Remaking Dragon Ball GT

[Winter]

This is in response to A question of remakes by Fuzzy Necromancer, if there was a show/film/game that was of questionable quality that would benefit from a remake/reboot I'd say that Dragon Ball GT would be it ad more specifically the final arc of the show.

DBGT is a series with a lot of good if not great concepts that are poorly executed and some characters that could be great but were let down by poor writing. Pan could have been a great character and I personally really love her design, but she's a whiny brat and is just impossible to like because she never really stops being a whiny brat. Goku becoming a kid is an interesting idea, for a few episodes but they stretched it far to long. And then we have the final arc, the Shadow Dragon Arc.

Long story short because of the Z Fighters overuse of the Dragon Balls over the years said Dragon Balls have become corrupted leading to the creation Shadow Shenron and six other villains. Meaning the final arc of the series is the Z Fighters finding and destroying the Dragon Balls which in turn leads to what is, in my opinion, the best ending of Dragon Ball. A bitter sweet moment where Goku dies with no real way to come back as a result of the heroes actions throughout the series. A brilliant idea for the series that is sadly let down by poor execution by weak villains, to much padding even by DB standards, and weak animation/poor fight scenes.

Now I'm not the biggest fan of DB as a whole, I was more into Sailor Moon as a kid, but I do love this series and I can't help but feel that it was let down by it's series finale at the time.

So, here's the bullet points version. Goku is a kid for only the first arc and it's undone after about 6 episodes. Pan is the main character of the series as a whole and while she has her original design and is still a bit of a little shit but she has more of her softer side that fans love so much. Goku is still a main character but here he's more of a co-lead instead of the main focus but much of the series is about the relationship between grandfather and granddaughter.

We still get Super Saiyan 4, Dragon Fist as those are just awesome and the Shadow Dragon Arc has the same overall plot but Shadow Shenron and the other corrupted Dragon Balls are given more depth and personality to better reflect the character's long history with the Dragon Balls. Pan gets a girlfriend (because it's me we're talking about) and the ending remains pretty much the same as, again, it's perfect just the way it is.

[McAvoy]

I have a lot of issues with GT.

Kid Goku and then once he gets SSJ4 he is an adult again until he isn't and back to Kid Goku. Kid Goku can be a short term thing for an arc but after that bring back adult Goku. I mean after a certain point in the series, Hoju being a kid is pointless.

Everyone including Vegeta being put on the sidelines with zero growth in favor of Goku and Pan. Which I guess in itself is fine but there is a reason why GT is jokingly called Goku Time. Vegeta only becoming relevant during the Baby saga and the when he finally catches up to Goku with SSJ4.

The periods between the sagas are short or nonexistent. Think about the periods between Saiyan and Namek and Namek and Android. And Cell Games and Buu sagas. Always had several episodes in between for a bit of a cool time period (also mixed with filler but let's not talk about Garlic Jr, but Otherworld Tournament was great).

The entirely wasted character of Uub. And his big moment when he merged with Fat Buu.

The good would be the Baby Saga, Shadow Dragons, SSJ4, Pan. Take it or leave it, Super Android 18.

If I were to do it and Goku was to be a major part of it, I would pair off Pan and Uub at the very least.

[clearspira]

I enjoyed the original Dragonball and the first half of Z but after that? This show in general has an appeal that I just do not understand.

There are two things as a writer that you need to be VERY careful of: time travel and the ability to heal without limits up to and including death. This is because if you have the ability to easily undo all consequences then there ARE no consequences. There are no stakes and there is no tension.

If you are going to use these things, there needs to be a reason why it cannot be done on the fly to solve every problem and ideally there needs to be massive consequences. For example, take Spock's resurrection. It is an ancient rite that few can perform. It only worked because McCoy was there to use as a vessel. It only worked because Kirk was rebellious enough to go back for his body and in the process he lost his ship, his son, and would have lost his career if it wasn't for the space whales.

In the original Dragonball and early Z the dragonballs required a whole arc to obtain and had rules namely that you could only bring someone back from the dead once. You also apparently had to keep their body preserved. Later on? You can gather them in an hour and there are no rules at all.

And this cycles us back to GT... i think that it handles the dragonballs better than Z or Super does. There. I said it. The black star dragonballs blow up the planet after a year which is why you should not use them. The red star dragonballs corrupt if you use them too much and release seven powerful dragons to attack you which is why you should not use them too much.

Consequences. All good stories have them. Most bad stories don't.

[stryke]

I feel like they already are?

I've only watched the first couple of episodes of Daima, and my only experience of GT is hearing about it second hand, but it seems to be very much a spiritual remake with reverting Goku to being a kid and taking things back to the slower adventures of the original Dragon Ball.

[Winter]

I enjoyed the original Dragonball and the first half of Z but after that? This show in general has an appeal that I just do not understand.

