternative sequel/epilogue to the Cell arc.

[Peach]

One could really do anything, but I do think it would be interesting to see them do alternate post-Twenty-Third Tenka'ichi Budoukai arcs to flesh out the cast from that era without relying too heavily on aliens and such. What if other rival schools were right on the tail of Gokuu and friends after the fall of Piccolo and made themselves known after the Artificial Human arc?

What if there was no Planet Namek Dragon Balls? What if the cast was not just Gokuu, Gohan, Kuririn? Maybe Yajirobe? Blooma? Would they still go out into space?

One of the things that I enjoy about the older films is that you can kind of have these what-if scenarios, like you see in the Tullece movie. Everyone's alive and fighting together! Except no Freeza and Vegeta or a focus on Super Saiyans! What if that was an opportunity to do something that brought the series back to the aforementioned martial arts school?

What other genres could be explored, if the Saiyan arc or the Namek arc was the 'sci-fi' arc? We've already done wuxia, RPG, and sci-fi...what else? Period drama? War film? Revenge of the Red Ribbon Army, but this time more so as a war film?

I would like this a lot.

Things wouldn't be planetary or happening in super speed. Heck, Goku wouldn't even be flying. It would just be fun characters and clean martial arts. Flying would be an OP ability that only certain characters like Chiaotzu have.

I tend to like that first Garlic Jr movie quite a bit. I love how the action is choreographed and how it doesn't rely on flying. I like how the villains are more occult/a completely different vibe from anything in Z, Daima, or Super.

[JulieYBM]

Flying doesn't necessarily have to mean one thing or the other, since you can still use flying in cool choreographed fights. They production itself just needs more time.

I liked the Four Kings from the Garlic Junior arc, though. I wish more time had been devoted to fleshing out their personalities and relationships to Garlic Junior, though. I'm surprised that we never even got a full-look at Garlic Senior.

[MisteryOne]

I actually tried to do this as a weiting exercise that turned into a full fanfic, an alternate post-Namek story that kept things like Super Saiyan being rare, but I quickly noticed people had zero interest in that because they are too used to iconic moments from the Cell and Boo arcs. And while there were things I did want to include from later arcs in a reimagined way and it was fun to think of how to do so (like Majin Vegeta), not many of them felt like natural follow ups of the story anyways.

I feel like this is too broad of a question to answer reallistically , but the closest answer is probably the old Toei movies. They were pretty much wrote without knowing the future of Toriyama's works after all. The Cooler movie is for example an alternate post-Namek story that is surprisingly close to what happened with King Cold. The Bojack movie and the Otherworld Tournament tried to continue the ending of the Cell arc. Even the Buu arc opening assumed cedtain characters would now be important because now it was all about Gohan's adventures in highschool. Wrath of the Dragon was the first full post-Buu story and Fusion Reborn is an alternate take on the arc's ending.

I don't think any of them would be good. All of those continuations except the tournament and a couple of movies kind of suffer from the same thing many criticisms about modern Dragonball are headed: they just repeat what was popular over and over without considering why they got popular to begin with.

[WittyUsername]

I don’t know if this counts, but I think it would’ve been interesting to see a continuation of the old movie continuity that ended with Mystical Adventure. That’s obviously not gonna happen, since those movies are from nearly 40 years ago, and hardly anyone even talks about them anyway, but it’s a fun hypothetical.

[JulieYBM]

I don’t know if this counts, but I think it would’ve been interesting to see a continuation of the old movie continuity that ended with Mystical Adventure. That’s obviously not gonna happen, since those movies are from nearly 40 years ago, and hardly anyone even talks about them anyway, but it’s a fun hypothetical.

I agree. Those films were a lot of fun and I think would qualify as a good blueprint for future adaptions of Dragon Ball.

[taikufuru]

I think they should have gone for a single, singular storyline for those movies, instead of creating stories from a point in the main story that wouldn't be considered in the TV series, making things more confusing.

We would have three Dragon Ball continuities in different media (manga, TV series, and movies), which would be different from each other, coherent with themselves, and self-sufficient. Imagine if the 13 old Dragon Ball Z films were linked to the previous three and formed a single story, freely adapting the main story? It would have been amazing!

I think the reason they dropped this idea is that the TV series was revamped with a new title (Z) and, from a marketing perspective, it wouldn't make sense to have a 4th film tied to the original series without being in tune with the current moment of the series.

[Koitsukai]

Instead of the Buu arc, I'd introduce Broly. Instead of Kaio alerting them of some galaxies being destroyed, it's Shin who alerts them that Majin Buu, a legendary majin, was defeated by the LSS, who is even a bigger threat, and Goku's help is needed.
They can take the fight to another galaxy, or maybe Broly is coming to Earth.

[Yuji]

Instead of the Buu arc, I'd introduce Broly. Instead of Kaio alerting them of some galaxies being destroyed, it's Shin who alerts them that Majin Buu, a legendary majin, was defeated by the LSS, who is even a bigger threat, and Goku's help is needed.
They can take the fight to another galaxy, or maybe Broly is coming to Earth.

