Did you watch DBZ without any spoilers?

[Porphy]

Here's the point of my topic:

When I was 6 or 7 years old...Maybe 17 years ago from here, Dragonball Z was already a big hit in France. Here, in Quebec we have a lot of French magazines that came from France. I remember that my sister bought a French video game magazine and there was talking about all the characters of Dragonball Z (because of one of the snes game that was just released in France). We didn't know what it was at the time but since we were curious we read it (no Internet at the time eh! :-p). So without exactly knowing what was the story, we read everything about the characters'bios. So we know that Vegeta was a good guy, Bulma was dating him, Trunks was there son...etc...etc...etc....

So when we get into Dragonball Z more seriously some years laters (thanks to Fox Kids!), we were not surprised when Vegeta or Piccolo turned "good", what was a "super saiyan"(even if we thought at the first that the "blond forms" were there real hair colours! X-D) or when Trunks said he was Vegeta and Bulma's son from the future....
So my sister and I have always have the feeling that we couldn't really enjoy the show as a real fan could have by following step by step the serie.

So first of all, I would like to know if there're a lot of people like us who watched DBZ not in the good order or known already all the "twists"?

And I would like to know what was your reaction when you learn that the "mysterious purple-haired super saiyan with the sword" told to Goku who he really was. Because I think is one of the most "surprising twist" of the serie...So I would dying to know what was the "natural reaction" of the audience. Were you like "Damn! I knew it!" or "WHAT? No way? I cannot believe it!"

Thank you!

[Shiyonasan]

And I would like to know what was your reaction when you learned that the "mysterious purple-haired super saiyan with the sword" told Goku who he really was, because I think that's one of the most "surprising twists" of the series...So I'm dying to know what was the "natural reaction" of the audience. Were you like "Damn! I knew it!" or "WHAT? No way? I cannot believe it!"

I still remember Goku's reaction. Definitely one of the best moments in the series.

I watched the series mostly without spoilers, but that's because I didn't begin using the internet until 2003 or 2004. Plus, I already know things about parts I haven't watched yet, like the Shadow Dragon Arc in GT.

I guess that's one downfall of Kai; that is, knowing what's going to happen next. It's still entertaining, but one aspect of being entertained by a show is a "twist" in a show that you didn't see coming.

[Super Sonic]

I saw bits of Trunks and whatnot, but didn't know who he was and avoided all spoilers. Didn't watch next episode previews either, and didn't watch on International channel like my cousins, (though they would still watch my videos/dvds or on Toonami to get the story).

[penguintruth]

Back when DBZ started airing on CN, I started browsing the internet for information about the show, and to share my appreciating for it with others. That's when I found tons of sites, back in the golden age of DBZ fansites, and it was pretty near impossible to avoid spoilers back then. So I knew nearly everything that was going to happen before it did.

However, even knowing, some events still sort of surprised me, at least how and when they happened. Though with DBZ, often times the "next time" segment ruined any surprises you weren't already clued in on.

[Tsukento]

If you started with the English dub, it was kinda hard to avoid a few of them, simply because Rock the Dragon gave away Super Saiyan Goku, Vegeta and Trunks.

[Kid Buu]

Nope, but I remember my cousin claiming that he heard that Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks would battle Android #13, #14, & #15 and he had a magazine with pictures of them. When I saw #19 & #20 I was like but when Trunks said they weren't the real Androids everything was okay again. Afterwards the new Androids turned out to be #16, #17, #18 with just confused me all over again.

[Corporate_Nothing]

If you started with the English dub, it was kinda hard to avoid a few of them, simply because Rock the Dragon gave away Super Saiyan Goku, Vegeta and Trunks.

This. Also, I visited Pojo and Ultimate DBZ (I think it was ultimate DBZ, the layout reminds me of the site I used to frequent) every day, so even if I wasn't fully informed of the plot, I was at least vaguely familiar with Cell, Buu, and all the movies when Cartoon Network was just beginning to air the Garlic Jr. Saga.

To this day, I've never watched or read detailed spoilers for the last two "Seasons" of Dragon Ball, or the majority of GT. Question: did Cartoon Network ever air Dragon Ball in it's entirety?

[Chuquita]

I was one of those newbie fans who needed to research everything, so there weren't many things I hadn't spoilered for myself. ^^;; (Mostly thanks to Planet Namek.)

The only things I didn't know were what I couldn't find information on (mostly details related to the movies, DB, and GT). But with Z I knew found out nearly everything through sites.

[Corporate_Nothing]

I was one of those newbie fans who needed to research everything, so there weren't many things I hadn't spoilered for myself. ^^;; (Mostly thanks to Planet Namek.)

The only things I didn't know were what I couldn't find information on (mostly details related to the movies, DB, and GT). But with Z I knew found out nearly everything through sites.

aldkjglkj

I think I remember this site...is it not archived anywhere??

