Eh I don't see the problem with the first one & even then its rather flawed.
Like what do you mean by "They weren't even characters at this point?" That they no longer existed at this point in the source material or they were never characters at all?
And the second one is subjective.
Edited by slimcoder on Sep 14th 2018 at 9:53:47 AM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."I still love Nail and Kami, they are basically the Greek Chorus of the show now. But I agree with finding Dande grating. His character back in Season 2 had depths, and his crush on Gohan was really cute.
But comes season 3 and he seems to exist just to be a massive jerk to people who don't deserve it, and to make gross jokes about Gohan, whom I guess he only sees as a piece of meat now.
I hope Dende gets more mature in season 3.
Edited by Nightwire on Sep 14th 2018 at 9:54:41 AM
The difference is that we only see Nappa every five seconds and there's a specific (if bullshit) reason he's alive again. But Nail and Kami are still just hanging around.
My various fanfics.I had this idea for a hypothetical Dragon Ball Super Abridged that today's episode has rendered impossible. When Android 17 wins the Tournament of Power and is about to make a wish on the Super Dragon Balls, he would be conflicted between wishing Android 16 back or reviving the other universes. Since 16 actually has a soul and an afterlife, this idea isn't possible anymore.
I thought you disliked Dende because disgusting not because he was a jerk...
2 reasons can't possibly exist.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.Of the three episodes, I think Part 2 is my favorite. Part 3 really highlighted why Super Perfect Cell was kinda bullshitty. His return doesn't really contribute a lot to the story. I mean, he stuffs Trunks in a fridge so that Vegeta can abruptly experience Character Development but that's really just a course correction to compensate for Vegeta's total failure to develop over the course of his actual arc.
That Toriyama had to resort to killing off Trunks in order for Vegeta to finally give a shit before credits rolled is a condemnation of the entire effort to have Vegeta learn to give a shit up to that point.
The main thing Super Perfect Cell does is allow the story to end without, as Abridged Piccolo pointed out, letting Goku steal that win. Cell's self-destruct is the more organic place to end things, but undermines the goal of having this be Gohan's time to step up and shine. So Cell gets a bullshit resurrection and nebulous power-up just so he can come back and Gohan can kill him properly.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Sep 14th 2018 at 11:45:21 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I agree that part 2 was the strongest. I understand why they did the "My Way" parody, but it was essentially a recap filler. I'd prefer that time spent on Piccolo and the humans helping against Cell, but I'm happy with what development those characters got.
I find it weird that they played Vegeta's response to Trunks' death straight. I feel like that would have been better with a twist, but I'm not sure what would be the right twist. In contrast, I liked the twist that Cell's so powerful that he couldn't tell the difference between Tien and Trunks and was trying to kill Tien. I sort of wonder if Team Fourstar could have replaced Trunks' death with Tien dying and have Vegeta attack Cell over the death of his hate buddy.
Killing off the Krillin Owned Count is great and is roughly the reverse of what I predicted in this post.
Edited by thok on Sep 14th 2018 at 2:43:00 PM
I liked that they brought back the much-maligned "Yamcha saying gay about Tien and Chiaotzu" joke, but that they changed the context to fix it. Instead of a friend mocking another friend about his apparent gayness, it's a friend jokingly acknowledging how gay his best friend is. They changed the context surrounding it from derision to teasing, and that changes the joke from mean-spirited to heartwarming.
It really says something about how society has evolved. Back when DBZA was new, making fun of your friends for being gay was socially acceptable, then it changed to something that was completely unacceptable, and now it's changed again into something okay to joke around about as long as you mean no ill-will by it.
It kind of reminds me of how, in the 2003 movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Bug Bunny is chided for crossdressing, and the woman doing it says "Okay, about the crossdressing thing - then, funny; now, disturbing." Like, it was acceptable, then it wasn't, and now it's acceptable again for an entirely different reason.
Fair. It may be intended that they are gay, but it's not in any way explicit, and Chiaotzu's characterization has wavered a bit in this season in particular. He went from bugging Tien about getting McDonalds like a 6-year-old to making chashu ramen at Roshi's, with a punchline that his maturity doesn't reflect his apparent age, and his actual age is ambiguous.
Thoughts:
While I liked this part, I didn't feel it was as strong as part 2; mainly because I didn't think they got enough jokes out of the situation.
Namely; how did they play the entire Cell bullshit explanation straight, and virtually word for word? They should have had something like "bullshit, that's bullshit! Saiyans haven't had zenkai this entire season!" or possibly Krillin asking "so wait, if you blow yourself up again-" before getting interrupted by someone else. I don't want to be all "waaaah not everything is a joke" but that, that is definitely something that should not have passed without mockery. This series basically exists to mock plot holes.
I also felt that they didn't get enough jokes out of the beam struggle. Cell's Way was great, but I was expecting a more prolonged reaction to Vegeta (possibly a callback to "what are you doing? Ruining my plans?" or even a Ghost Trunks to remind us of Ghost Nappa.
What jokes I liked: Cell accidentally hitting Trunks, the return of VEGETA YES, Cell's Way, Trunks' callback to both of King Enma's jokes, Yamcha's request to go to the future so he can have another shot at Bulma, and most of all Dramatic Finish.
Edited by Sigilbreaker26 on Sep 15th 2018 at 9:55:07 AM
"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"That did make me chuckle a little, but there are so many more potential jokes you could have gotten out of that speech. If nothing else you could have Cell begin to explain and then the characters accurately guess everything that's happened, making Cell angry for being undercut and then Vegeta rushes him.
"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"I mean, I wish they did a "hole in your trunks" joke.
Like, yeah, it's a joke that's obvious and been done before, but. It's also a joke. And the Trunks death was played almost entirely seriously otherwise.
EDIT: I mean.
Part of me thinks "My Way" wasn't funny enough and drags on too long, but then. The "Dramatic Finish" wouldn't land as well if not for something overly long and serious beforehand.
Edited by unnoun on Sep 15th 2018 at 7:56:29 AM
Yamcha rambled on about dying before but I could barely hear what he was saying. Trunks' death did feel a bit awkward with how serious it was, but I also expected it to be something dramatic given that it's Vegeta's big character development of the season.
Like with how they went with the Japanese version of Gohan transforming - using pure silence to define Gohan's incomprehensible rage - I'm not sure if this was a good strategy for Vegeta. Most of that moment had Vegeta silently losing his sh-t until he finally broke and went VEGETA YES. Which gets the point across, yes, and was more in-character for Abridged Vegeta, yes. But still, felt like something was missing there, or maybe the moment was just too quick.
I think it would have been funnier if Cell had tried to explain his return and the Z-Fighters collectively cut him off.
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

Eh. I have no issues with them, but this being the internet, I'm sure there's a reason.
I'm sure there are a lot of reasons, both good and bad, but I expect the reasons stated here to be classy, because we're Tv Tropes.
There's always logic in this place.
One Strip! One Strip!