Dragon Ball: 25 Storylines That Were Completely Abandoned
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Some Dragon Ball narratives were left by the wayside as the series went on. These are the most disappointing ones to lose.
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Dragon Ball is no stranger to storyline abandonment. Written over the course of ten years by an author who never reread his franchise while writing it and made everything up as he went along, it’s honestly a miracle the series makes as much narrative and thematic sense as it does. In many ways, it even makes more sense than other stories in the genre that were actually planned out from start to finish. As inexplicably well written as Dragon Ball is, it goes without saying that Akira Toriyama’s writing style did cause several storylines to get dropped by the end of the series’ original run. It’s a frustrating thing for fans to grapple with, but of course, it’s something we all need to accept. And considering how much outside material has been created, it’s no surprise things have slipped through the crack.s
Even Super, an anime that had an outlined and was meticulously planned, ended up having its fair share of abandoned storylines. Wherever Dragon Ball goes, it just can’t help itself from setting up details only to either do nothing with them or subvert them later on. This is a thread shared by the original series, Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Super. When Dragon Ball comes back this December, we can only assume it’ll bring with it even more abandoned storylines.
25 Gohan’s Potential Leads Nowhere After Z
Although Toriyama made up most of the series as he went along, it always seemed like he was building up to something with Gohan. The firstborn son of Goku with seemingly unlimited potential, Gohan was a masterclass plot device ready to be used at any moment. By the end of the series, he’s not only realized his potential, he’s also become the strongest non-fused character in the franchise. Gohan ends the series better than anyone, and neither Super nor GT do anything to expand that idea.
Gohan ends DBZ as the strongest character only for Super to never use him.
At the start of both sequels, it’s made clear that Gohan is no longer the strongest. While it makes sense for Gohan to put martial arts behind in favor of his academic pursuits, it seems to defeat all the buildup Toriyama embedded into the original series. This is an inherently an issue with the nature of following up a series like Dragon Ball. Gohan’s story arc was complete, and continuing the series means dismantling it to include him.
24 Yamcha Never Finds Love
One of the very first things we learn about Yamcha is that he desperately wants a girlfriend. It’s what he decides to wish for on the Dragon Balls and it serves as the driving point of his character arc at the beginning of the series. Once he starts dating Bulma at the end of the first arc, it feels like Yamcha has reached his natural conclusion. Of course, we all know there are nine more story arcs and a certain Saiyan Prince has to enter the picture.
Once Vegeta is introduced, it’s basically all downhill for Yamcha. Bulma dumps him, he has a one-off girlfriend in the Cell saga, and GT and Super seem to push an image of a loner Yamcha. He even moves back to the desert in the former series. All Yamcha wanted at the start of the series was to find love, and Dragon Ball makes sure he never holds onto it for long.
23 Dr. Gero: The Villain That Never Was
Although the arc is known as the Cell saga to the larger fandom, Cell was only introduced late into production. In fact, he was introduced because Toriyama’s editors didn’t like his choice of antagonist. While Cell came in as a replacement for Androids 17 and 18, the twins were likewise replacements for Dr. Gero. What is now known as the Cell saga could have easily been the Gero saga is Toriyama had his way.
The Dr. Gero saga just doesn’t have the same ring.
Little is known about what Toriyama intended for Gero, but it’s not too hard to speculate. With his ability to absorb energy from humans, it’s likely Dr. Gero would have escape the initial conflict and gone into hiding ala Cell. Then, he would go around absorbing people in order to get stronger. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, it’s hard to imagine an arc solely about Gero lasting longer than a few chapters. It’s probably for the best that Toriyama dropped the good doctor.
22 Goten And Trunks: The Laziest Next Generation
One of Dragon Balls core themes is the concept of the next generation. Each generation can, and will, improve on what the last established. This is a theme that even has some basis in reality. Unfortunately, when the time comes for Goten and Trunks to symbolize the next generation, they end up dropping the ball tremendously. Instead of grabbing the torch and defeating Majin Buu themselves, they fail at every turn.
