Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Discussed in-universe when it's found out that in order to make a Super Saiyan God you, need six benevolent Saiyans pure of heart, with one receiving energy from the other five. Roshi brings up the fact that while Goku is a Nice Guy, his intense love of combat brings his benevolence into question. Piccolo outright scoffs at the gang's chances, thinking they only have two pure-hearted Saiyans around in Gohan and Goten.
- Is Beerus really as evil as his status as antagonist suggests? Let's take a look at his crimes: He humiliated King Vegeta in front of his son, and tried to blow up Earth. Pretty evil stuff. Except... Harsh as it may sound now, King Vegeta was also an Evil Overlord and an overall horrible individual and his son wasn't much better at the time so that bit of humility was well deserved. As for destroying Earth: Sure, Beerus says that he's going to, over very petty stuff such as not being invited pudding no less, yet he constantly keeps delaying, holds back his power with Goku during their fight to allow Goku to get a hold of the Super Saiyan God transformation, and even decides not to destroy Earth in the end. One wonders if he was ever really serious about it in the first place. Also, he did destroy some planets, but it comes out more like a sort of Blue-and-Orange Morality. Sure, the reasons he does it are a bit petty, but he's a God of Destruction after all, so destroying planets it's kind of his thing, and it's not driven by malice or hatred. The sequel even confirms him as a True Neutral.^note
Anti-Climax Boss: The Super Saiyan God, a rare heroic example. Not only does its appearance not live up to fan expectations◊, being triggered by Energy Absorption rather than the tremendous power displayed by a source whose canonicity is questioned, but it's also only slightly effective against Beerus, and only because Beerus was holding back.
Awesome Music: The beloved "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA" returns with an awesome cover by FLOW. The dub even has them perform the song in English for Western fans who want an easier time singing along.
Base-Breaking Character: Beerus. Some people thought having the God of Destruction at the top tier of the power scaling hierarchy was fitting. Others find him far less interesting than other antagonists, as well as being annoyed by his jerkish attitude and how he gets away with anything as there's no one to put him in his place.
Crack Pairing: Trunks has a Precocious Crush with child Mai. The movie wants to showcase this as a cute Puppy Love / Toy Ship. When the little fact that Mai is actually 46 years old and tried to kill Trunks' mom back when Bulma was 16 kicks in, it can easily go to Squick territory. The real squicky aspect is that by the end of the movie, Mai seems to be reciprocating his feelings. This could be excused with the idea that maybe her bodily hormones and mind also reverted back to child age and not just her appearance, but then stretching the Mayfly–December Romance trope to include kids is never a comfortable proposition, far less so in the West.
Crazy Is Cool: Beerus. Used King Vegeta's head as a footstool in front of his own son Prince Vegeta while making him treat him to an Eight-Course Banquet, curbstomped Super Saiyan 3 Goku with a finger flick and single chop on the back of the neck, used chopsticks to defeat Tien and knock Piccolo out with pressure point attacks, defeats Super Gotenks by spanking him, effortlessly defeats Vegeta with a single pressure point attack to the forehead and also one shot all the other Z-Fighters including Android 18, Ultimate Gohan and Majin Buu. Oh, and he also needs the sounds of multiple bombs exploding continuously and simultaneously just to wake up.
Evil Is Cool: Beerus, while not downright evil, became a fan-favorite antagonist for his uniqueness, cool design and whimsical personality.
Fan-Disliked Explanation: Beerus' Retcon of being the one who told Frieza to eliminate the Saiyans has been largely disregarded by the fandom, due to it being an unnecessary connection, undermining Frieza's paranoia and racism, and ultimately not having any connection to the plot in any way, nor is it expanded on beyond that brief scene. Of course, Dragon Ball Minus reveals that Frieza was going to destroy the saiyans along with their planet anyway, meaning it might have been a very convenient coincidence.
Fan Nickname: Super Saiyan God Goku is some times called Godku among the fandom.
