Stakes

[ekrolo2]

the consequences of what's going to happen

Consequences we likely won't care about because we don't know those other universes.

Yeah but we know Universe 7, and the stakes are high because the Dragon Balls or even the Super Dragon Balls won't do jack squat. Before the tournament, Zeno already was going to destroy 8 universes. With the suggestion of the tournament from unknowing Goku, now one of those 8 get to survive. Now, if the surviving universe tries to bring one or any universes back with the Super Dragon Balls, they'll just be destroyed again because Zeno wills it. It's finally a story that the Dragon Balls can't fix. Even though we're pretty sure U7 (and U6 for that matter) will survive somehow, that's not different than any other show where we know the protagonists will come out on top. In my opinion the current ToP arc has raised the stakes higher than they've been in quite some time.

They're not gonna keep them dead anymore then Freeza's ToP arc gets a satisfying payoff, it won't happen.

Also, can people stop pretending Zeno was five seconds away from mass multiverse destruction and Goku arrived in the nick of time to save people? Cause Zeno forgot about destroying the multiverse AND the multiverse tournament despite dialogue & footage, showing him insistent on this. Goku reminded him of both those things which are weird cause Zeno is a dumb little kid who's about what's cool but he also seems to care about the advancement of space societies? What?

[Meshack]

What? The Earths would have been switched. That would mean no Shin, no Kibito, no familiarity with the Nameccians, no contact with North Kaioh, Beerus and Whis are no longer around, Freeza would not be able to be revived or couldn’t be in the plot any longer, and other things that could have been lost if the Earths were switched.

Well that didn't seem too important to Goku because he said it didn't really matter if they lost which caused Beerus to get angry at him.

True but in long-term, it would have mattered. Gokuh wouldn’t be able to train on Kaioh’s Planet anymore and if someone died, they wouldn’t be able to use to the Nameccian Dragon Balls. He probably wouldn’t be able to train with Vados if he asked

[Doctor.]

Something large in scale being put at stake like the world or the universe works if it's directly tied with the character's personal struggles. Not the best example, but future Trunks was always a case of this. His entire character revolves around saving the world/his timeline; if he fails, we care about the universe/world being destroyed, because it affects him the most. By contrast, it would be much more hard-hitting if Goku, who cares mostly about fighting for fun, loses the ability to fight for a long period of time/forever than if the Earth gets blown up by the third time.

[ABED]

By that logic, why care about anything? Why care about the old couple that got shot in the Boo arc?

It's hard to explain but the sheer size of the Earth's destruction just doesn't make the moment land, whereas the old couple are just two people and it brings the violence down to a very concrete/personal level. It's more visceral.

So what you're saying is, earth or universal destruction will just never work for you as a compelling story in any way shape or form?

Not by itself.