Was the Cell saga the worst saga in your eyes?

[Ajay]

Absolutely not the worst.

In terms of writing quality and overuse of terrible writing tropes, the Buu arc takes the cake. There's typical DBZ deus ex machina...and then there's the Buu arc use of it.

[DBZAOTA482]

* The stupidity of choices made by some characters. Krillin and Vegeta are the sole reasons Cell became such a major threat in the first place. Vegeta could have annihilated Cell in his second form yet allowed Cell to absorb 18 and gain his perfect form. Krillin is even worse, having the means to prevent Cell from achieving perfect form even if he got ahold of 18. His desperation for a girlfriend essentially caused the death of his best friend, robbed his best friend's son of a father, and nearly got the world destroyed.

Vegeta allowed Semi-Perfect Cell to live so it could get give him a good fight. That strongly fits Vegeta's character.

And yet some people act like Namek/Freeza Saga Vegeta was actually above letting his opponents get stronger for the extra challenge or to prove his superiority, even though he goaded both Zarbon and Freeza into transforming (latter of which he couldn't beat either way) just to prove he's close to becoming a Super Saiyan.

It's like only Goku is allowed to enjoy fighting.


As for the main topic. I don't think the Cell Saga is the worst. A lot of things could have been handled better but the title for worst belongs to either the Red Ribbon Army arc or the Boo arc (Grrr I hate Kaioshin with a passion).

[MDSTSSJ]

Artificial Humans and Cell are the same arc and one of my favorites. Is a combination of suspense and horror!

Imperfect Cell is my favorite villain character!!

The all time worst is the Boo´s Arc. SSJ3 Kakarotto, Vegetto, Pure Boo and Dabura are the best of this saga.

[coola]

Cell saga had a few nice fights, and allowed to shine Tenshinhan and Piccolo, but, it got a few problems:
-I still find funny, that cyborgs, who were created to fight max. 40.000 PL (About 100.000, if you count Genki Dama) were given power to rival 100% Freeza.
-Except Bulma, Kuririn and Piccolo, every character was a jerk (Goku, giving senzu to Cell, Vegeta letting Cell to transform , everyone, not wanting to stop Gero by using DB to find him.etc.)

[DBZAOTA482]

-Except Piccolo, every character was a jerk (Goku, giving senzu to Cell, Vegeta letting Cell to transform , everyone, not wanting to stop Gero by using DB to find him.etc.)

Vegeta was always a jerk. It's not like he was playing touch football with the Z-senshi on Namek, and killing Gero beforehand would have been equally as douche. Also, how were Bulma, Kuririn, and Trunks being jerks?

[jjgp1112]

I mean shit, Goku essentially did the same thing in the Freeza saga, minus attacking the heroes to help get it done.

Not really, Goku knew he was stronger than even Freeza's strongest form and he wanted to psychologically crush Freeza. He wasn't just looking for a better fight.

And you don't think Vegeta had the same thought process?

[ABED]

killing Gero beforehand would have been equally as douche.

How do you figure?

[DBZAOTA482]

killing Gero beforehand would have been equally as douche.

How do you figure?

Goku did bring up a legitimate moral issue in killing a weak human before he even attempts to commit the act since they'd technically doong it in cold-blood (then again Goku killed his brother in cold-blood). For example, would you kill 9-year old Alofe Hitler for what he'll become in the future?

[TheMightyOzaru]

And...?

You asked who thought that the Cell Arc was the worst one.

What story? A completely mess? Did you mean "a complete mess"? Or "completely a mess"?

I was typing on a tablet so it was misspelled then auto corrected and I didn't notice . That aside, you just said you thought the Buu saga was the best. You said nothing about the Cell arc being your least favorite, that's why I was like ok....
Anyway, Here is my list:
1.) Cell Arc
2.) Freeza Arc
3.) Saiyajin Arc
4.) Piccolo Daimao Arc
5.) Buu Arc
6.) Red Ribbon Arc
7.) Pilaf Arc

[coola]

killing Gero beforehand would have been equally as douche.

How do you figure?

Goku did bring up a legitimate moral issue in killing a weak human before he even attempts to commit the act since they'd technically doong it in cold-blood (then again Goku killed his brother in cold-blood). For example, would you kill 9-year old Alofe Hitler for what he'll become in the future?

