I just watched the ending of GT (Japanese version) and it was one of the most depressing things I’ve ever seen

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Ashur
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Re: I just watched the ending of GT (Japanese version) and it was one of the most depressing things I’ve ever seen

Post by Ashur » Sat Feb 25, 2023 8:21 am

I love that it has that feeling that we 've been transported to a time where everything was over, where the characters that we knew now rest in peace and their distant descendants carry on, it displays one of my favorite things about Dragon Ball, which i think is sorely missing in modern interpretations, and that is the feeling that time passes, characters age, things change, the ending takes it to the extreme, showing us an epilogue of the Dragon World in the distant future where Goku is but a memory, having Goku and Vegeta come back 100 years later wouldn't make sense for the vibe and message they were going for.

It might be a little depressing to think the entire group of characters and situations we knew are now gone, but that's life, in 100 years your inner circle of friends and family, yourself, and the situations around you won't be preserved, but they will leave a mark, just as Goku and the others' presence in the Dragon World left a mark, Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. show us that the world won't be the same after Goku appeared on Earth, that even centuries after he's passed, the Earth won't just revert back to how it was before he came in, but everything that concerns Goku is pretty much done, so he says his final goodbye to the planet he grew up in.

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dva_raza
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Re: I just watched the ending of GT (Japanese version) and it was one of the most depressing things I’ve ever seen

Post by dva_raza » Tue Feb 28, 2023 8:46 pm

ABED wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 9:42 pm Considering GT doesn't altogether fit DB's aesthetic, an ending that doesn't fit Toriyama's world, but fits GT works fine.

We've already got the whole "the story may continue" ending with the manga, so a more conclusive ending works here. It's sad but in the same way any ending is sad. Even happy endings can be a little sad because it's ending.

Oh, absolutely it’s fitting with the rest of GT. The general consensus is that GT is depressing.


And yeah sad, or at least, bittersweet endings are kinda the norm, that’s why I guess it’s fresher when something isn’t necessarily dramatic about its conclusion.

I don't mind there being both kinds of endings, the point is I think GT overdid it.

Too bad for people who needed a more concrete ending than Z, cause there’s a feel of autenticity when a series doesn’t spoon-feed you with a very very conclusive finale.
Just tying up some things and letting the characters go on to continue their story off screen is an ending too. Especially for a story that had potential to go on.

And the anime ending of Z was actually cool in the way it gradually concluded the story in 3 episodes.
The grand fight not being convulted in the same episode as the time skip like in GT was honestly much better, and I think the scene of Goku remembering his grandpa had more quality to it than anything in GT's finale.

Ashur wrote: Sat Feb 25, 2023 8:21 am It might be a little depressing to think the entire group of characters and situations we knew are now gone, but that's life, in 100 years your...

Lol a “little” depressing? If that’s not the most depressing thing about existence I don’t know what is.

Not sure why being reminded of the most crude real life aspect is supposed to be a point in its favor though.

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TheMikado
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Re: I just watched the ending of GT (Japanese version) and it was one of the most depressing things I’ve ever seen

Post by TheMikado » Sat Mar 04, 2023 1:03 pm

dva_raza wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 8:46 pm
ABED wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 9:42 pm Considering GT doesn't altogether fit DB's aesthetic, an ending that doesn't fit Toriyama's world, but fits GT works fine.

We've already got the whole "the story may continue" ending with the manga, so a more conclusive ending works here. It's sad but in the same way any ending is sad. Even happy endings can be a little sad because it's ending.

Oh, absolutely it’s fitting with the rest of GT. The general consensus is that GT is depressing.


And yeah sad, or at least, bittersweet endings are kinda the norm, that’s why I guess it’s fresher when something isn’t necessarily dramatic about its conclusion.

I don't mind there being both kinds of endings, the point is I think GT overdid it.

Too bad for people who needed a more concrete ending than Z, cause there’s a feel of autenticity when a series doesn’t spoon-feed you with a very very conclusive finale.
Just tying up some things and letting the characters go on to continue their story off screen is an ending too. Especially for a story that had potential to go on.

And the anime ending of Z was actually cool in the way it gradually concluded the story in 3 episodes.
The grand fight not being convulted in the same episode as the time skip like in GT was honestly much better, and I think the scene of Goku remembering his grandpa had more quality to it than anything in GT's finale.

Ashur wrote: Sat Feb 25, 2023 8:21 am It might be a little depressing to think the entire group of characters and situations we knew are now gone, but that's life, in 100 years your...

Lol a “little” depressing? If that’s not the most depressing thing about existence I don’t know what is.

Not sure why being reminded of the most crude real life aspect is supposed to be a point in its favor though.

The ending of GT is probably the most human and realistic the media has ever been.

Even in this world of magic dragons and aliens everything has an end. No lie, this ending caused and existential crisis for me.

It was a definite and finite ending for Goku and crew and their adventures and the finality of it felt like someone truly close and dear to me had passed. I felt content with the journey, but still wishing that I could have just a few moments more with them. While still respecting that our time together has come to an end.

A television show that can make you feel like that is a damn good show.

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Ashur
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Re: I just watched the ending of GT (Japanese version) and it was one of the most depressing things I’ve ever seen

Post by Ashur » Sat Mar 18, 2023 1:53 am

dva_raza wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 8:46 pm
Ashur wrote: Sat Feb 25, 2023 8:21 am It might be a little depressing to think the entire group of characters and situations we knew are now gone, but that's life, in 100 years your...

Lol a “little” depressing? If that’s not the most depressing thing about existence I don’t know what is.

Not sure why being reminded of the most crude real life aspect is supposed to be a point in its favor though.
The point is that confronting these real life lessons in a mature way is one of the endings' strenghts, the ending doesn't wallow in melancholy that it is over, but it celebrates what happened, it relishes on it living through the newer, distant generations, the story is done, at some point the tale will end, and there is nothing left but to look back and go "what a wild ride, eh?" like the ending of GT does, the finitude of the Dragon Ball cast, of Goku, and most importantly, of everyone and everything, gives it a special kind of beauty, a bittersweet beauty, but one that makes you appreciate it happening to begin with, hence why Goku remembers it all before saying his final goodbye to us.

If anything i think you (and many fans) being left wanting more for decades shows the ending was successful in making people appreciate how good Dragon Ball was for them, a safer ending wouldn't leave such big impact, i think, that the ending was so emotional, made people react more strongly to Dragon Ball as a whole in retrospect.

I'd rather have that than a never ending story or an insipid ending.

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