Where would you have ended the series?

[Theophrastus]

Probably after Cell, with Trunks going back and restoring peace to his timeline as an epilogue. The Buu saga, while enjoyable in it's own way, didn't really add much of value to the series besides fodder for power-level arguments and video game rosters. I suppose it also gave some closure to Vegeta's character arc with him admitting that Goku is just better than him...but that was kind of negated by the revised Kanzenban ending anyway so it's a bit of a moot point.

Also in my mind Cell fits better than Buu as a final villain, simply by virtue of me being a fan of the idea of the final boss essentially being a combination of every major villain the series had had up to that point.

[ABED]

I still think that the best ending for the series is Super Saiyan Goku killing Freeza and then himself getting caught in the explosion of Namek. It's so perfectly symmetrical.

It baffles me why so many not only like down endings, but this one in particular. Why is having Freeza kill Goku a good ending?

[WittyUsername]

I personally would have just ended the series with Porunga delivering the news that Goku is still alive, and then have everyone, including Vegeta awaiting his arrival.

[dae428]

I'm honestly fine with the ending we got.

I would hate it if Gohan was the one to defeat Boo in the end because I honestly think he had his moment with Cell when he became a super saiyan 2 and should have ended his whole arc of a hidden power within him. I mean the whole 'mystic' Gohan thing is cool, but I honestly would've found it to be really cheap to have Gohan beat Boo like this. The same can be said about Vegetto beating Boo.

If you think about the main villains in Dragon Ball, Goku never really defeated (sent to another dimension) any of them, with the exception of Boo. Pilaf just left, Red was killed by Black, Piccolo kind of just reincarnated and later become a good guy, Vegeta kind of just became Piccolo with a less literal reincarnation, Freeza was killed by Trunks, and Cell was killed by Gohan. I mean sure Goku doesn't like killing but c'mon the guy deserved at least some street cred to his name.

When Goku defeated Boo it made me think of the end of Dragon Ball (Pre Saiyan arc) where after three tries, Goku was finally able to win the tournament. The same can be said about the spirit bomb. Plus I always thought it was great that they used the dragon balls to help Goku defeat Boo. I mean, the series is called Dragon Ball after all. I mean sure you can argue that its just Toriyama just rehashing old ideas but it made sense given the context that it was the last major fight in Dragon Ball.

I know everyone and their mom has said this on the forums, but the Boo arc was an amalgamation of everything Dragon Ball had become. It had the comedy and light heartedness of the young Goku days and the serious dire moments of the Saiyan/Freeza/Cell arcs. So, to me it would only make sense for Dragon Ball to end after this.

After the ten year time skip, Goku is shown changing from a young kid alone in the woods to essentially the same guy, but with friends and family. And when he encounters Oob he transitions to being a student in martial arts to being a teacher all the while still keeping his own selfish goal of fighting strong guys. Dragon Ball had always been mainly about Goku, but now we see Goku giving the mantle to Oob in a sense where Oob would follow in the footsteps of his mentor just as Goku did from Muten Roshi. It doesn't mean that Goku is becoming irrelevant or anything, it just means that the journey of someone else is just beginning and Goku's adventure keeps on going just as it had when he was a kid.

[Rocketman]

I still think that the best ending for the series is Super Saiyan Goku killing Freeza and then himself getting caught in the explosion of Namek. It's so perfectly symmetrical.

It baffles me why so many not only like down endings, but this one in particular. Why is having Freeza kill Goku a good ending?

Why is having Cell kill Goku a good ending?

[rereboy]

I still think that the best ending for the series is Super Saiyan Goku killing Freeza and then himself getting caught in the explosion of Namek. It's so perfectly symmetrical.

It baffles me why so many not only like down endings, but this one in particular. Why is having Freeza kill Goku a good ending?

Why is having Cell kill Goku a good ending?

It isn't. Still, its better than in Namek because of Gohan's role.

[Saiga]

I still think that the best ending for the series is Super Saiyan Goku killing Freeza and then himself getting caught in the explosion of Namek. It's so perfectly symmetrical.

I think that's a really silly ending. They'd just wish Goku back since they have the Namekian DBs on Earth.

I know in the Cell arc he didn't want to be wished back, but in that case he was also building up Gohan to be his successor and so he left him behind. It also came after Gero wanted revenge on him so his reasoning makes sooome sense - and even that gets some fairly just criticism.

[ABED]

Why is having Cell kill Goku a good ending?

