Using the word "saga" to describe story divisions

[ABED]

I got into an interesting conversation with VegettoEX about the term, but I was wondering what you all think about the term. Do you use Sagas when referring to the different stories, or do you use the term "arcs"? Do you think "saga" is interchangeable with "arc" in this context? How do you separate the different arcs out?

For years I used the term sagas, but in the past two years, I think arc is probably the better term. I used to use FUNi's breakdown, and while it helps me to find the episode I'm thinking about, it's not really accurate to call them arcs, e.g. the Ginyu arc. I separate them as such:
Pilaf arc
21st Budokai arc
Red Ribbon Army arc
Fortuneteller Baba arc (I know it's arguably part of the RRA arc, but that would make the end of that arc one long denouement)
Tenshinhan arc
Piccolo Daimao arc
Ma Jr. arc
Saiyan/Vegeta arc
Freeza arc
Garlic Jr arc
Cyborgs/Cell arc
Anoyoichi Budokai arc
Buu arc
Baby arc
Super 17 arc
Evil Dragons arc.

[samuraix123]

What about me!???? hahaha I'll always use saga's cause it makes stuff so easy for me at-least.

[Cetra]

Dragon Ball
Freezer Saga, normally not really Saiyajin Saga
Cell Saga
Boo Saga
So the big villains, Vegeta is not even a main villain for me.
Galaxy Tour/Baby Saga
"Super 17" Saga, normally not even considered a "saga" by me but I can't let it out.
Star Dragon Saga

[ABED]

You wouldn't consider Vegeta a main villain?

[Cetra]

You wouldn't consider Vegeta a main villain?

No, I don't. Dragon Ball Z only has 3 main villains in my eyes, just as Dragon Ball has only one, maybe 2 if you count the Red Ribbon Army.

RRA
Great Demon King Piccolo
Freezer
Cell
Demon Boo
Baby
Super-Cyborg 17
Star Dragons

[ABED]

You wouldn't consider Vegeta a main villain?

No, I don't. Dragon Ball Z only has 3 main villains in my eyes, just as Dragon Ball has only one, maybe 2 if you count the Red Ribbon Army.

RRA
Great Demon King Piccolo
Freezer
Cell
Demon Boo
Baby
Super-Cyborg 17
Star Dragons

Vegeta isn't Freeza's subordinate at that point.

[Luso Saiyan]

Story arcs, not sagas. If I were to call saga to anything (DB related), it would be Dragon Ball itself (and I still would think franchise is the proper term).

[Cetra]

Vegeta isn't Freeza's subordinate at that point.

He still works for him and the Saiyajin Saga never felt like a saga for me. For me Freezer just had one big saga, beginning with the Saiyajins. They are just the prelude to "here are aliens and they make you look like the weakest ass of all time". Just as there is no "Cyborg Saga" before the Cell Saga for me. That is all the Cell Saga or all the Cyborg Saga, which also fits as Cell is one. Or the Great Saiyaman Saga is also just the Boo Saga for me.

3 main antagonists, 3 sagas, that is how I see it.

EDIT: Yes, he was his subordinate at that time. Just because he does not attack for Freezer does not mean he does not work for him. Freezer did not have to do anything with it and yet Vegeta was just a little warrior working for him. If there is something that makes him insignificant such as being a little soldier of Freezer and actually just having little to no control it is important. Earth was his desire but he actually only was a part of something greater.

[Hujio]

It all comes down to understanding the difference between these two terms, and I'll say it, FUNimation technically got it wrong, at least with how they originally divided up the "Z" series into so many different parts. The definition of a "saga" is a "very long story with dramatic events or parts" and is typically a "narrative or legend of heroic exploits". This does not describe the individual divisions of the series, if anything it's how you would describe all of Dragon Ball, as a whole. Whereas the definition of a story arc is "an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media". In my honest opinion, it's one of those things that FUNimation started using as a marketing ploy for their individual DVD releases and just couldn't get away from it. It's just one of those things that annoys me, like making up seasons that don't exist. But these days FUNimation has stepped back from all those "sagas" a bit, and when they redesigned their Official Dragon Ball Z Website they dropped it down to four.

So basically by definition, the saga of Dragon Ball is made up of numerous story arcs, but not vice versa. However, that said, I do feel that saga can be an appropriate term when used for larger spans of the series. But, for me, it will always have that initial stigma from FUNimation's extreme overuse when the series was first released in North America.

[ABED]

Vegeta isn't Freeza's subordinate at that point.

He still works for him and the Saiyajin Saga never felt like a saga for me. For me Freezer just had one big saga, beginning with the Saiyajins. They are just the prelude to "here are aliens and they make you look like the weakest ass of all time". Just as there is no "Cyborg Saga" before the Cell Saga for me. That is all the Cell Saga or all the Cyborg Saga, which also fits as Cell is one. Or the Great Saiyaman Saga is also just the Boo Saga for me.

3 main antagonists, 3 sagas, that is how I see it.

To say he wasn't Freeza's subordinate means he wasn't working for him. He wasn't helping Freeza obtain some goal, he was going to Earth for himself. The Vegeta arc has a beginning, middle, climax, and end. That's why I think it's its own arc.

Was Saga used first by FUNi? I vaguely recall it being used in other places before FUNi.

[eledoremassis02]

I do Saiyan, Namek, Freeza - - - just what I'm used too. Do people refer to them as seasons now (perhaps the more casual fan?)

[Ajay]

So basically by definition, the saga of Dragon Ball is made up of numerous story arcs, but not vice versa.

That's how I feel about it. I really hate the use of 'saga' and to get a weird twinge whenever I see it used.

FUNi's excessive use of the word doesn't exactly help sway my opinion. Any slight change in the plot warrants a new saga, it's absurd.

