Board 8 > Frieza was by far the height of Dragon Ball (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Does anyone disagree? It's the part with the most personal stakes for Goku, Frieza himself is the best villain in the series, it has the only story power-up that actually matters from an emotional perspective, all of the deaths matter and are impactful, all of the minor villains are memorable, and Vegeta's character journey from evil jerk to slightly less evil jerk really works. Not to say that Cell is bad, it has a lot of really good elements.

Buu is bad, though.
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non-z db is the height of dragon ball
but frieza is the best z arc yes
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Frieza arc is somehow decent despite Frieza himself being the worst major Z villain imo. Androids/Cell arc is my favorite part of the series. I havent seen most of Super yet though.

Actually Frieza is by far the short of Dragon Ball.
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i disagree got a problem anna graham
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thoroughly disagree. it has only one truly great fight (at the end). also goku doesn't get involved until WAY too late. it does have a very satisfying arc, though.
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I prefer Androids/Cell, but I can respect your opinion.
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Snrkiko posted...

non-z db is the height of dragon ball

now here's someone who gets it
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Ive only seen up through the end of Cell but I dont know. Maybe. Its either Namek Saga or Android Saga so far tough choice. I do like Namek itself more than the endless adventures of Weirdearth.

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Nah ssj2 Gohan was the height
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Vegeta only improves as the series goes on so Frieza isnt even his best time. DB/Z/etc has many flaws, but Vegeta is like the one character who constantly improves as a character throughout the series.

swordz9 posted...

Vegeta only improves as the series goes on so Frieza isnt even his best time. DB/Z/etc has many flaws, but Vegeta is like the one character who constantly improves as a character throughout the series.

he's boring in the buu saga and disappears for a long stretch of it; cell saga has the best vegeta
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DBZ Goku vs. Frieza lasts way too goddamn long and has some pretty hilarious pacing even for DBZ with FIVE MINUTES and the spirit bomb charging that kind of muck things up. Kai and from what I hear the manga were a lot better about that, though.

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SeabassDebeste posted...

swordz9 posted...

Vegeta only improves as the series goes on so Frieza isnt even his best time. DB/Z/etc has many flaws, but Vegeta is like the one character who constantly improves as a character throughout the series.

he's boring in the buu saga and disappears for a long stretch of it; cell saga has the best vegeta

I disagree with the boring bit. He has great character moments in the Buu arc and one of the most popular fights in the series during it too despite his reduced screen time in the arc. Hes been amazing in Super too

Snrkiko posted...

non-z db is the height of dragon ball
but frieza is the best z arc yes

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I don't know if it's the height.

But the beginning of Z to the end of Frieda was by far the best stretch for the series
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It might be the most iconic, but it isnt the best. Androids and Cell probably are.

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Snrkiko posted...

non-z db is the height of dragon ball

And to add to this, Demon King Piccolo was the most personal stakes for Goku, and Piccolo Jr. (23rd Budokai) was second.
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Goku peaked in Dragon Ball

Sorozone posted...

But the beginning of Z to the end of Frieda was by far the best stretch for the series

this probably
Definitely the tightest written and most impactful arcs, culminating in THE iconic shounen powerup.

But height I could still give to Gohan SSJ2.

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frieza is short af tho
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Androids/Cell saga was better

Also Goku Black

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I just watched the first several episodes post-Cell for the first time and I'm unironically already preferring this over at least half of Namek

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Oh yeah it starts off REAL HOT too


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It's a real shame the anime did so much damage to Dragon Ball's reputation with how everyone cites drag and length, which are really nonissues to the source material.

I did watch Kai and I don't think it fixes the fundamental issues of the anime pacing either.

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Great Saiyaman Saga da best

continuing into 25th World Martial Arts Tournament through Videl vs Spopovich, good good stuff
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SaveEstelle posted...

I just watched the first several episodes post-Cell for the first time and I'm unironically already preferring this over at least half of Namek

yeah, the slice of life stuff is really fun! shame it devolves.
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the last few arcs of dragonball all the way through the saiyan saga are probably the peak of dragonball as a whole. you can definitely make a case for including namek and freiza stuff in there as well but at a certain point you have to decide just how much material is allowed to be included in the 'peak.'

android saga was pretty good, cell saga is where quality starts to diminish but it still feels like a satisfying overall journey.

buu saga is absolute trash and rightfully killed the series for quite a while.
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Yeah Frieza was the height of Dragon Ball... Super Lotsa great moments in the Tournament of Power from trolling Frost to smack talking Dyspo, Top, and Jiren and just being The Evil Teammate in a group of good guys was hilarious

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Is Uub in Super? I've never watched it.
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Uub is mentioned to be existing and Goku knows about him but it's not time for him to get involved yet.

Super is still a few years before the End of Z tournament where Goku officially "meets" him after all.
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After reading through the manga recently, I would definitely say that from the start of DBZ to the end of Frieza is the peak of the series. All that stuff is great, and actually fairly fast-paced, too.

Throw the end of DB (from the start of Piccolo) in there as well. Fantastic stretch of manga.

Series basically starts getting worse when Cell shows up. Cell and Buu sagas both start good, but are ruined when Cell and Buu appear.
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i prefer cell but i will not tolerate frieza saga slander
the pacing is bad but kai really fixes that
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Eh, I always found Frieza to be overrated. His only constant insult was calling them monkeys. Cell was my favourite.
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Frieza is pretty short though
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I think Cell was mainly for Gohan hitting SSJ2 and going beserk.
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I feel like it's weird people say it's bad when Boo appears. He's instantly differentiated by anything we've ever seen before in personality and motivation. His interactions with Mr. Satan hint at a much different direction for the arc. There's almost character development!

But yeah then the evil Boo stuff happens and it all goes out the window but hey

Gotenks fight is a lot of fun IMO. Nice blend of early era inane humor with DBZ power scaling.

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Android to Cell to GREAT SAIYAMAN is the best DB has to offer
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That's exactly the problem with Buu. Mixing together the epic serious parts of DBZ with the silliness of DB feels terrible. He's a joke villain who literally kills most of the people on Earth.
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I remember when I was forcing myself to finish reading the Buu Saga I kept thinking 'who enjoys this shit? who would actually think Gotenks is an entertaining character'

apparently I have my answer
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No fun zone up in here

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I keep thinking this topic is talking about Super, in which case I would completely agree!

Really though Dragon Ball is the height of Dragon Ball. Starting with Z things went off the rails, as enjoyable as it still was.
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I think it has one of the best moments of the entire series (Goku finally going Super Saiyan), but overall it's maybe...the worst?

It's an amazing part of DBZ Abridged though.
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Snrkiko posted...

non-z db is the height of dragon ball

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I enjoyed more of Dragon Ball Z than I didnt enjoy.

idk how much of it is filler but gotenks uses some fun/creative attacks on buu and it's great
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gotenks is fun in theory and insufferable in practice
fat buu >>>>>>>>>> kid buu > super buu
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Gotenks has some neat moves. They never really do anything with him as a character though. Goten and Trunks are teenagers in Super even, but they still look like kids and they basically still act like kids because I guess they dont want them growing up until the End of Z which they should just completely ignore as even being canon at this point....

Almost the entire Buu saga can collectively be summed up as a series of "why" moments.
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