This is a complicated storyline and one that had to be dropped for the narrative to honestly work. While it’s in-line with the series, Goten and Trunks could never defeat Buu for two reasons: Gohan was still training with Kaioshin, and Goku still had to come back into the picture. Toriyama revisits the theme in earnest with Uub at the end of the series, but Goten and Trunks end up turning into lazy loafers completely apathetic towards martial arts.
21 The Curious Case Of Garlic Jr.
Garlic Jr. is an interesting case of Dragon Ball abandonment considering his odd role in the franchise. Originally introduced as a film villain, Garlic Jr. was one and done by the end of the Dead Zone. Nobody would, or could, expect him to come back for a filler arc. With the end of the Freeza saga, however, Garlic Jr. was indeed back as a main antagonist once again. There is one clear issue with his inclusion, though: since the anime never took the film into account before the arc, he was technically an abandoned plot thread that came back only to be abandoned once more.
Every single villain in the series is referenced after their arc is over, but Garlic Jr. can’t be due to being a filler character. Once his little filler saga is done, that’s it for it. There is not a single reference to his existence just like how there wasn’t any evidence The Dead Zone ever happened in the anime continuity before his saga. Garlic Jr. was fine as he was, but Toei retroactively made him an abandoned plot point.
20 Tien Wastes His Entire Adult Life
Throughout Dragon Ball, Tien has one major goal: surpass Goku. From the moment their fight ends during the 22nd Budokai, he vows to train harder and get stronger so their next match doesn’t end in an effective draw. Come the 23rd Budokai, though, and Tien hasn’t trained enough. Goku fights circles around him and takes him out with little trouble. By the time Goku fights Piccolo, it’s clear Tien was never close.
No matter how hard he trains, Tien will never match Goku.
The tragedy of Tien’s character arc isn’t that he can’t catch up to Goku, it’s that he keeps trying. From here on out, he spends every arc training as hard as he can while Goku doubles, and even triples, him in power. By the end of the Frieza saga, Tien obviously won’t be catching up. Yet he still tries. By the end of the original series, he’s obviously kept training but will never match Goku’s power again.
19 Majin Buu Is Reduced To A Gag In Super
Although Majin Buu reforms at the end of the Buu saga, it’s important to remember that he only does so at the effective end of the franchise. Since Dragon Ball Super mostly tries to play off of the status quo established at the end of Dragon Ball Z, this means that, while Buu is a good guy, he isn’t going to be doing much since Toriyama never got a chance to establish his dynamic with the rest of the cast.
Majin Buu goes from one of the strongest characters in the series to a punchline.
As a result, Buu is used horrifically throughout Super. He’s billed as one of the main characters in the Universe 6 tournament, but he ends up missing the tournament entirely, depriving audiences of some actual content with the Djinn. The same thing happens again in the Tournament of Power. Buu is billed as a main fighter, and then ends up getting replaced by Freeza when he ends up falling asleep.
18 The Anime’s Afterlife
The anime’s handling of the afterlife will always stand out as one of Toei’s worst changes to Dragon Ball. When first introduced, they actually do a very faithful job, keeping everything intact. Souls are souls, characters get reincarnated, and Hell isn’t some club where villains hangout. Once the Buu saga starts, though, Toei decided to make it cameo city. Completely abandoning Toriyama’s depiction of the afterlife, villains now kept their bodies, souls were seldom mentioned except when the source material called for it, and Hell got a complete makeover. This became all the more problematic when Toriyama wrote Resurrection F and effectively forced the anime staff to, once again, abandon a depiction of the afterlife.
17 The Misadventures Of The Great Saiyaman
The Buu saga stands out quite a bit considering it takes a while to actually introduce the titular villain. In many ways, it’s hard to believe that the saga begins with a mini-arc revolving around the Great Saiyaman. Seven years after the end of the Cell Games, Gohan takes up the mantle of a superhero to fight crime in Satan City. Sadly, four chapters, and a few episodes, into the mini-arc, and Toriyama completely drops it in favor of a new storyline. It was a novel spin to the franchise’s previously self-serious arc. Sadly, just like the Great Saiyaman portion, though, the next arc gets abandoned as well.