A Super Saiyan (the original/legendary, whatever) being the final villain of the series has always seemed very fitting to me.

[MasenkoHA]

I think they should have gone for a single, singular storyline for those movies, instead of creating stories from a point in the main story that wouldn't be considered in the TV series, making things more confusing.

We would have three Dragon Ball continuities in different media (manga, TV series, and movies), which would be different from each other, coherent with themselves, and self-sufficient. Imagine if the 13 old Dragon Ball Z films were linked to the previous three and formed a single story, freely adapting the main story? It would have been amazing!

I think the reason they dropped this idea is that the TV series was revamped with a new title (Z) and, from a marketing perspective, it wouldn't make sense to have a 4th film tied to the original series without being in tune with the current moment of the series.

Tbh the whole thing was getting messy. Mystical Adventure had to reduce Kame Sennin’s training into an opening montage, downplayed the importance of the Tenkaichi Budokai to no longer being a significant part of Goku’s pre-Saiyan character arc but a mere set up for the movie’s plot and combine aspects and characters of the Red Ribbon Army and the Crane School into the Mifan Empire and Karin’s appearance ended up feeling random as hell. They hadn’t even introduced Chi Chi yet probably because they weren’t aware Toriyama was gonna bring her back to marry Goku. So a theoretical 4th Dragon Ball film in that continuity would have to introduce Chi Chi and Gyumao, age Goku up to an adult, marry him off to Chi Chicover both the original Piccolo Daimao and Junior, introduce Kami and make Goku “Strongest Under the Heavens”’just to get things up to speed.

[JulieYBM]

I think they should have gone for a single, singular storyline for those movies, instead of creating stories from a point in the main story that wouldn't be considered in the TV series, making things more confusing.

We would have three Dragon Ball continuities in different media (manga, TV series, and movies), which would be different from each other, coherent with themselves, and self-sufficient. Imagine if the 13 old Dragon Ball Z films were linked to the previous three and formed a single story, freely adapting the main story? It would have been amazing!

I think the reason they dropped this idea is that the TV series was revamped with a new title (Z) and, from a marketing perspective, it wouldn't make sense to have a 4th film tied to the original series without being in tune with the current moment of the series.

Tbh the whole thing was getting messy. Mystical Adventure had to reduce Kame Sennin’s training into an opening montage, downplayed the importance of the Tenkaichi Budokai to no longer being a significant part of Goku’s pre-Saiyan character arc but a mere set up for the movie’s plot and combine aspects and characters of the Red Ribbon Army and the Crane School into the Mifan Empire and Karin’s appearance ended up feeling random as hell. They hadn’t even introduced Chi Chi yet probably because they weren’t aware Toriyama was gonna bring her back to marry Goku. So a theoretical 4th Dragon Ball film in that continuity would have to introduce Chi Chi and Gyumao, age Goku up to an adult, marry him off to Chi Chicover both the original Piccolo Daimao and Junior, introduce Kami and make Goku “Strongest Under the Heavens”’just to get things up to speed.

Haphazard idea with no thought behind it: Chi-Chi and Gyuumaou recruit Gokuu when Piccolo gets unleashed and begins terrorizing the world. Make Gyuumaou the World King and voila, three birds with one stone.

[taikufuru]

I think they should have gone for a single, singular storyline for those movies, instead of creating stories from a point in the main story that wouldn't be considered in the TV series, making things more confusing.

We would have three Dragon Ball continuities in different media (manga, TV series, and movies), which would be different from each other, coherent with themselves, and self-sufficient. Imagine if the 13 old Dragon Ball Z films were linked to the previous three and formed a single story, freely adapting the main story? It would have been amazing!

I think the reason they dropped this idea is that the TV series was revamped with a new title (Z) and, from a marketing perspective, it wouldn't make sense to have a 4th film tied to the original series without being in tune with the current moment of the series.

Tbh the whole thing was getting messy. Mystical Adventure had to reduce Kame Sennin’s training into an opening montage, downplayed the importance of the Tenkaichi Budokai to no longer being a significant part of Goku’s pre-Saiyan character arc but a mere set up for the movie’s plot and combine aspects and characters of the Red Ribbon Army and the Crane School into the Mifan Empire and Karin’s appearance ended up feeling random as hell. They hadn’t even introduced Chi Chi yet probably because they weren’t aware Toriyama was gonna bring her back to marry Goku. So a theoretical 4th Dragon Ball film in that continuity would have to introduce Chi Chi and Gyumao, age Goku up to an adult, marry him off to Chi Chicover both the original Piccolo Daimao and Junior, introduce Kami and make Goku “Strongest Under the Heavens”’just to get things up to speed.

That's the charm! It's not just about following the paths of the manga, but putting these characters in different and varied contexts. Notice how different the setting is in the third film. Chiaotzu is now a king!