PrinceVegetto wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 2:36 am
I think a new TV series that continues the GT TV special could have potential.
We'd have new heroes emerge without constantly retreading old battles or recycling old villains and people wouldn't miss Goku or Vegeta because Goku Jr and Vegeta Jr are their carbon copies
Goku Jr. looks like a carbon copy of Goku, but that's where the similarities end.
On the topic of wanting something that doesn't retread old battles and recycle old villains, I think the GT staff are probably among the last people I'd be trusting to deliver it. Every major conflict in that show was about something from the past coming back. It was an inherently backwards-looking project, despite time moving forward and characters aging in-universe.
Kenji wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 3:05 pmAnd somehow that would be worse than Goku and Vegeta endlessly "getting stronger" until the end of time?
This is a genuine question, by the way. Personally, the formula above is boring me the heck out and I would die for something original.
Kenji wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 6:35 pm
To each their own, but I have long lost interest in seeing Ash Ketchum forever trapped in a 10-year old body trying to be a Pokémon Master. I would rather Dragon Ball not follow the same path and become a walking joke of how repetitive it is.
BernardoCairo wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 9:28 pm
Well, I don't think you can compare Dragon Ball to Pokémon in this case. Pokémon intentionally restarts the story several times over. Dragon Ball still has progression, and new content usually takes longer to be released, which I think helps a lot.
Dragon Ball's progression, unlike Pokemon's, is also firmly rooted in Daoist and Buddhist narrative and mythological traditions. Goku getting endlessly stronger demonstrates an understanding of the assignment, so to speak. I get that's not for everyone, but that is and has always been a very major part of what makes Dragon Ball what it is, just as much as wacky irreverent gag humor and problematically-honorable and competitive protagonists. When anyone expresses being turned off by these elements, I'm always amazed at how long they've been able to stick around with DB despite it being what it is. I don't fully get it, but I do respect it.
I guess one way in which Dragon Ball is kinda stagnating and getting repetitive, from the perspective of it being a kind of cultivation story, is that they're not really getting anymore
weird with it like characters in those stories tend to. Like, I know Sun Wukong proper can literally shapeshift into animals. Meanwhile, we're effectively locked into Namek arc-era iconography and choreography as far as Goku's supernatural abilities go. Weirdest Goku's gotten is probably reading minds on Namek, which
may have expanded in the Cell arc given how you interpret his knowing about Cell while recovering from the heart virus. But beyond that, yeah. After a certain point you either gotta get weirder with it or close the book already (again).
GT's epilogue and TV Special almost kind of get a little weird with Goku. Part of cultivation is becoming effectively immortal, which is why
human human characters like Roshi are still around kicking at 300+ years of age, and why Tao Pai Pai was still around and not looking nearly as old as Roshi. So, Goku being around and still looking like he's in his prime after only a hundred years have passed honestly tracks, and is at least getting a
bit weird with it. Of course, many people just speculate that it's the Elder Kaioshin's life extending his, or GT's ambiguous ending making it seem like some weird Shenlong shenanigans. But it's important to remember that those two options aren't even necessary when Goku's entire character arc revolves around just being
that much of a savant at this shit. Another reason why DBO's lore of Goku just going and dying because he's starting to slump, after just another couple of decades, sits increasingly wrong with me. Massive misunderstanding of the assignment.