It’s not easy to stay in control of a series that grows to be as popular as Dragon Ball. Akira Toriyama’s addictive manga truly resonated with an audience and through the years it continued to evolve until it turned into the cultural phenomenon that it remains to be today. The various Dragon Ball series have produced hundreds of episodes and hours of content and the franchise is arguably at its peak, decades after its inception. That’s a very difficult task to achieve, but Dragon Ball continues to prove that nothing is impossible.
In order for a series to stay so popular and relevant over the years, it has to be able to keep its audience’s interest, but also figure out new ways to challenge them. Each new series, film, or video game in the Dragon Ball canon tries to add something new to the formula. Even though the franchise is full of exciting moments and groundbreaking storylines, it’s only natural that there will also be some misfires in the mix. Dragon Ball has done an exceptional job at quality control over the years, but that doesn’t mean that the show is perfect. Accordingly, Here Are 30 Dragon Ball Storylines That Fans Want to Forget!
Goku Becomes A Child Again
Dragon Ball is a series that has gone on for long enough that it’s not unreasonable for there to be a retread in material every now and again. That being said, Dragon Ball GT indulges in some rather blatant pandering that tries a little too hard to recapture the energy from the glory days of the original Dragon Ball series. The most egregious ingredient in all of this is that Goku is reduced to a child during the beginning of GT.
Goku’s return to childhood falls flat and feels weird more than anything. What’s even worse is that he remains a child for the bulk of the series!
Whis Rewinds Time
Beerus and Whis are introduced to have a wide variety of extremely powerful abilities, but Whis demonstrates truly how incredible he is during Golden Frieza’s rampage on Earth. Beerus and Whis tend to play the role of mindful observers and stay out of Earth’s battles, but Whis decides to help out when Frieza actually succeeds with his plan to destroy the Earth in Dragon Ball Super.
Whis saves the day by rewinding time to reverse this, but he stresses how this can’t be abused and the many regulations around it. In the end, it’s a sloppy deus ex machina that’s too powerful to candidly throw out there.
The Trip To Fake Namek
The many Dragon Ball series all deal with filler material in various capacities, but by and large this extra material tends to not have the best reputation due to its inconsequential nature. Filler episodes at their worst just feel like excuses to waste time until the real plot kicks in and Dragon Ball Z’s “Fake Namek” saga is some of the most negligent filler out there and an example of how to do it poorly.
“Fake Namek” teases the audience in terms of the show’s goals and even though it’s not quite an “it was all a dream,” twist at the end, it’s not far off from that cliché.
The Bailout Button That Zeno Gives Goku
At least at this point in time, Grand King Zeno is the most powerful entity in the Dragon Ball universe. Accordingly, he has quite the revered reputation, which makes Goku’s casual attitude towards the ruler so amusing. Zeno’s child-like nature connects with Goku and the two form an unlikely friendship that confounds others.
An extension of this relationship results in Zeno giving Goku a button that will call him at any moment to fix the present situation. Not only is this the type of victory that Goku would never take, but it’d also be an unsatisfying conclusion to a story. Goku hasn't used this item since the start of the Universe Survival arc, so it’s probably not worth all of the trouble.
Baby’s Invasion To Earth
The Tuffles are a race that are exclusive to Dragon Ball Z filler, but Dragon Ball GT returns to that exterminated race in a very big way when a survivor returns for revenge against the Saiyans.
It’s nice to see Dragon Ball return to the Tuffles, but this just feels derivative of the many other parasitic and possessive invader storylines. It disrespects many of the show’s characters like Goten, Trunks, and Gohan, and more than anything it just feels like another way to make Vegeta evil again and get him to face off against Goku. It has its moments, but it’s still very problematic.
Old Kai Unlocks Gohan’s Hidden Potential And “Ultimate” Form
So much of Dragon Ball Z’s Buu Saga deals with Gohan training with the Z Sword and undergoing a serious power-up so he can take down the villainous tyrant. This approach helps for a while, but Goku is ultimately the one to save the day. This makes all of the Mystic/Ultimate Gohan material feel like a waste, but in Dragon Ball Super there’s debate if he still even has the power up and how it affects his Super Saiyan skills.