16 The 25th Tenkaichi Budokai
Whenever fans discuss the tournament arcs in Dragon Ball, chances are they’ll only mention the first three: the 21st Budokai, the 22nd Budokai, and the 23rd Budokai. The 24th happens offscreen, so it makes sense not to bring it up, but we actually do see the 25th Budokai: during the Buu saga. Since it’s a part of the Buu saga, though, it ends up interrupted less than halfway through. As the tournament actually got quite a lot of build-up, it’s disappointing to see Toriyama abandon the idea so quickly. Unfortunately, he does the same thing again at the end of the series with the 28th Budokai. The man simply did not want to complete his tournament anymore.
15 Goku Never Goes Below In The Manga
Goku falling over into Hell in the anime is one of the more iconic pieces of filler in the Saiyan saga. It’s actually foreshadowed early on so having Goku go on down only makes sense. In the manga, while it is established as a location and a line could be read as foreshadowing, Goku never falls over. For many, this could be seen as potential plot abandonment. Toriyama established the place as an area and the danger of falling in, but nothing ever comes out of it. Not a single character in the original manga visits and it’s effectively forgotten for the rest of the manga. This one particularly stings, because there must have been more interesting ideas left on the cutting room floor.
14 Planet Sadala And The Unkept Promise
Considering how early Dragon Ball Super established the prospect of Goku and Vegeta visiting Planet Sadala, it’s disappointing to get to the end of the series and realize they never came close to actually hopping over to Universe 6. In neither the main story arcs or the filler episodes, Planet Sadala remains unexplored. We do it see it during the recruitment mini-arc when Cabba is trying to get Caulifla and Kale to join U6’s team for the tournament, but its lore is left untouched.
The Tournament of Power does rework it as a motivator for Vegeta, so it isn’t completely wasted, but it’s still a plot thread with little to no resolution. Hopefully, Dragon Ball will get around to setting an arc there once it returns from its hiatus, but it’s still odd that Super set it up and ended up doing very little with it in terms of narrative.
13 The Retaking Of The Torch
One of Dragon Ball’s main themes is passing on the torch to the next generation. Roshi formally passes the torch onto Goku, Krillin, and Tien halfway through the 22nd Budokai and Goku does the same to Gohan near the end of the Cell Games. While the series even ends with Goku effectively passing the torch onto Uub, the Buu saga does muddy this concept a bit by having Goku take the torch back from Gohan.
A big deal is made about Gohan becoming the main character only for Goku to come right back.
Once Gohan fails in the fight against Buu, Goku shows back up to reclaim his role as protagonist. The idea here is that Goku should defeat Majin Buu because he’s the one actually responsible for his release, but it does hurt the whole next generation motif considering Gohan just got his status as main character ripped away. Uub does so some damage control for the situation, but Gohan is still abandoned when it comes to torches.
12 Lunch And The Quest For Tien Shinhan
Lunch, also known as Launch in the Funimation dub, stands out as one of the only characters Toriyama explicitly wrote out during the run of the series. At the very start of the Saiyan arc, Bulma mentions how Lunch ran off to find Tien and hasn’t been seen since. While she does appear in a few filler scenes in the anime, the manga truly never follows up on her again leading to a very unfortunate implication: Lunch never settles down with Tien.
Throughout the course of Dragon Ball, Lunch’s only real defining motivator besides blind robbery is gaining Tien’s affection. Unfortunately for her, Tien has absolutely no interest in romance as it would take away from his training. Lunch disappears from the story, never finding love. She doesn’t even show up in Super, a sequel fueled on fan service. Now that’s abandonment.
11 GT Never Follows Up On Uub’s Potential
Although Dragon Ball Z ended with Goku flying off ready to train Uub because of all his latent talent, Dragon Ball GT decided to drop that plot thread almost immediately. Completely skipping over the training and sidelining Uub for the rest of the series, Uub’s potential is never followed up on. Toriyama never intended it to be considering that’s where he ended the series, but GT is a sequel.
Logically, GT should have opened with an arc about Uub.
As a sequel, it’s GT’s job to continue the plot threads left behind. The most pressing at the end of Z was Goku’s dynamic with Uub. Logically, the next story arc should either focus on the training itself or involve Uub somehow. By not even including Uub in the hunt for the Black Star Dragon Balls, GT steps all over DBZ’s ending.