At least Gohan's the strongest so there's someone there to takeover, and Goku's death wasn't the ending. It's a much more up ending than Freeza killing Goku. I fail to see your point how Goku's death at Freeza's hand is symmetrical.

[Rocketman]

I fail to see your point how Goku's death at Freeza's hand is symmetrical.

Bardock's failure and death in the exploding planet Vegeta while Kakarot escapes to the safety of Earth; Goku's victory and death in the exploding planet Namek while Gohan escapes to the safety of Earth.

[singsing]

I fail to see your point how Goku's death at Freeza's hand is symmetrical.

Bardock's failure and death in the exploding planet Vegeta while Kakarot escapes to the safety of Earth; Goku's victory and death in the exploding planet Namek while Gohan escapes to the safety of Earth.

That's actually awesome. Add in the fact that Vegeta's dad was also the first to rebel against Freeza before Bardock did, and Vegeta fought Freeza before Goku did, while both Vegeta and Vegeta Sr. get killed first.

[RandomGuy96]

Trying to end the series with that symmetry would be giving it a lot more importance than it was meant to have. Freeza, Bardock, the king, all of that stuff was introduced in that very arc, and had very little to do with anything before or after that arc's self-contained story. This is why I like the ending we got (aside from the stupidity of everything in between Gohan getting absorbed and Pure Buu being destroyed). It acknowledges that DB isn't some big epic with a grand, overarching story, and ends the series on a note that both wraps up what plot points were there, and hints at future adventures (though, obviously lesser in scale, compared to what just happened).

Then all of the post-Buu material (besides GT) was just randomly set before that ending anyway, so Uub wouldn't appear. Shame.

[fadeddreams5]

To all the people saying the manga should of ended at Cell instead of Buu, well Buu was a much better final boss than Cell. Cell didn't feel strong enough, he was basically just a stronger version of Freeza who had minor regeneration abilities and a few other quirks, but nothing about him felt too hard to beat, Buu on the other hand felt truly invincible, i mean he could regenerate and absorb/eat people at will. It felt like no matter how much you spam him with ki blasts he's still gonna regenerate. He also lacked the logic and common sense of Freeza & Cell so he felt really unpredictable, and it was like you knew he could snap at any minute and casually bust the universe.

I disagree. Perfect Cell did seem unbeatable, especially when you consider he never used full power until SSJ2 Gohan surfaced. Under no circumstances could anyone have beaten him otherwise; his Cell jrs were stomping the entire crew. Also consider that he has everyone's abilities and super regeneration--he was the perfect fighter at the time. The difference between him and Buu was that he had so much Saiyan in him, he cared about testing his limits in an "honorable" fashion. Buu just went on rampages. If Cell did this, you could bet everyone would be dead.

Buu, unlike Cell, could have been beaten MULTIPLE times in his arc by different characters. The complete opposite of invincible. If anything, compared to every other villain in the series, he posed the lowest threat, but the z fighters were incompetent throughout the saga.

[Saiga]

I also don't like that ending because it basically kills off all the potential for further adventures. Freeza's dead and the only one who could reach his strength is the Super Saiyan, who is also dead and only appears once every 1,000 years. It makes it sound like anything after that just wouldn't be as interesting, which I don't think is the right way to end Dragon Ball at all.

[Kakacarrottop]

I also don't like that ending because it basically kills off all the potential for further adventures. Freeza's dead and the only one who could reach his strength is the Super Saiyan, who is also dead and only appears once every 1,000 years. It makes it sound like anything after that just wouldn't be as interesting, which I don't think is the right way to end Dragon Ball at all.

Well the thing about permanently ending a fictional work is, you want to tie up all the loose ends and not leave people yearning for more (which can lead to stuff like terrible fanfics and petitions for a revival). Goku (the main character from the start) sacrificing himself to save humanity and free the universe is a lot more touching and grand finale' esque than his son replacing him as humanity's saviour.

[Saiga]

I also don't like that ending because it basically kills off all the potential for further adventures. Freeza's dead and the only one who could reach his strength is the Super Saiyan, who is also dead and only appears once every 1,000 years. It makes it sound like anything after that just wouldn't be as interesting, which I don't think is the right way to end Dragon Ball at all.

Well the thing about permanently ending a fictional work is, you want to tie up all the loose ends and not leave people yearning for more (which can lead to stuff like terrible fanfics and petitions for a revival). Goku (the main character from the start) sacrificing himself to save humanity and free the universe is a lot more touching and grand finale' esque than his son replacing him as humanity's saviour.

It's really not necessary to close off a series to end it. And no matter how it ended, it was going to be milked after the fact.

