Your rewrite of the Dragon Ball manga

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Amigo Ten
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Post by Amigo Ten » Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:48 pm

Make Chaozu the main character and have him randomly kill all the villains in comical ways... >_>

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Post by IncredibleGuy » Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:51 pm

IncompetentOverlord wrote:
IncredibleGuy wrote:Make Gohan the main character, get rid of powerlevels, keep only one set of dragon balls, and make the dragon balls the focus of every single dragon ball villian.
While that makes sense in theory, it could get REALLY boring having nothing but villains who are after the Dballs. Perhaps you should amend it to be that the Dragonballs always have an important prescence in the plot, whether it has to do with the villains or not.
That's exactly how it worked out in the original Dragon Ball, and boring was never an issue. If you want boring, making a character like Goku, who has almost no personality whatsoever, the focal point of the story is the way to go. In the earlier stories the Dragon Balls served as an excuse for Toriyama to move his otherwise one dimensional characters around in their adventures, with their absence he was forced to give his characters "personality", and we all know what a mess that turned out to be (well, maybe I know what a mess that turned out to be).
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Post by Rocketman » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:00 pm

Vegeta kills Gohan on Earth, then as soon as Gohan is revived after the Freeza Saga, Vegeta jumps in and kills him again.

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Post by IncompetentOverlord » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:04 pm

IncredibleGuy wrote:
IncompetentOverlord wrote:
IncredibleGuy wrote:Make Gohan the main character, get rid of powerlevels, keep only one set of dragon balls, and make the dragon balls the focus of every single dragon ball villian.
While that makes sense in theory, it could get REALLY boring having nothing but villains who are after the Dballs. Perhaps you should amend it to be that the Dragonballs always have an important prescence in the plot, whether it has to do with the villains or not.
That's exactly how it worked out in the original Dragon Ball, and boring was never an issue. If you want boring, making a character like Goku, who has almost no personality whatsoever, the focal point of the story is the way to go. In the earlier stories the Dragon Balls served as an excuse for Toriyama to move his otherwise one dimensional characters around in their adventures, with their absence he was forced to give his characters "personality", and we all know what a mess that turned out to be (well, maybe I know what a mess that turned out to be).
Ahem....WHAAAAAAT!!??

First of all, the original DB really only had two arcs where the search for the Dballs was the focus: the Son Goku and Red Ribbon Army stories. Piccolo Daimao was also after them, but that wasn't really the focus of the arc. Also Toriyama's characters are perhaps the strongest point of DB/Z. Some of them can be one dimensional, but some characters, like Piccolo and Vegeta, got extremely satisfying character arcs. Other characters clearly had potential, like Yamucha and Tenshinhan, but never really got fully explored.
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Post by IncredibleGuy » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:12 pm

IncompetentOverlord wrote:
Ahem....WHAAAAAAT!!??

First of all, the original DB really only had two arcs where the search for the Dballs was the focus: the Son Goku and Red Ribbon Army stories. Piccolo Daimao was also after them, but that wasn't really the focus of the arc.
er.... I am going to have to disagree with that one. It was absolutely the focus. The Piccolo Jr. saga definitely had nothing to do with it, but the original Piccolo made the Dragon Balls his priority. Aside from the that there were a few tournaments, and with the exception of the first one I found them to be pretty boring. Like a warmup until the real adventure started right afterwards.
Also Toriyama's characters are perhaps the strongest point of DB/Z. Some of them can be one dimensional, but some characters, like Piccolo and Vegeta, got extremely satisfying character arcs. Other characters clearly had potential, like Yamucha and Tenshinhan, but never really got fully explored.
The characters are entirely cliche. The only time I had fun watching Piccolo or Vegeta was when they had to deal with the extreme absurdity that was Super Saiyan Trunks and Goten.
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Post by Hellspawn28 » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:39 pm

- Have King Cold fight
- Have Nappa destroy a good part of the Planet instend of a city
- Have Gohan beat Cell without Goku's help
- Have Vegito beat Buu
- Radditz giving a bigger role
- Have Piccolo become Majin instend of Vegeta
- Vegeta to go SSJ3 against Kid Buu
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Post by IncompetentOverlord » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:46 pm

IncredibleGuy wrote:
IncompetentOverlord wrote:
Ahem....WHAAAAAAT!!??

First of all, the original DB really only had two arcs where the search for the Dballs was the focus: the Son Goku and Red Ribbon Army stories. Piccolo Daimao was also after them, but that wasn't really the focus of the arc.
er.... I am going to have to disagree with that one. It was absolutely the focus. The Piccolo Jr. saga definitely had nothing to do with it, but the original Piccolo made the Dragon Balls his priority. Aside from the that there were a few tournaments, and with the exception of the first one I found them to be pretty boring. Like a warmup until the real adventure started right afterwards.
Also Toriyama's characters are perhaps the strongest point of DB/Z. Some of them can be one dimensional, but some characters, like Piccolo and Vegeta, got extremely satisfying character arcs. Other characters clearly had potential, like Yamucha and Tenshinhan, but never really got fully explored.
The characters are entirely cliche. The only time I had fun watching Piccolo or Vegeta was when they had to deal with the extreme absurdity that was Super Saiyan Trunks and Goten.
I won't argue with you further. I can think of several counter arguments to your post, but I can tell it would be a waste of both my time and yours to bring them up. However, I will leave you with a hypothetical question.