10 The Abandonment Of Future Trunks’ Timeline
There is not a single plot thread in Dragon Ball that gets as blatant an abandonment as Future Trunks’ timeline. Erased entirely with no chance of restoration at the end of the Goku Black arc, Trunks’ timeline poofs out of existence taking all story potential with it. While it’s already sad that Trunks lost his home, it’s made all the sadder when you realize Trunks’ future is the original timeline. Zeno isn’t just erasing an alternate timeline, he’s erasing the timeline. Trunks hops over a new timeline courtesy of Whis, but we’re never getting another story with Trunks’ true home.
9 King Cold: Toriyama’s Greatest Trick
Part of what makes the Cell saga so special is the fact that the arc doesn’t start with Cell at all. Rather, it starts with Freeza and his father. The moment our heroes are told of King Cold, they expect an all-out battle unlike any other. Taking down Freeza took everything Goku had. Taking down Freeza and his father would be seemingly impossible. As soon as Trunks is introduced, though, impossibility becomes reality and King Cold is never mentioned again.
King Cold is just a distraction for the actual villains.
As far as abandoned storylines go, this is one of Toriyama’s best: mainly because it was planned. King Cold was never going to be the main villain. He was set up, but always intended to be defeated right away so the real villains could be built up. If Trunks can’t defeat the Androids, but can defeat Cold, the former must be terrifyingly strong. Cold’s abandonment is exactly what gave this arc tension.
8 The Pursuit Of Super Saiyan Mastery
The Cell saga is typically known for, well, Cell, but it has another, arguably more, defining element: the race to mastering Super Saiyan. Following the horrific beatdown the Androids gave the Z-warriors and Cell’s introduction, Goku woke up from his heart virus-induced coma and devised a plan for he, Gohan, Trunks, and Vegeta to train in the Room of Spirit and Time to perfect the SSJ transformation. In fully mastering the form, Goku realizes the importance of training SSJ and not one’s base.
Come the Buu saga, and it oddly feels like the lesson is totally lost. Goku clearly trained himself to reach SSJ3, but it seems odd he wouldn’t just train SSJ2 as his base form. More importantly, it’s strange that neither Gohan or Vegeta actually try to further master their transformations. We even see Vegeta training his base over SSJ with Kid Trunks, implying he didn’t take Goku’s teachings to heart.
7 The Zenkai Dilemma
Originally introduced in the Freeza saga as a means of allowing Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan to keep up with Freeza’s forces on Namek, Zenkais quickly became a massive part of the franchise. Come to the Cell saga, though, and Zenkais are virtually non-existent save for the one Cell undergoes at the end of the arc. What was the defining element of being a Saiyan was simply replaced by the Super Saiyan transformation. Instead of getting stronger through battle, training took the focus again.
Zenkais go from playing a big role in the Freeza saga to non-existent in the Cell saga.
While there are some compelling theories and in-text evidence about how Zenkais work to keep their exclusion from feeling jarring, it is bizarre to see such a pivotal piece of Saiyan biology get phased out after one arc. It seems like Saiyans no longer undergo Zenkais after turning Super Saiyan, but it’s still odd Toriyama went to the trouble of fleshing it out only to drop it in the next arc.
6 A Farewell To Pan’s Potential
One of Toriyama’s final setups, which wasn’t really a setup at all considering the context, was Pan’s potential. Intended to show that the next generation would keep getting stronger, Pan was introduced in the last few chapters as a 4-year old infinitely stronger than Goku and Gohan ever were as kids. The idea would be that she’d grow up even more talented than the two of them, cementing one of the series’ core themes in place. Then GT came out.
Instead of depicting Pan as the all-powerful quarter-Saiyan she was, the GT staff severely reduced her potential in favor of keeping Goku in the spotlight. She barely got any fights, she never defeated a major supporting antagonist, and she didn’t even become a Super Saiyan by the end of the series. All the potential Toriyama gave Pan was thrown out the moment Toei got their hands on her.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/dragon-ball-storylines-completely-abandoned/