[Tsukento]

Seems like it's lost forever. Hell, we nearly lost DBZ Uncut several times before recently. I also remember frequenting Ginga Giri Giri every now and then, as well. I too, also went through the whole Pojo stage, even having bought that damn magazine (ugh).

[Super Sonic]

If you started with the English dub, it was kinda hard to avoid a few of them, simply because Rock the Dragon gave away Super Saiyan Goku, Vegeta and Trunks.

I figured back then that Vegeta was there because he was the main bad guy. Was confused about Trunks and Yamcha though. (Didnt recognize due to the hair).

[Corporate_Nothing]

Seems like it's lost forever. Hell, we nearly lost DBZ Uncut several times before recently. I also remember frequenting Ginga Giri Giri every now and then, as well. I too, also went through the whole Pojo stage, even having bought that damn magazine (ugh).

http://web.archive.org/web/200012041737 ... kgoku.com/

Lol. This thread is now about dead DBZ fansites.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Not so much the plot, but many characters and transformations thanks to Final Bout.

[Velasa]

I really got to watch through Freezer without most spoilers- I knew things like SSJ existed and such but I had no idea what would happen, who would die, how the battles would go, ect. That was a pretty awesome experience ^^ After that point PN and just general interaction in fandom gave me the basic outline of things- who Trunks was, who the bad guys were in what order, most of the people who died and when. There were still plenty of surprises though- like when Gohan hit SSJ1 or the fact that the Androids and Cell were intrinsically tied together and not separate arcs. And I know the basic outline of Buu for the same reasons, though I haven't gotten to it yet.

I don't think there's a lot I regret in terms of knowing these things- they've been part of my experience from almost the beginning and I don't think it took any of my enjoyment away to know things like that. The only 'spoilers' I don't like having known tie to the way the show was released in the States- It would have been really cool to watch the cast grow up and -then- find out who's aliens and such. And it would have been cool to be able to watch Daimaou through Pic without knowing he became a babysitter in the end.

Planet Namek

aldkjglkj

I think I remember this site...is it not archived anywhere??

I know, it breaks my fucking heart ;_; That place was everything back in the day and I still miss it.

[Castor Troy]

I used to spend so many hours on DBZ sites, that I already knew most of the story, but I interpreted it all wrong.

I thought Trunks time traveled to Planet Namek and killed Freeza there.

[SuperSaiyan3Goku]

I remember seeing episodes of the Ocean Dub back when they were on either Kids WB or CN, one of them. I just don't remember if I saw those episodes before the new ones premiered on CN or after. They could of been reruns, for all I knew.

And I remember seeing Cell Games episodes, not much of the Jinzonengen stuff, though for some reason. I saw most of the Buu stuff, so I was good on that front. And the first time I saw the Jinzonengen/Cell stuff was when I bought all the DVDs online a few years ago.

So was I spoiled? Not really. Besides, I didn't really care if I got spoiled, I was 10.

[Bura]

I watched DBZ spoilerfree until the end of the Cell Games, I believe. We were considerably "late" when it came to having an internet connection. I totally missed out on this planet Namek site everyone keeps talking about.

So yeah, I sometimes had acces to the internet when I immediatly started searching for DBZ stuff. I read episode summaries of the Cell Games over at the (now blocked) official Dragonball Z site. That's how I discovered how #18 would be spit back up and such. I also spoiled myself that the Earth would explode during the Buu arc.

I of course also read magazines. This mostly spoiled me for the upcoming Buu stuff. I was so psyched when I read about Vegeta having a daughter!
When I watched Trunks big reveal on TV I was *soooo* shocked. Good times.

I also read the first volumes of DragonBall without being spoiled. I guess not having an internet connection back then wasn't that terrible.

[Bussani]

I knew everything well in advance. I kind of wish I hadn't, but...oh well. I have quite fond memories of my friend telling me about every saga in extreme detail. The funny thing is, I imagined everything in my head quite differently. I remember that, for some reason, I imagined the Cell games taking place in some kind of semi-indoor Colosseum.

[Drabaz]

I somtimes wish I was a kid in Japan when Dragonball first aired so that I could watch it from begining to end without spoilers. Unfortunately, I live in America so spoilers were hard to avoid. Although I think I would have avoided them fine if it were'nt for my friend spoiling everything for me. At the time, I didn't know the show came from Japan and was already finished over there. So I had no reason to look it up online. But one day my friend came over with like 5 sheets of paper with the summary of every saga from online. At first I really didn't care because I didn't like the show enough to care. It only bothered me once I really got into the show. I knew who Trunks was, I knew SSJ2 was coming, and I knew fusions where coming. When I heard about Fusions, that's all my focus was on since the end of the Cell arc. So it ruined the Majin Vegeta fight for me. I wonder what it would have been like if I never had spoilers. Would I love the series more than I do now?

Oh Shenlong! Please erase all my memory of Dragonball so I can watch it again without spoilers!

[LilKokuLink]

I think there is only one thing that I can say directly related to your thread title and that is:

I only wish that were possible...