I also don't care what fanfics do, and don't think that should ever influence a writer's decision.

[DBZAOTA482]

I also don't like that ending because it basically kills off all the potential for further adventures. Freeza's dead and the only one who could reach his strength is the Super Saiyan, who is also dead and only appears once every 1,000 years. It makes it sound like anything after that just wouldn't be as interesting, which I don't think is the right way to end Dragon Ball at all.

Well the thing about permanently ending a fictional work is, you want to tie up all the loose ends and not leave people yearning for more (which can lead to stuff like terrible fanfics and petitions for a revival). Goku (the main character from the start) sacrificing himself to save humanity and free the universe is a lot more touching and grand finale' esque than his son replacing him as humanity's saviour.

Leaving the audience yearning for more is the sign of a good storyteller.

[ABED]

Bardock's failure and death in the exploding planet Vegeta while Kakarot escapes to the safety of Earth; Goku's victory and death in the exploding planet Namek while Gohan escapes to the safety of Earth.

Except we barely know nor care about Bardock. Can't we just have Goku be victorious. I don't get why there has to be "symmetry". What value is there in Freeza's victory? At least with Cell's death, Gohan was supposed to learn a lesson.

Goku (the main character from the start) sacrificing himself to save humanity and free the universe is a lot more touching and grand finale' esque than his son replacing him as humanity's saviour.

I wouldn't call that a sacrifice. He gave up his life to save his home, family, and friends. Anyway, I don't think the main characters death like this qualifies as more grand and touching just because he saved people. He had already saved people, the death would've been needless.

Leaving the audience yearning for more is the sign of a good storyteller.

That's debatable. If it feels complete and well told, I usually don't want the story to continue if I like the resolution.

[Tatakae!!Ramenman]

I think Cell was the best ending, but there's so much stuff in the buu sga that I wouldn't want to miss, so I would have ended before the last time skip. I really hate the uub ending becuase I know Akira Toriyama said he wanted to have an open ending, but that was a really poorly done open ending to me. It felt like he was starting up another story arc and then just ended it at the beginning. It felt unfinished. I've seen open endings that I've liked, but they're usually built up to.

[EXBadguy]

I knew there was a thread like this. Anyway, for me, DEFINITELY I would've ended the series after Cell, the ending was too perfect! The Z Warriors went on their separate ways, Trunks destroying the Androids in his time, Vegeta's becoming a family man, Goku's sacrifice, and Gohan grew a pair and destroyed the greatest threat in the universe. Though the Shadow Dragon Saga had a good ending too, regardless of the Spirit Bomb rehash.

Buu on the other hand felt truly invincible, i mean he could regenerate and absorb/eat people at will. It felt like no matter how much you spam him with ki blasts he's still gonna regenerate.

So was Cell, so I think Buu is a rehash of Cell, though a more crazily stupid version.

[The Tori-bot]

I wouldn't have ended it. If I had my way Toriyama would still be drawing the thing to this day (while on 24/7 suicide watch of course).

Seriously though, everyone's answers which all involve cutting off the series at various points in its run. I will instead swim in the opposite direction. With the exception of the 23rd Budōkai, none of the endings to any of the story arcs are really good places to wrap up the series. I wouldn't have ended the series at any point before the actual ending because I dig pretty much all of it, and wouldn't want to sacrifice any portions of the manga by cutting it off early just for the sake of a neater ending. But the actual ending sucks, so since the question is "Where would you have ended the series?", my only option is to say... I honestly wouldn't have. I'd have kept it going a little longer.

I want "Goku abandons his family and friends to train kid he met that day" resolved. I want to see Goku genuinely try to hand over to a new generation instead of half-assing it like he's done in the past. I want to see how Uub handles an actual threat, and what him being a reincarnation of Buu actually means in terms of his nature and his power. I'm not sure if I'd go with "definitive ending" or "the adventure continues!", but if the former I'd forego the very un-Dragon Ball pseudo-symbolism and overly-sentimental bent of GT's ending. Even though I agree with the majority that the last episode of GT is one of its high points, it feels like we've stepped out of DB and into the ending of a different show. If the latter, it would definitely be less abrupt than the original ending (the kanzenban ending is a step in the right direction but still not satisfying enough IMO), and the entire main cast would be present. Justice League Unlimited did just that and it worked.

Crap, I've just realised where my perfect end point is. It incorporates and addresses every single one of my desires and problems.

Neko Majin Z 5.

There. Boom. Done. That's where I end Dragon Ball. They're all back home with Uub and they're really scared of a mouse. Subarashii.