Retcons in Dragon Ball

[Hellspawn28]

I'm thinking to list down the list of stuff that was retcon in Dragon Ball. Outside of the anime filler stuff, I remember in the 2008 Jump Special that everyone partying for Mr. Satan for beating Majin Buu when they used the Dragon Balls for erasing the memories of Majin Buu.

[dbgtFO]

The androids of Trunks' future being retconned from #19 & #20 to #17 & #18(manga only).

[VegettoEX]

Waaaaaaaaay back in the Daizenshuu EX mid-range days I actually started up a full-on "Retcon Guide". I was including items that were both actually changed like the traditional sense of the term "retcon", but also things that were not so much changed as they were expanded upon (things like, "Oh hey, Goku's actually an alien called a Saiyan!").

Things I had like that were:

- The Saiyans (A young, powerful boy with a tail turns out to be of an alien race)
- The Namekians (Originally a single demon/god, soon found out to be an entire race )
- Destruction of Planet Vegeta (An entire planet's demise... not by a comet, but by a ruthless monster)
- The Red Ribbon Army (Demons from Goku's past come back to haunt him as an adult)
- Bojack and the Four Kaiō (Goku's sacrifice leads to an Earthly crisis [once again] in DBZ movie 9)

[Blade]

I'm thinking to list down the list of stuff that was retcon in Dragon Ball. Outside of the anime filler stuff, I remember in the 2008 Jump Special that everyone partying for Mr. Satan for beating Majin Buu when they used the Dragon Balls for erasing the memories of Majin Buu.

Wasn't that just a private party for the people who retained the memory of Majin Buu (Goku et al)?

Having said that, in GT they do make this particular boo-boo. Satan announces to a crowd that they should trust in him, as he's 'the man who saved the world from Cell and Majin Buu'.

[90sDBZ]

Does Super Buu changing to Kid Buu instead of Grey Buu count?

Also what about Piccolo Jr going from being King Piccolo's reincarnation to his son? (Although this one seems to go back and forth)

And Goku saying he couldn't kill Fat Buu but later saying he could.

And Gohan's unique hidden powers at the Cell Games being changed to just another Super Saiyan level that any saiyan can achieve.

And Goku's "escape" from Namek (anime only)

[Hellspawn28]

If we go by the anime, we have several like Dr. Flappe since his character was totally ignore when Dr. Gero show up. If the wish to erase the memories of Buu never happen that means that San Xing Long would not exist unless Toei makes a new GT data book and rectons his wish. I guess that also means that Buu is the third villain that the general public knew about since they knew about Piccolo Daimao and Cell. If we go by the anime, they knew about Vegeta and Nappa, but they got totally ignore later on in the show as well. Since no one at the Cell games seems to remember Vegeta as the evil invader from a few years ago.

[Adamant]

Wasn't that just a private party for the people who retained the memory of Majin Buu (Goku et al)?

The party was to commemorate the opening of a hotel that was built to hail Satan for saving humanity from Buu. It's the detail at the end there that doesn't fit.

I think it was fixed in the manga adaptation.

[Draken]

Does Super Buu changing to Kid Buu instead of Grey Buu count?

Also what about Piccolo Jr going from being King Piccolo's reincarnation to his son? (Although this one seems to go back and forth)

And Goku saying he couldn't kill Fat Buu but later saying he could.

And Gohan's unique hidden powers at the Cell Games being changed to just another Super Saiyan level that any saiyan can achieve.

And Goku's "escape" from Namek (anime only)

For the Goku/Fat Buu point, you could consider it a retcon but at the same time you could just consider it as a simple lie that was revealed later on.

[Ajay]

Not really a retcon in the traditional sense but having the Namekian Dragon Balls allow for different freedoms with wishes compared to the Earth ones was a bit of one.
More lazy writing than anything else but hey, I'm not complaining.

[Polyphase Avatron]

What about Frieza believing he was the strongest in the universe but then implied he knew about the Gods of Destruction who were stronger?

[RandomGuy96]

What about Freeza believing he was the strongest in the universe but then implied he knew about the Gods of Destruction who were stronger?

Speaking of Freeza, there's a minor retcon with his father, King Cold: when he first referenced his parent, he said that they/he was/were the only one besides Goku to "get dust on me in this form", and then said "this might be the first time in my life I've been so excited", heavily implying that they were significantly weaker than both base Goku and initial final form (~3%) Freeza. Then when King Cold shows up, suddenly he's strong enough to help Freeza fight Super Saiyan Goku, putting him more on par with, if not stronger than, 50-70% Freeza.

