Many years ago, a few guys got together to produce a Gag Dub of Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone. This eventually led to some of these guys starting Team Four Star and launching Dragon Ball Z Abridged. But that early, pre-TFS version of Dead Zone Abridged remained an outlier, even an Old Shame. Well, in 2013, Team Four Star decided to do something about that... and so the new, official TFS version of Dead Zone Abridged was born!
Piccolo is attacked, and Kami realizes that Garlic Jr. has returned. Garlic's henchmen set out to gather the Dragon Balls, kidnapping Gohan and the four-star ball on his hat in the process, setting up Garlic Jr.'s wish for immortality.
Then Goku shows up looking to rescue Gohan (because Chi Chi would be mad at him otherwise), Kami shows up to confront Garlic Jr., Krillin shows up to help with the rescue, and Piccolo shows up because he wants revenge for the attack. Can they work together to stop this threat and save Gohan? Will Garlic Jr. destroy the world with his Dead Zone portal? Will Goku ever find that meatery? And will Krillin get a fat payday for the movie rights?
So let me get this straight, I send you shipdits off to find me a Dragon Ball, and you bring back these tropes:
- All for Nothing: While Krillin's movie pitch gets turned into a box office hit, according to the epilogue, he received no money due to a convoluted contract and his lack of foresight.
- Anti-Climax: After all the buildup of Garlic Jr. surviving the final battle and unleashing the Dead Zone, an enraged Gohan defeats the villain in the space of a second with one attack that hits with a pitiful smacking sound effect and unceremoniously knocks Jr. into the Zone with a wimpy grunt.
- When Nappa asks Krillin why Garlic Jr. opened up the only means to his defeat in the script, Krillin confesses that he couldn't think of a better way around the villain's immortality.
- Call-Forward:
- Near the end of Episode 30 of the abridged series, Chi-Chi makes Gohan read a version "The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn" with "the N-word taken out". This movie has a younger Gohan read what sounds like the original version with the N-word intact, but stops short twice before he can say the whole word.
- From Piccolo: "… I'm gonna steal that kid."
- Didn't Think This Through: Garlic Jr's plan involved killing Piccolo before wishing for immortality. For those unaware of the rules of Dragon Ball: Piccolo and Kami are life-linked (due to technically being the same person), so killing one kills the other. Kami is the creator of Earth's Dragon Balls, and Dragon Balls only work if their creator is alive. Had the minions successfully killed Piccolo and thus Kami, Garlic Jr. would have been left with powerless lumps of rock. When Kami points this out, Garlic Jr. is honestly surprised when he figures out the flaw in his plan, and is left thankful that his minions are incompetent. When Goku points this out, the minions themselves are thankful to be incompetent.
- There was also the fact that the minions not only kidnapped Gohan while getting the Dragon Ball on his hat, but also attacked Chi-Chi. Even if Goku would find them with the Dragon Radar, they wouldn't have drawn that much of his attention if they only went for the ball. When Garlic Jr. learns about this, he panics and orders them to speed up his plan.
- Out-of-context from the events themselves, Krillin also didn't really think through his option to quickly get rich and famous making a movie deal with Nappa which ended up with him getting nothing of the profits and no credit whatsoever on his intellectual property.
- Drama Queen: Kami direly reacts to Piccolo's first encounter with the Spice Boys, claiming that the former may be dead. Mr. Popo just responds that he's still there, so he ain't dead, and calls him a drama queen.
- The Dreaded: Goku is feared for obvious reasons, after Gohan says that he's Goku's son and reminds them that Goku beat Piccolo. Lanipator and KaiserNeko even liken Goku In-Universe to John Wick.Garlic: Oh god, your father's Goku. (Beat) Oh my GOD, you morons stole Goku's kid?! How? How did you steal Goku's kid?!
Cinnamon: Well, first we beat up his wife...
Garlic: Oh my shit. Okay, look! New plan, get the last two Dragon Balls! NOW! - Foreshadowing: Shenron is actually surprised someone, in this case Garlic Jr., asked for immortality, though he believes that the villain will find some way to "f*ck this up". The ending shows exactly how.
- Innocently Insensitive: Goku to Piccolo over the latter's lack of a house.