First Installment Wins: "First" is a misnomer here, but it fits as the first installment of the Dragon Ball revival era later christened as the "Super" era. While it was expectedly controversial upon release among hardcore fans, as new releases in popular franchises tend to be, it quickly came to be acclaimed as a worthy successor to the original series. Since Resurrection 'F' and Dragon Ball Super (including its movies) have proved to be much more divisive, even staunch critics regard Battle of Gods as the best animated product to come out of this current era of the franchise.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: No matter what way you look it, the numbers that the movie did in the Latin American countries is nothing short of remarkable. As seen here, in some countries, it debuted as the #1 movie in the box office. That's a major achievement for a Short Film based an franchise that is nearly thirty years old and hasn't had a movie since 1996.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- Goku jokingly stating that they should probably let villains slap Bulma to get Vegeta stronger becomes cringeworthy in Dragon Ball Super, where a villain (with Goku's face) kills Future Bulma, traumatizing Future Trunks as well as pissing Vegeta off enough that the latter finally goes into Tranquil Fury.
- In Dragon Ball Z, at the end of the Buu Saga and after defeating Kid Buu, Vegeta wanted to destroy Fat Buu because he saw him as just one more disaster waiting to happen. If he had destroyed Buu then and there, Beerus would have been able to sample some pudding and not threatened the Earth. This is later subverted as, if Beerus simply did leave peacefully, Goku would have never achieved Super Saiyan God, impress Beerus and Whis, and would have been very underprepared for the events of Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' and Dragon Ball Super.
It Was His Sled: By now, it's pretty common knowledge that despite achieving Super Saiyan God, Goku does not manage to defeat Beerus.
Never Live It Down: Beerus's desire for pudding is swiftly becoming his defining trait among some fans. It's not helped by the rant he goes on about it to Gotenks.
Nightmare Fuel: Beerus. Whenever he awakens from his slumber planets will be destroyed, maybe even for petty reasons... And there's nothing that can stop him bar Whis, who isn't entirely reliable. And in case one says it had been said the same of Majin Buu, we see him smacking Buu around with embarrassing ease.
Only the Creator Does It Right: Akira Toriyama certainly thought so. After the widely regarded travesty that was Dragonball Evolution, Toriyama jumped onto the project in order to maintain the franchise's integrity. Finding the original script too dark and not in keeping with the series' tone, he rewrote the entire script from scratch, changed the story's premise completely and provided new designs for all of the characters. Due to his intimate involvement, many fans accept this film as canonical to the manga.
Popular with Furries: The very moment Beerus was introduced the furry fandom almost immediately latched into him. Even those who don't like, aren't interested in, or are actually fans of but didn't have anything related to their fandom to talk about Dragon Ball immediately began to like him.
Signature Scene:
- Vegeta's bingo dance.
- "THAT'S MY BULMA!"
- Super Saiyan God Goku vs. Beerus.
- To those watching the English dub, Goku's "I WILL NOT LET YOU DESTROY MY WORLD!" is considered one of the most iconic parts of the movie, thanks to Sean Schemmel's intense performance. Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle even allowed Sean to re-record this line for [Fighter Entrusted with Allies' Wishes] Super Saiyan God Goku's Active Skill, which is not something the developers for that game usually do.
Special Effect Failure: The CGI in the final battle scene is very noticeable. At best it can be looked at as a poorly done attempt to string an action sequence together.
Squick: Trunks is canonically 12-years old in this film while Mai is at least 46. Even though that starting with this film she was de-aged both physically and mentally into a child the same age as Trunk's with only scarce memories of her adult life, the Ship Tease can come off as this to some fans.
Take That, Scrappy!: For fans who don't care for Buu or Gotenks, watching Beerus utterly curb stomp them in hilarious ways makes for a fun moment.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Videl's pregnancy could have been used as a Character Development arc for Gohan (and in some extent also how it could have affected Piccolo or Goku's character at the prospect of becoming a grandfather) instead of being just another Plot Convenience.
- Even Vegeta's character arc could have been explored, since we can see how personal his fear of Beerus is, instead of just being told about the potential danger he is for any world in the Universe.
- Basically every popular voice actor from the All Star cast reunited for the film. Then only 20% of the cast get any dialogue.
Win Back the Crowd: Invoked. Toriyama himself said that the movie and his involvement with the movie were a way to atone for the awfulness of Dragonball Evolution.

YMMV / Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods

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