[Gaffer Tape]

I don't see how that's a retcon... well, more specifically, I don't really see how your interpretation is a logical assumption. A thousand pardons. But presumably, Freeza's parent(s) never engaged him in a battle to the death. People always seem to assume that line is referring to child abuse, but I've always found it much more likely that it's simply referring to a parent disciplining a child. His parent(s) was/were the only person/people who had any authority over him, so they were able to discipline him. Goku is the first antagonistic threat that was actually able to hurt him. Unless Freeza's parent(s) tried to kill him for some reason (And if so, are we assuming that Freeza won? And if so, why would he leave his father alive, let alone be on good terms with him?), those two statements seem very much intended to be mutually exclusive in regards to that intent.

[Kid Buu]

Vegeta in the Buu arc. First he wanted to join the tournament to fight Gohan; then his only reason for enterting was to fight Goku. The latter fits better with the NEVER FIGHT AGAIN line in the Cell arc.

[Super Saiyan Turlast x4]

When Vegeta mentions how the Saiyans power-up after healing from a brutal battle, Krillin notes that Goku received the same type of power increases back in his earlier battles. I don't think there were many opportunities for this to take place, though I like the idea of applying elements introduced in DBZ to DB history.

Goku appears to have finished Freeza off with his Chi-blast on namek, but later says he "should've finished him on namek" while talking to Trunks. What? This seems to imply he wasn't trying to finish him off on namek and basically knew he'd heal from the attack, if anything. It certainly didn't look like he held-back to me.

Freeza seems to imply Ginyu and Goku are both special while talking to Goku--noting that he never imagined there was anyone stronger than Ginyu. Wait! Would this strongly imply that Ginyu was not only more powerful than Piccolo, but also Vegeta and Freeza's first few forms? You damn straight it does! Not.

There's also Cell being aware that he has the cells of Piccolo, yet somehow forgetting about his regeneration abilities. After Gohan is apparently wiped out by Boo, everyone seems to think he's gone forever, including Goku. Gohan's the only one who's never had to be wished back before, so this whole part makes no sense at all. Note: these two aren't what I'd consider retcons. I just felt this would be a good topic to mention these rather odd moments.

[Draken]

Freeza seems to imply Ginyu and Goku are both special while talking to Goku--noting that he never imagined there was anyone stronger than Ginyu. Wait! Would this strongly imply that Ginyu was not only more powerful than Piccolo, but also Vegeta and Freeza's first few forms? You damn straight it does! Not.

I really doubt Freeza took himself into account when he said that...

[Kid Buu]

Freeza initially feared the Saiyans in case they ganged up on him, but later it was because he feared SSJ.

[ErikB]

Do design changes count as retcons?

Like Namekian biology for instance; Piccolo's blood is red until the fight with Vegeta and Nappa where it's suddenly purple. And he has those extra muscle pads on his kneecaps and the middle of his shins until the fight with Frieza. Both of those changes remain until the end of the series...I assume. Come to think of it, I don't remember if we ever see Piccolo's legs again.

[Weejus]

The only retcons I can think of are dub-based, the first one that comes to mind being Master Roshi claiming that Tao Paipai worked for the RRA (because they didn't do their research properly and ended up using Mystical Adventure as a reference point) so when they dubbed DB they had to rename Tao entirely. If you think about it that's kind of the opposite of a retcon, as a retcon is when new information changes past information, but considering DB takes place before DBZ, it's the other way around. Ugh...

[Hellspawn28]

In the anime, King Kai stated that the Saiyans and Tsufurusians both live in the same Planet together then in GT, Bebi said that the Saiyans invaded the Planet since we saw them coming out of the sky in the flashback.

[Polyphase Avatron]

The only retcons I can think of are dub-based, the first one that comes to mind being Master Roshi claiming that Tao Paipai worked for the RRA (because they didn't do their research properly and ended up using Mystical Adventure as a reference point) so when they dubbed DB they had to rename Tao entirely. If you think about it that's kind of the opposite of a retcon, as a retcon is when new information changes past information, but considering DB takes place before DBZ, it's the other way around. Ugh...

A postcon?