Saiyan, Freeza, AH, Cell, Saiyaman (questionable), Buu.

Done, there's no need for any more. Maybe throw a Garlic Jr and an Ano-yo’ichi Tournament arc in there if you really want but there's really no need for much more. They certainly don't warrant being called sagas.

[Valerius Dover]

I do Saiyan, Namek, Freeza - - - just what I'm used too. Do people refer to them as seasons now (perhaps the more casual fan?)

To be honest, the Seasons are divided at really awkward points at times, particularly in DB and DBGT. Not my favorite way of dividing it, but if I'm speaking to a more casual fan, I'll refer to them by their DVD Season numbers. Otherwise, I'll usually use Funimations Sagas as the main terminology. Although, these Sagas are still shorter then arcs, so for me it's divisions within divisions, kind of.

So, it can go like this:

DB Seasons 1-5
DBZ Seasons 1-9 or DBZK Seasons 1-4
DBGT Season 1-2


Like this:

Emperor Pilaf (1-13)
Tournament (14-28)
Red Ribbon Army (29-45)
General Blue (46-57)
Commander Red (58-67)
Fortuneteller Baba (68-83)
Tien Shinhan (84-101)
King Piccolo (102-122)
Piccolo Jr. (123-153)
Vegeta (1-35)
Namek (36-67)
Captain Ginyu (68-74)
Frieza (75-107)
Garlic Jr. (108-117)
Trunks (118-125)
Androids (126-139)
Imperfect Cell (140-152)
Perfect Cell (153-165)
Cell Games (166-194)
Great Saiyaman (195-209)
World Tournament (210-219)
Babidi (220-231)
Majin Buu (232-253)
Fusion (254-275)
Kid Buu (276-291)
Black Star Dragon Ball (1-16)
Baby (17-40)
Super 17 (41-47)
Shadow Dragon (48-64)


Or I'll divide things bigger like this:

1st Dragon Ball Hunt and 21st Tournament (1-28)
2nd Dragon Ball Hunt (29-78)
22nd Tournament and King Piccolo (79-126)
23rd Tournament (127-148)
FILLER: Wedding (149-153)
Frieza (1-107) (KAI: 1-54)
FILLER: Garlic Jr. (108-117)
Cell (118-194) (KAI: 55-98)
FILLER: Other World Tournament (195-199)
Buu (200-291) (KAI: 99-167 by the looks of things)
Baby (1-40)
17 and Shadow Dragons (41-64)


Depends on the mood, I suppose.

[ABED]

The "seasons" have to do with FUNi's sagas. For instance, season 5 contains the Imperfect and Perfect Cell sagas. The weirdest thing is that they consider episodes 36-39 to be part of the Vegeta arc.

[UltimateHammerBro]

I use the term "sagas", merely out of habit. I understand how it is better to talk about "story arcs". I myself divide DBZ in four sagas: Saiyan, Freeza, Cell and Buu, DB in five: 1st DB hunt-1st tournament, RR, 2nd tournament, Piccolo Daimao and Piccolo Junior, and GT in four: Grand Tour, Baby, Super C-17 and Shadow Dragons.
It's the same division which appears in the Spanish DVDs, with the only exception of the first saga of DB: the DVDs call it "the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai saga", containing the first 13 episodes too. I just use "DB hunt-1st tournament", or sometimes "Goku saga".

[dbboxkaifan]

Dragon Ball
1) Emperor Pilaf arc
2) 21st Tenkaichi Tournament arc
3) Red Ribbon Army arc
4) Uranai Baba arc
5) 22nd Tenkaichi Tournament arc
6) Piccolo Daimao arc
7) Piccolo Junior arc

Dragon Ball Z
1) Saiyan arc
2) Freeza arc
3) Cell arc
4) Majin Boo arc

Dragon Ball GT
1) Black Star arc
2) Baby arc
3) Super Artificial Human No.17 arc
4) Evil Dragons arc

Even though Dragon Ball Z is the one that has a lot more episodes than any of the others, Dragon Ball feels like the one that had more variety in the series, sure the Freeza arc, Cell arc and Majin Boo arc had other sub-stories/characters but they're not necessarily a lot to add to the story itself.

Ya know, if there's one female character I'd have liked to see more it'd be Col. Violet!

[Adamant]

Do people refer to them as seasons now (perhaps the more casual fan?)

I would assume "the more casual fan" just calls them whatever it says on the websites they visit or the DVDs they own, and have no clue there's a dozen other divisions and labels out there they haven't heard of.

[dbboxkaifan]

If FUNimation had named the releases by "Part", "Collection" or "Volume" the customers would spend some time knowing what it's about but regarding it as a "Season" kinda says a lot about it.

What's worse than calling it "Season" was the artwork that FUNimation used for the Dragon Ball Z Orange Bricks, I dunno what the idea was with using Piccolo for the Great Saiyaman & Tenkaichi Tournament, it'd have been better to have Gohan the Great Saiyaman instead.

[Herms]

The use of "saga" to refer to the various story lines within the series predates Funi's DVD releases, doesn't it? I thought that went straight back to fan subs, and Funi just picked it up along with stuff like "Kid Buu" or "Mystic Gohan".

I do prefer Funi's old "saga"-based home releases to the current style of just dividing the series up into an arbitrary number of equally sized chunks. Silly as calling a bunch of episodes the "Imperfect Cell Saga" was, at least you knew what you were getting with that box set. As opposed to Season/Dragon Box/Level Set X with episodes 142-175 or whatever.

[Chuquita]

I dropped the term "sagas" years back for "arcs", but I don't recall when exactly. While I wish it had been due to a more linguistic cause, the reason I actually dropped it was due to getting annoyed at some of Funi's louder, more obnoxious ads that used the sagas term. I did not want to be reminded of those ads whenever I type the word.