After doing some thinking, I've come up with a way to improve this episode. It's not bad by any means and I rather enjoyed it, but the failings of this episode are in Goku and Vegeta's presence. Once Goku and Vegeta show up, Gohan and Piccolo are just written out of it completely. I think the way to improve this episode would be to remove Goku and Vegeta and give their role in this episode to Gohan and Piccolo, while keeping Tenshinhan's role exactly the same.
Gohan or Piccolo, Vegeta or Goku, a pair being removed probably makes more since, but I see no inherent worth in it being Gohan and Piccolo. Actually, I think it probably works slightly better if you get rid of them. They served no real purpose to begin with except to introduce the plot point.
And there's no point in keeping Tenshinhan's role exactly the same; someone has to be targeted by the snipers first, might as well be him.
edited 2nd Sep '17 9:40:40 PM by LSBK
The way the characters for the universe 7 team appear in the ending predicts how they will be eliminated:
1) We have Krillin, Tien and Vegeta in a group (and with Krillin and Tien being eliminated in that order, there's some circumstantial evidence for it now);
2) Then we have Android 17 and 18;
3) After that, Piccolo, Roshi and Frieza.
Goku and Gohan are shown together during the ending, hinting at them being the last two members of Universe 7.
We'll see soon enough if it's on the level next week.
Edit:
Murasaki'ed.
edited 2nd Sep '17 9:42:30 PM by HandsomeRob
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Well, I did say it was circumstantial.
Like I said, with Roshi being emphasized again next week, we'll see if it still holds water or not.
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You edited your comment, but I'm going to say this anyway.
You overestimate how much I care about Tenshinhan, but I don't see how him being the target "makes him look worse", doing so would give him a chance to see how he would deal with the situation, without getting his arms shot off.
It was probably supposed to be endearing, but I think the whole think kind of made Gohan look bad. Like father, like son, I suppose since they've been doing that to Goku for awhile now.
edited 2nd Sep '17 9:47:57 PM by LSBK
Because you're changing his role in the episode from the hero to the damsel. The point of his involvement in the episode was that, despite being weaker, Gohan and Piccolo needed his help to get out of this situation. This tournament is all about techniques and gimmicks taking precedent over power levels, and Tenshinhan in this episode was a perfect example of such.
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Toshio confirmed a while back that Roshi was powered up from Yurin's magic and is still weaker than Tenshinhan.
edited 2nd Sep '17 9:54:54 PM by PushoverMediaCritic
>He says in the same episode that Goku and Vegeta simply bully two other contestants.
The ending theory is pretty funny. And I like the idea of Vegeta being eliminated early. One because it gets rid of one of U7's heavy hitters and because it'd piss Vegeta fans off.
Buut, I won't know for two weeks....
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.![]()
Damsel? If that's how you think about it, that's more on you. Because what I was envision was him calmly assessing the situation, finding the others, planning a move, and then splitting up to deal with it.
Oddly enough, I think you just summed up the biggest issue with this Tournament.
edited 2nd Sep '17 9:58:25 PM by LSBK
It gives the snipers more dramatic weight if the first thing we see them do is pin down Piccolo and Gohan, two of U7's heavy hitters, rather than Tenshinhan, one of the weakest members of U7. Conversely, it also makes Tenshinhan look better if he takes out an opponent we know is dangerous to people stronger than him than if he takes out an opponent who we only see being a threat to Tenshinhan.
Well, kind of. Piccolo's not necessarily one of the team's heavy hitters, but he is one of the team's middle-card hitters. He's massively stronger than Tenshinhan, Roshi, Krillin, or 18, and he's only weaker than Goku, Vegeta, Freeza, 17, and Gohan because U7 is completely stacked with heavy hitters.

Well, we'll see soon enough if the theory that the ending shows the order of elimination for the characters is true.
Ok. I've seen it. Tien didn't do much, but he took care of an opponent who could have caused a lot of trouble for everyone not named Goku and Vegeta. That combination that Hermilla and Prum had could have done some damage.
Poor Dr. Roto deserved to at least show what he could do, but I guess that's par for the course in DBZ. As it stands Universe's 6 and 7 (Roto was another 6'er if what I heard is correct) are still tied, having lost only two members of their teams.
Next week, Frost is up. We'll see how that goes.
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