Can you think of one Martial Arts/Superhero series where the characters aren't mainly cliches?

And yet this doesn't matter to me. They were written in such a way that they still mean something to me even though I know that they are mainly archetypes from old legends and popular fiction. The same goes for many other non-anime series, like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings.

As was previously stated, it's a hypothetical question: please don't answer it with a post. Just think about it.
Last edited by IncompetentOverlord on Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by ShadowDude112 » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:46 pm

Hellspawn28 wrote:- Raditz giving a bigger role
That is Gozar's dream right there.
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JacobYBM wrote:No, why would it? It's fiction. The strength of the characters is not possible to reach in reality.
I mean, you're pretty open about looking at cartoon porn. Why would you do that? It's fiction. The proportions of these women are not possible to reach in reality.

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Post by Rocketman » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:51 pm

Hellspawn28 wrote:- Have Nappa destroy a good part of the Planet instend of a city
He does. When the explosion is shown from space, it's bigger than France/Texas.
- Have Vegito beat Buu

- Vegeta to go SSJ3 against Kid Buu
Errr...?

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Post by IncompetentOverlord » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:57 pm

Rocketman wrote:
Hellspawn28 wrote:- Have Nappa destroy a good part of the Planet instend of a city
He does. When the explosion is shown from space, it's bigger than France/Texas.
- Have Vegito beat Buu

- Vegeta to go SSJ3 against Kid Buu
Errr...?
Maybe he means to have Boo transform into his pure form before Vegerot kills him?
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Post by Duo » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:58 pm

I'd just have the re-writing start with the 25th Tenka'ichi Budokai. I think it's natural what changes need to be made.

As for the rest, I have some idea's, but most have been said or wouldn't leave enough impact...it's often hard to forsee the long term ramifications of these changes to boot.

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Post by caejones » Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:01 pm

I think in general, a lot of "bigger role" ideas could probably be better as "better role"... though I could see in many cases (humans, King Cold, Raditz, Etc) a tiny bit more screentime could help.
Well, maybe Raditz had enough screentime. :P

I think Cell and Buu were too detached from the DBs, but... Hmm. How?
I'd say tying Buu to filler and the movie's versions of the Mazoku could help, but... meh.
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Post by Rocketman » Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:16 pm

I really don't get why people complain about MOAR HUMIES TIEM. They're omnipresent up to the battle with the Saiyans, they're the entire reason for going to Namek (and Krillin actually goes to Namek), then they take part in the battle with the Androids, and Krillin and Tien both show up a lot around the time of Cell's completion.

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Post by Hellspawn28 » Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:20 pm

I would like to see Mr. Satan winning against #18 then letting her self lose against him on purpose.
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Post by Khalid Shahin » Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:27 pm

Hellspawn28 wrote:I would like to see Mr. Satan winning against #18 than letting her self lose against him on purpose.
FIX'D for you. Your mistake gave it a COMPLETELY different meaning that made no se~ wait. Which way do you want? Do you mean Mr. Satan doing something to make it so he was winning against 18 and then she is like eff this and loses? (The way you had it worded) Or do you mean you would like to see Mr. Satan legitimately win against 18 rather than how it really happened? (The way I worded it for you)

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Post by IncompetentOverlord » Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:43 pm

Rocketman wrote:I really don't get why people complain about MOAR HUMIES TIEM. They're omnipresent up to the battle with the Saiyans, they're the entire reason for going to Namek (and Krillin actually goes to Namek), then they take part in the battle with the Androids, and Krillin and Tenshinhan both show up a lot around the time of Cell's completion.
What people want is for the humans to be useful against the Artificial Humans, Cell, and Boo. They were present, but they didn't get any character development or any real fights.
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Post by B » Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:54 pm

These are rough ideas to smoothen out the krinkles in the story, but here goes:

-Gohan is never born, and Chichi and Ox King pull a Pilaf Squad and are never seen again.
-Kuririn takes a wife inbetween the Piccolo/Raditz timeskip, and has a child.
-Yajirobe goes to Namek, unwillingly, of course.
~NORMAL STORY FLOWS OUT~
-Kuririn doesn't kill 18 because he sees "human" fear in her at the thought of being absorbed by Cell and deems her "not so bad" as opposed to being desperately horny.
-Vegeta kills Cell after what happens to Trunks.
-I guess no Buu arc. Until I can figure out what to do without Gohan or Goten being present.
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Post by IncompetentOverlord » Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:56 pm

-Kuririn doesn't kill 18 because he sees "human" fear in her at the thought of being absorbed by Cell and deems her "not so bad" as opposed to being desperately horny.
Ahh...but Kuririn being desperate is what makes him relatable as a character.
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Post by B » Mon Dec 21, 2009 11:00 pm

He did that plenty of times before he had that detonator in his hand. It could easily be written in that obtaining a wife was the hardest thing he ever had to do.
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Post by Kendamu » Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:50 am

Y'know how in the Jump Special everyone had something to contribute when the debris was falling? I would do something kind of like that. I would give everyone who was around a specific way to contribute something important to whatever is happening. Sure, in the end it would still be the main super popular characters who fight the main bad guy, but everyone else who just stood around during the non-tournament fights would have something important to do in that Justice League kind of way... which would make Piccolo the "Batman" of the group... which is totally awesome!
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