Sorry, i`ve edit my post, and sorry for offtopic, but actually, yes, i would kill, both him, and Stalin, knowing what monsters they`ve become (The latter even spawn more monsters that shake world to this day)

[TheGmGoken]

Goku killed his brother in cold-blood

His brother lied to him and kidnapped his son. That wasn't cold blood. Not to mention Piccolo killed Raditz.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

How is it not everybody's favorite? Alternate timeline-type time travel, undetectable killers with infinite energy, a dude who sucks people up turning them all wrinkly and dissolving them to make them part of his power, a room where you can spend a year in a day of normal time, the absurdity of Mr. Satan, Gohan finally coming into his own, Goku's acknowledgement that maybe he's a trouble magnet, evil dwarfs getting kicked into dust, and in the anime, Norio Wakamoto!

Oh, and Piccolo becomes relevant again, albeit temporarily.

F***ing awesome.

I was going to say it was a bunch of good ideas with less-than-perfect execution (As I put out in Goken's "Rewriting the Androids" thread), but PenguinTruth did my job for me. There's a ton of good stuff in here, that's probably what carries it so high for so many- we just have to deal with a revolving door of villains that moves too fast.

[mAcChaos]

killing Gero beforehand would have been equally as douche.

How do you figure?

Goku did bring up a legitimate moral issue in killing a weak human before he even attempts to commit the act since they'd technically doong it in cold-blood (then again Goku killed his brother in cold-blood). For example, would you kill 9-year old Alofe Hitler for what he'll become in the future?

No way, he let Raditz go and Raditz went right back to trying to kill them. It was completely justified, especially since it was their only hope of being left alone and saving the earth.

As for Krillin, it seems most of the Z characters are pretty forgiving. Imagine if Goku held or a grudge over it.

Although it is true the Androids were not truly bad, and hadn't really hurt anyone yet.

[TheGmGoken]

To think. Raditz is the only person Goku never forgave....well King Piccolo and Tamboruine as well.

[KentalSSJ6]

killing Gero beforehand would have been equally as douche.

How do you figure?

Goku did bring up a legitimate moral issue in killing a weak human before he even attempts to commit the act since they'd technically doong it in cold-blood (then again Goku killed his brother in cold-blood). For example, would you kill 9-year old Alofe Hitler for what he'll become in the future?

Um, I'm not speaking for anyone but myself when I say this but, absolutely, given what happened.

[ABED]

They didn't have to kill Gero. At that point, he's probably still human, so they could just find him and trap him or something. Plus, it's not like Gero wasn't already evil. He was a member of the Red Ribbon Army, and given his personality, I doubt it was against his will.

[Aoi]

The narrative during the Cell arc is heavily based on a "mystery" angle. When I first re-watched it in college, I thought each episode flowed perfectly and expanded on the notion that something great was going to be revealed. Of course, now we know the full story so the story loses a bit of spunk when you re-watch it. It's still a bit of a cluster-f###, but I find Toriyama did well to focus the story on Gohan near the end.

Still:
- Amazing animation.
- Fantastic music (Kikuchi or Faulconer imo)
- Spectacular fight scenes.
- Each character is given a chance to shine.

I personally love it. But, it's like with every form of fiction. When you're over-exposed to it, you find more and more problems with it. Hell, I've seen the Dark Knight so many times that I now actually find myself knit-picking the hell out of it. This is a film that I first called: "perfect" after my first viewing.

[Aoi]

Personally, I really dig how Toriyama exposes his characters' biggest flaws in this arc. It's something we hadn't really seen before. While facing Cell, you see the characters at their worse: selfish (Krillin), greedy/arrogant (Vegeta), and vengeful (Gohan). Cell is symbolic of this too. He's literally made up of these characters and represents the absolute worst sides of each of them. The Z-Warriors' entire cause is hurt by their actions/insecurities. It almost seems very purposeful of Toriyama to have Goku sacrifice himself for the sins of the other characters. I love it. I feel Toriyama provides an unexpected amount of depth to a story that should otherwise have been very straight forward Shonen story.

[mAcChaos]

They didn't have to kill Gero. At that point, he's probably still human, so they could just find him and trap him or something. Plus, it's not like Gero wasn't already evil. He was a member of the Red Ribbon Army, and given his personality, I doubt it was against his will.

You could have seen the Imperfect Cell thing coming with Vegeta since he said the exact same thing with the Androids. He literally said he would kill anyone who interfered when they talked about stopping them early. And these were Androids that he knew he had already died to in the future.

[perucho1990]

In the manga, its one of the worst sagas yes, just look at Super Perfect Cell vs Gohan...terrible compared to the anime.

The manga picked at the end of the Freeza Saga.