- Lampshade Hanging: All of the plot inconsistencies and Villain Ball moments are mentioned, especially by Nappa.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: Garlic Jr. says this word for word before wondering why his lackeys brought a toddler (Gohan) along with the Dragon Ball. It turns out fine up until he finds out who the toddler is related to.
- Mythology Gag: This is actually a remake of the original abridged Dead Zone movie.
- When Krillin is trying to avoid falling debris, he can be heard shouting "crap" in tune to the theme of Tetris. In the original version of that scene, his line was "this is why I hate Tetris!"
- Ginger's last words were "What a... douchebag". Douchebag was the name he was given the pre-Team Four Star version of the special.
- Nested Story Reveal: It's revealed at the end that the entire special was just Krillin pitching an idea for a movie to Nappa.
- Non-Serial Movie: Actually Subverted, unlike in canon. Most of the movie's runtime is fiction being told by Krillin to Nappa in the main series timeline, sometime during the Time Skips after the Freeza arc. By the time of the Cell Games, a sequel has been made starring Mr. Satan.
- Oh, Crap!: Garlic Jr. When he realizes his incompetent minions kidnapped Goku's son and beat up his wife and father-in-law.Garlic Jr.: [To Gohan] Oh god, your father's Goku... [To his minions] You morons stole Goku's kid? HOW?! How did you steal Goku's kid?
Cinnamon: Well, first, we beat up his wife...
Garlic Jr.: Oh my shit... - Only the Author Can Save Them Now: Invoked by Krillin. He couldn't think of a way to have the heroes beat Garlic Jr. after getting immortality, so he wrote Garlic pulling a stupid move that results in him defeat himself.
- Running Gag:
- Mention of terms for certain meal times. note :
- Brunch = Breakfast + Lunch
- Linner = Lunch + Dinner
- Dickfast = Dinner + Breakfast
- Goku looking for the meatery.
- "Good thing [Garlic Jr.'s minions] are so incompetent."
- Mention of terms for certain meal times. note :
- Secretly Earmarked for Greatness: Played for laughs; after witnessing Gohan throwing Garlic Jr. into the Dead Zone, Piccolo eyes him and remarks, "I'm gonna steal that kid," indicating that he was planning Gohan's Training from Hell in season 1 for quite some time.
- Shout-Out: When Garlic Jr. gets knocked into a wall, he says "Of course you know, this means war!"
- Skewed Priorities: Goku goes off to rescue Gohan not because he's in danger, but because he's going to miss meals while he's kidnapped and that's no good. While facing Garlic Jr. and his team, he more focused on finding a Meatery.
- Stunned Silence: Shenron goes quiet for a moment when Garlic Jr. wishes for immortality, as he actually can't remember the last time someone "nutted up and asked for that."
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Right before Kami self-destructs, Piccolo stops him so that Kami won't kill them both. Garlic Jr. then remarks that Piccolo must have eluded his men before arriving. Unknown to Garlic, Goku and Piccolo already killed his men up to that point however, Piccolo in his own snarky way both confirmed their deaths while making it clear he didn't feel like arguing.Garlic Jr: I see you've eluded my men.
Piccolo: Yeah, sure, let's go with that.
Garlic Jr: (irritated) Oh god... They're all dead, aren't they?
Goku: (suddenly appearing) Yup. Good thing they were so incontinent. - Surrounded by Idiots: The Spice Boys are all very incompetent and even they know it. Their incompetence both saves Garlic Jr. (since they fail to kill Piccolo, which would have rendered the Dragon Balls inert and prevented Garlic Jr. from getting his wish of immortality), and screws him over when they kidnap Gohan despite only needing the 4-star Dragon Ball attached to his hat.
- Toilet Humor: Drug-addled Gohan pees off of a high place and it just happens to land on Krillin's head and in his mouth. Krillin included that scene in the script so that he'd get paid extra to perform it.
- Vocal Dissonance: The Spice Boys are given high-pitched voices to off-set how big and threatening they are. Cinnamon gets a Paul Lynde voice and Pepper probably gets the worst of it."Yo, why you gotta go throwin' around mean words like that?!"
