8) The next part they completely messed up has to do with hyping anyone who was not an established character. There was this huge disconnect between making many of the opponents seem threatening, and actually being handled as such. It’s part of the fake suspense this entire series overflows with. They were constantly exciting you to expect every fighter being challenging, only to see them getting defeated very easily. I’m telling you, Reddit was full of topics where people were having dreams about the amazing powers every single one of those nobodies will have, only to get 30 seconds of throwaway fodders. The hype was so high, shonentards were constantly dreaming about the potential of this arc. And there is nothing wrong in making it seem like the opposition stands a chance, but it’s anti-climactic when it turns out nobody outside of Jiren posed a threat. He was clearly the final opponent as the opening was constantly telling you, yet these stupid promises of amazing fights from others was making it seem like there is more to it. When there never was and the show itself never tried to make anyone else that important.
9) And the problem is not just how nobody else was treated fairly, it also has to do with how they were behaving when they were facing an established fighter. At first they would be heroic and kind-hearted, but as soon as they face a favored warrior they would magically become evil and petty. The writers were so unwilling to show psychological pressure by presenting everyone fighting for the survival of his universe instead of being good or evil, to the point they were rewriting noble opponents into bad guys, so the heroes would seem heroic by defeating them. Because this way, it doesn’t feel tragic when you have to kill countless people by defeating their heroes. No sir, they are assholes and they deserve it.
10) That was super lame when Gohan was the only one aware of that. They were constantly making it seem like he was devastated by the destruction he was causing, and why he was supposed to be holding back all the time and have his ass kicked around by nobodies. Every time it was happening it seemed like he would get character development. Everyone expected him to fight seriously afterwards and to unlock the next power up thanks to his newfound determination. Only to completely forget everything after a few minutes, go back to getting his ass kicked by nobodies, and never unlocking the new power up the show was constantly hyping you about. All because the writers were refusing to show actual psychological pressure in an arc that was demanding it.
11) After that we had the defeat of Tien, someone who was there just for the heck of it. Toriyama gave up on him ever since the original series, and Super simply continued the tradition of treating him as garbage. It says a lot when he was ridiculed in every episode he was supposed to get the spotlight. First he’s made to look like a fool by a little girl with weak powers, then he’s defeated by a grandpa he had surpassed decades ago, then he drops his guard in the tournament as if he doesn’t have decades of battle experience, and finally sacrifices himself to take out a complete nobody Goku could defeat in a fraction of a second. But no, they had to make it look like Goku forgot how to teleport and thus couldn’t appear behind the sharpshooter and defeat him without Tien having to sacrifice. We needed Tien to look heroic by making the protagonist act like a complete retard.
12) And by the way, this is another blunder about the arc. There were many last moment saves for some characters, and not for others. There was no logic in how someone could save a comrade from falling off the stage in one scene, but be unable to do the same in another scene. It would happen whenever the writers felt like it, instead of when it was possible to happen. Why didn’t Goku teleport to save Tien from falling? Why didn’t Kunshi or Jimizu use their powers to save their fighters more often? It would make sense if they were shown being preoccupied with other fights, something which never happened. Everyone was supposed to be fighting at the same time, when in reality the action was mostly duels with everybody else disappearing from the stage for twenty episodes. Basically, the storyboard was complete shit, since everyone appeared and disappeared at random, and you never had any idea what the rest were doing in the meantime. And since it was universe 7 who defeated almost everybody else, it’s as if the opponents were doing nothing for twenty episodes, besides patiently waiting for their turn to go against universe 7. I understand that it would be impossible to show 80 characters fighting at the same time, but that begs the question: If the writers couldn’t do it, why didn’t they make a traditional tournament instead? Nobody would be appearing and disappearing all the time there, interesting duels wouldn’t be interrupted at random, and nobody would be saved from falling off the stage whenever the writers felt like it. So, the moral message of the story is: If you know you can’t do it, don’t do it.
13) The next defeat was Roshi, who despite being handled much better than any other member in the team, was still terrible in overall.
- Despite giving up on fighting way back in the original series, he magically becomes super-powerful by watching porn. Training in secret my ass; he was doing nothing but watching porn for decades.
- He mutated into a rapist who sexually assaults every girl than is near him; something he never did in the past.
- He defeats Tien, someone who was stronger than him since the day he was introduced and who was training non-stop for decades in actual martial arts.
- He uses the mafuba in the tournament multiple times, which is a double cheat since not only he didn’t die from it as he did with King Piccolo, but he also used vials for trapping someone inside. Those count as weapons and he should have been disqualified because of them. So many idiots were defending this as legal because the vials were part of the technique, which makes no sense, since with the same logic someone could use a nuclear warhead by using the technique known as “activation button finger attack”.
- And going back to what I said about the writers refusing to allow psychological pressure, Roshi is about to die from his injuries, but Goku jumps in and resurrects him by simply giving him energy. We couldn’t have some actual tension by seeing a hero dying for a few minutes. And why the hell did they need senzu beans all these years, when giving energy has the same effect?
14) I will tell you why; it’s because the show watered down the violence so much, to the point injuries became the same thing as getting tired. There is almost no blood or bruises anymore, and energy attacks are only pushing someone out of the ring, when in the past they would have disintegrated him completely. Since injuries no longer exist, you don’t need senzu beans anymore. Just give some of your energy to a “tired” companion, and that is enough to become fully healed. So basically, death lost its meaning a long time ago, and now so did injuries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DUEhXOepX0