There are two things as a writer that you need to be VERY careful of: time travel and the ability to heal without limits up to and including death. This is because if you have the ability to easily undo all consequences then there ARE no consequences. There are no stakes and there is no tension.

If you are going to use these things, there needs to be a reason why it cannot be done on the fly to solve every problem and ideally there needs to be massive consequences. For example, take Spock's resurrection. It is an ancient rite that few can perform. It only worked because McCoy was there to use as a vessel. It only worked because Kirk was rebellious enough to go back for his body and in the process he lost his ship, his son, and would have lost his career if it wasn't for the space whales.

In the original Dragonball and early Z the dragonballs required a whole arc to obtain and had rules namely that you could only bring someone back from the dead once. You also apparently had to keep their body preserved. Later on? You can gather them in an hour and there are no rules at all.

And this cycles us back to GT... i think that it handles the dragonballs better than Z or Super does. There. I said it. The black star dragonballs blow up the planet after a year which is why you should not use them. The red star dragonballs corrupt if you use them too much and release seven powerful dragons to attack you which is why you should not use them too much.

Consequences. All good stories have them. Most bad stories don't.

In defense of later seasons taking a full arc or even half an arc to locate the Dragon Balls was just no longer a viable option when most of the cast can move at the speed which even by the midway point of the Namek arc was seen as moving slowly.

Now it has been a long time since I've watched anything main stream DB as I prefer Team 4 stars Abridged series more to the either the original run or Kai. I will admit that I wish they would have continued with the series after the Cell Arc but I get that they were just burned out and HFIL and the Buu Bits are more then enough for me. But I would love to see them do an abridged series of the OG Dragon Ball series, GT and if possible Super.

[McAvoy]

In the original Dragonball which in purists means all of both Dragonball and Dragonball Z, there is a steady understandable progression of danger to our heros. By the time of Dragonball Z, any sort of danger to locate the balls would be minimal.

Think about any issue when they looked for the balls back in Dragonball versus the same characters in Z.

You could argue that Bulma makes some sort of Iron Man suit Dragonball style to collect these balls at some point in the series. Or drags Krillin or Yamcha to do the hard work which by some point hazards is a non issue.

[Thebestoftherest]

I enjoyed the original Dragonball and the first half of Z but after that? This show in general has an appeal that I just do not understand.

There are two things as a writer that you need to be VERY careful of: time travel and the ability to heal without limits up to and including death. This is because if you have the ability to easily undo all consequences then there ARE no consequences. There are no stakes and there is no tension.

If you are going to use these things, there needs to be a reason why it cannot be done on the fly to solve every problem and ideally there needs to be massive consequences. For example, take Spock's resurrection. It is an ancient rite that few can perform. It only worked because McCoy was there to use as a vessel. It only worked because Kirk was rebellious enough to go back for his body and in the process he lost his ship, his son, and would have lost his career if it wasn't for the space whales.

In the original Dragonball and early Z the dragonballs required a whole arc to obtain and had rules namely that you could only bring someone back from the dead once. You also apparently had to keep their body preserved. Later on? You can gather them in an hour and there are no rules at all.

And this cycles us back to GT... i think that it handles the dragonballs better than Z or Super does. There. I said it. The black star dragonballs blow up the planet after a year which is why you should not use them. The red star dragonballs corrupt if you use them too much and release seven powerful dragons to attack you which is why you should not use them too much.

Consequences. All good stories have them. Most bad stories don't.

My problem with the blow up the Earth thing, is that it gives tonal whiplash when combined with the more goofy beginning of GT. It would be like if you did a film about Conan the barbarian but it has musical and fart jokes but the beginning is exactly the same as the original movie

[McAvoy]

Well story wise Toriyama did structure the story so there was danger.

In the King Piccolo arc, he killed the dragon. So more wishes but Kami was still around and did revive the Dragonballs.

Saiyan Saga, Piccolo dies. He is connected to Kami so therefore Dragonballs are gone. Starts the whole Namek/Freiza saga.

The whole Namek Freiza saga was about getting the balls but they had to go through Freiza and his men.

Android Saga, starts off normal until Piccolo merged with Kami thus making the Dragonballs inert. It wasn't until Goku coming out of Hyperbolic Time Chamber that he figures out to go to New Namek. Get Dende and have make new ones.

This is where the limitations on the Dragonballs was being modified. More wishes as opposed to one.

Even then, with Perfect Cell, they had to defeat him otherwise he would eventually destroy the Earth. So the stakes were still high.

Buu Saga is a mess but still had Buu like Cell threaten everything. Even then they did manage to collect the balls in the middle of the saga on basically what seemed to be a afternoon. In the end they did give Goku a bit of a Ex Dues Machina by restoring Earth and everyone killed by Buu. For use in the Spirit Bomb as well as restore Goku's strength when he was starting to falter.

My point is that while Dragonball had whole arcs and many many episodes showing the difficulty in getting them, that got traded for more powerful villains.