This is all irrelevant anyway since Gohan never becomes a major fighting presence after this, which makes it easier to forget that this never happened. He at least should have been able to defeat Buu!
The Appearance Of More And More Androids
The advent of Dr. Gero’s Androids is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the Cell Saga, but they largely exit the picture along with Cell. The seventh Dragon Ball Z film stoops to some serious lows when it reveals that apparently Dr. Gero created three more Androids, Numbers 13-15.
These new Androids are a flagrant attempt to capture the magic of the previous ones by doing the same thing. However, in Dragon Ball GT, the same thing is pretty much done. Dr. Gero returns again and two versions of Android 17 are combined to make Super Android 17, not unlike Super Android 13. It’s just the same ideas with less impact.
Goku’s Dragon Fist Attack
Dragon Ball has certainly stuck to some signature attacks for each of its characters, but it’s always interesting when some random ability pops out and then is never turned to again. For instance, Goku’s big finisher in the 13th DBZ film, Wrath of the Dragon, is this insane Dragon Fist move where it looks like he practically turns into Shenron to defeat his foe.
This never comes up again, which makes it even more confusing and clear that it’s just some cool way to end the film, rather than a skill that Goku will continue to foster. It does briefly come up again in GT against Super 17, but it’s still just as unfounded then.
Broly’s Original Storyline
Broly dominates three Dragon Ball Z movies and was a highly controversial character. While he wasn’t canon, it seemed like Dragon Ball Super tried to erase him to some degree when it turned out that Kale can also go Berserker and become what looks like a Legendary Super Saiyan. It seemed like Kale was the official Broly surrogate, but then Dragon Ball Super: Broly devotes its entire story to rewrite Broly and Paragus’ past and create a canonical version that works.
So you can now forget about all of that Bio-Broly nonsense. Super’s take on the character is what counts.
Kid Buu’s Genocide Of The Planet
With each new villain that shows up in the Dragon Ball series it becomes increasingly difficult to show how this new foe is more evil than the last. These are all enemies that wipe out entire planets and show no remorse Dragon Ball Z really wants to demonstrate how evil Kid Buu is and his Human Extinction Attack certainly gets that point across.
Goku and Vegeta see all of their loved ones perish and once Buu is finally handled, Goku wishes for all of this to be fixed, so it essentially gets erased. It creates some serious stakes towards the end of the series, but most seemed to realize it would be reversed in time.
Goku Believes His Grandfather’s Spirit Is In The Four-Star Dragon Ball
There’s a very sweet, familial aspect to the original Dragon Ball series when it kicks off. Goku is a young orphan and the strange bond that he’s built with his Grandpa Gohan via the Dragon Ball is one of the show’s strongest, earliest relationships.
It’s a touching way to treasure the memory of Goku’s grandpa as well as give him a motivation to get these special orbs, but it’s easy to forget that this was Goku’s drive at the start. The concept of spirits in Dragon Balls isn’t returned to again and they’re mostly focused on for their wish powers. Goku doesn’t hang onto the ball as a keepsake of his grandfather or anything.
Frieza’s Extended Family
When Frieza first appears, Dragon Ball Z spends a lot of time establishing that he is potentially the strongest threat in the universe. Once he’s out of the picture, the fifth and sixth DBZ films introduce Frieza’s older brother, Cooler, who in theory seems to be even stronger. There’s also King Cold and Chilled, who must be fairly powerful themselves, too.
The series wants to have fun with these echoes of the villain, but doesn’t want you to question the conditions behind them. Furthermore, Frieza is repeatedly brought back throughout the series, yet the rest of his family is ignored.
