YMMV / Dragon Ball Super Granolah the Survivor Arc

• Accidental Aesop: Freeza's last minute appearance could be taken as a lesson that goals attained through perseverance are more dependable and less fleeting than goals attainted via quick and easy fixes, given he spent ten years training to be the strongest rather than, as with Granolah and Gas, getting his power through a wish.
• Anti-Climax Boss: After several chapters devoted to taking him down, Gas still refuses to go down... and he's swiftly killed by Frieza to show how much more powerful the latter has become.
• Arc Fatigue: Signs of fatigue started appearing from Gas's fight with Granolah onwards. After cutting the fight with Vegeta short, we get some backstory on how Bardock saved Monaito and Granolah... only to introduce Gas, who Vegeta and Goku can do nothing against. The next several chapters have pitted Gas against Goku, Vegeta and Granolah in various combinations, with very little in the way of plot advancement beyond the constant fighting. As a result, fans grew weary of seeing the fight continue with no real plot to be advanced. The fact the manga takes a month to update certainly doesn't help.^note In terms of match ups, it goes: Goku and Vegeta against Granolah's ki copy, Goku vs Granolah, Vegeta vs Granolah, Gas vs Granolah, Vegeta vs Gas, Goku vs Gas (power limited), Goku vs Gas (transformed), and ends with Gas vs Granolah, Goku and Vegeta.
• Ass Pull:
  • Monaito knowing hypnosis can be considered completely out of left field, as it is never even hinted Monaito has any fighting abilities, let alone something as powerful as putting enemies to sleep. The fact that it works on Macki and Oil means that it easily could've been used on the Saiyans that invaded Cereal and potentially saved more lives, making Monaito seem like an idiot for not using this ability earlier until it was necessary for him to contribute something to the plot.
  • Vegeta using destruction powers to close the gap between him and Goku caused by Ultra Instinct. Everything before Beerus mentioned the idea indicated that the technique of the Angels far surpasses that of the Gods of Destruction's, with Beerus himself training to use Ultra Instinct.
  • The exact mechanics of the various "strongest in the universe" wishes made throughout the arc are not explained very well. Sacrificing years of the user's lifespan for a huge power-up is one thing, but it's never adequately explained how Granolah and Gas are able to mimic advanced ki techniques (such as Beerus's Hakai, Moro's magma blast and Goku's Instant Transmission) that they've never seen before. The fact that Gas has several further trump cards, including a sophisticated weapon-spawning ability and the power to unleash his full potential even further by removing his Power Limiter necklace, is also contrived to extend the fights even more.
• Badass Decay: Mastered Ultra Instinct. After being shown to be nigh unstoppable in the Tournament of Power and Galactic Patrol Prisoner Arcs, the form's showing is far less impressive here, with Ultra Instinct Goku losing to both Granolah and Gas. Goku later realizes Mastered Ultra Instinct's restrictions and resolves to use his own version of Ultra Instinct Sign that better suits him.
• Character Rerailment: Even detractors of the arc tend to agree that the character writing is generally strong. Vegeta receives some major Character Development relating to his guilt complex about the Saiyans' past atrocities and he even acquires a unique new transformation that acts as the Yin to Ultra Instinct's Yang. However, the fact that Vegeta doesn't accomplish anything with his new transformation has made some discourse as to rather he was rerailed or not.
• Creator's Pet: Like many promoted fans of the series, Toyotaro has made it no secret that Bardock is one of his favourite characters (even Toriyama is fond of Bardock, despite the fact that he is not one of his creations), so it wasn't hugely surprising when he was eventually incorporated into the Super manga. However, the emphatic focus on Bardock as the one behind Granolah's survival, Gas's grudge against Saiyans, and even Goku's maturation into adulthood (long story) has led to some accusations of pandering to Bardock's large fanbase.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation:
  • The reveal that Bardock wished upon the Dragon Balls for his sons to thrive.^note It doesn't help that the wording in the Viz manga translation was somewhat misleading. In the original Japanese, Bardock more straightforwardly asks for his sons to "grow up healthy and strong", though he phrases it in a slightly frivolous way. The implication leans more towards the wish simply ensuring that Goku and Raditz at least survive into adulthood, but nothing more orchestrative than that. To some, this twist undermines the themes of prior arcs. Others simply dislike how vague and poorly explained it is, since every other wish throughout the series is more definitive. The wish raises the valid concern that Son Goku's achievements were never his own if fate was protecting him from harm and guiding him in the right direction. Lastly, the wish did Raditz no favors since he did not grow up especially strong compared to his Saiyan brethren and was killed by combatants weaker than himself, including his brother Goku.