The Destruction Of The Moon
It’s important for Dragon Ball’s characters to prove how strong they are in fantastic ways, but something as drastic as blowing up the Earth’s moon seems a little severe. And yet, this is something that happens several times throughout the course of the series, yet the consequences of such a seismic act are never fully explored. It’s just meant to be a flashy solution to a problem, which it then hopes you won’t think about again in the future.
There are plenty of outlandish events and creatures throughout Dragon Ball, but they oddly usually operate off of some strange internal logic.
Vegeta’s Younger Brother, Tarble
In the special, Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!, it’s revealed that Vegeta has a younger brother named Tarble. The special questions how improbable this is, but it still raises a lot of flags. Dragon Ball is no stranger to throwing missing family members into the mix to spice things up, but this feels like they just wanted to do something big for this special and didn’t really consider the consequences.
Additionally, Tarble hasn’t joined the party in Dragon Ball Super or anything, where there is ample opportunity to involve him, if they wanted.
Garlic Jr.’s Mission For Immortality
The Garlic Jr. Saga in Dragon Ball Z is some of the earliest filler in the series and even though it’s a good use of Gohan and his latent powers without having to rely on Goku, it’s something the show very much wants you to forget about.
Garlic Jr. gains immortality here, even though he still gets defeated. What’s worse is that this is just a retread of the first Dragon Ball Z movie, The Dead Zone. Dragon Ball Super would later “redo” films as episodes in order to make them canon, but this is far from that. It just feels like an uncreative way to take up time.
Goten And Trunks’ Progression Of Individual Fighters
For a while, there was a real time in the middle of Dragon Ball Z where Goten and Trunks were training and getting stronger in their own rights, essentially poised to be the next Goku and Vegeta. However, once the two learn about fusion, they basically turn to that as a crutch and never go back.
Granted, Goten and Trunks are much stronger and can become Super Saiyan 3 as Gotenks, but it’s their only play at this point. Working on themselves as individuals would still make their fusion stronger, but their time in the spotlight gets severely reduced in Dragon Ball Super.
The Tournament Against Universe 6
It’s an exciting moment when Beerus’ Universe 7 decides to square off against Champa’s Universe 6 for the first time, but the weight of this showdown gets severely undercut by the fact that these two universes head off against each other, and the rest of the universes, later down to the road.
It feels like an obvious way to just insert some more fighting into the show before the next big arc begins. It’s fun to get an introduction to characters like Hit, but all of these people show up later, and the tournament has extremely flimsy conditions and rewards
Imperfect Cell Woes
The core idea behind Cell, a creature who starts flawed and has to absorb others to become his best self, isn’t bad. In fact, it’s a concept that has such depth that Dragon Ball would return to it several times throughout its run. It’s the execution of this quirk that gets rather sloppy, since a lot of this time revolves around both Imperfect Cell and the Z-Fighters training to become stronger.
There’s so much use of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber here and simply waiting for people to finish training and then show up to help. It’s a slow process, and one that just wastes time until everyone’s ready.
The Existence Of Ultra Super Saiyan
Dragon Ball Z has a very strong story after the defeat of Frieza, but many audiences were just hungry to see the next Super Saiyan transformation go down. Obviously these transformations had to be milestone events, but the series tries to compromise to some degree on the matter.
These Super Saiyan steps between the “official” next level feel like a way to feature transformations and create stakes where there are none. This middle stage is stronger, but it’s so slow and bulky that it fails to actually be useful. Trunks still sticks to it in Dragon Ball Super, but it’s generally abandoned once stronger transformations are introduced.
The Return Of The Demon Containment Wave
During the fight against Zamasu, who is immortal, the gang remembers the old Mafuba technique that was used against King Piccolo to entrap evil entities. A lot of time is spent troubleshooting this plan and it’s eventually put to use in a limited capacity, but it’s not the solution to the problem that it looks like it will be.
It’s cool to see this vintage Dragon Ball technique return, but it ultimately feels like it’s just there to pad out time. It does make another appearance during the Tournament of Power to greater effect, but it doesn’t play a grand role in the tournament.