    • Some have defended the twist by reasoning that the wish helped to give Goku his often unbelievable luck in the earlier arcs of the original manga, such as when his Four-Star Dragon Ball deflecting Taopaipai's Dodonpa or when his heart suddenly restarted after a fatal beatdown from Demon King Piccolo.
  • On another note, one of the earlier chapters in the saga had Moori claim that the Namekians were not originally from Planet Namek and that they actually settled on many planets throughout Universe 7 and presumably other universes. This serves to explain why there are Namekians and Dragon Balls on Planet Cereal^note It could also tie into the Universe 6 Namekians and the lore surrounding the Super Dragon Balls, but neither are really addressed here, which helps to kickstart Granolah's revenge plot. To some, this only only serves to confuse things, as there is no follow up as to where they come from or how they arrived in another universe. It instead seems to be a very confusing Handwave when a much simpler explanation could have been used instead. Trying to explain that the Namekians are not actually from Namek is somewhat cumbersome, so many fans prefer to ignore this Retcon for the sake of simplicity.
• Franchise Original Sin: Truth be told, this is far from the first arc of Dragon Ball that had a good deal of Arc Fatigue and many issues that plagues the series, but the fact that the series had started with a more engaging and near universally praised story that seemed to promise a different take than what fans had come to expect over the years. Unfortunately, it's due to a return to form along with many questionable choices in writing that have quickly soured some fans perception of the arc and wish for it to be over.
• Fridge Brilliance: How does Vegeta know who Bardock is and what is his relationship with Goku? Vegeta worked closely with Raditz, Goku's older brother, i.e, Bardock's other son. He must've mentioned his father's name at some point. The fact that Raditz had a brother (Goku) and the mere mention of him looking exactly like Bardock helped Vegeta connect the dots.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Vegeta attacks Goku for saving him because he's determined to prove to himself that he can defeat a mighty opponent on his own. As the rest of the arc shows, he can't.
• Memetic Mutation: Frieza got the N-Word Pass^Explanation The story ends with Frieza showing off a brand new form, known as "Black Frieza", which changes his skin color to a pitch black color. Thus, many jokes were made of Frieza, the intergalactic racist, being gifted with the ability to say the N-Word now.
• Narm:
  • Vegeta's new form being called Ultra Ego has been noted to sound ridiculous, especially considering Vegeta's rather notorious reputation for doing stupid shit for the sake of pride. The fact the form removes his eyebrows has also received mixed reception. The form's divisive appearance was later acknowledged in the series itself when Goku jokingly refers to it as "freaky-face mode".
  • Vegeta chalks up Goku's good heart to inheriting it from Bardock after hearing the story of how the latter saved the lives of three people, but anyone familiar with Goku knows that Goku was a horrible child with an aggressive attitude, and his adoptive father Gohan is the one who gave him his good heart. And there's also the fact that saving three people doesn't make Bardock a good person, since he helped kill the rest of the population. Then again, this could be an example of In-Universe Factoid Failure as even Dragon Ball Minus indicated that Goku's kindhearted nature comes less from his father and more from his mother. Vegeta has never actually met Bardock and just made an assumption.
• They Changed It, So It Sucks: A number of fans were not happy with how Bardock's Adaptational Nice Guy treatment carries on here, taking pity on a mother and her child because they reminded him of his wife and one of his sons. The fact it was a Contrived Coincidence certainly helped rub some fans the wrong way.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Elec, who despite being responsible for the entirety of the Granolah arc, does nothing but work behind the scenes to get the other Heeters to carry out his orders. When his plan of using Gas has failed, he doesn't even get another attempt at being a threat, Frieza just shows up and kills him with little fanfare.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Arguably, the entire plot of the arc is thrown away in its last chapter. While Granolah lets go of his hate against the Saiyans and then refuses to kill Gas when it's shown he's still alive. When this seemingly comes back to bite Granolah when Gas mortally wounds Monaito, it seems like it would be another example of the consequences of sparing a villain akin to Goku sparing Moro. However, any personal grudges or growth is rendered pointless by Frieza's sudden appearance, who wipes out Gas and Elec and conscripts Macki and Oil before leaving, while Whis saves Monaito then he with Granolah resolve to undo the damage to the planet. As such, the arc comes down to being a little more than a road bump to the next one.
  • Elec constantly talks about how knowledge is much more effective than power, and that information is the way to go. With his hands on the dragon balls, it seems that Elec's plan to have Granolah take care of Goku and Vegeta and possibly Frieza was just a front to a bigger, more convoluted plan. But that's not it, he simply wishes to make Gas even stronger than Granolah, still relying completely on strength to solve his problems for him like any other series Big Bad.
• Unexpected Character: Not many people were expecting Bardock to play a role in Granolah and Maonaito's backstory.

---