Jump to content
UnevenEdge

A thought about Redemption arcs (DBZ related)


mochi

Recommended Posts

I stumbled across this my little pony Video  (my apologies in advance you don't have to watch it)

and aside from her Mr. Enter-esque style she DOES raise a good point

 

if you didn't write a character as a redeemable villain....you can't realistically redeem them without changing everything about them

Ironically this has actually been an issue with EVERY SINGLE VILLAIN in DBZ, yes even Vegeta

Toriyama never wrote his villains to be redeemed, but when they got popular rather than give them intense redemption arcs he just said "they are good now" but left them assholes

I'll start off with Piccolo.....Piccolo was never redeemed at all....he was born to Kill Goku, and he achieved that goal, his only "redemption" was that he completed his mission and was no longer honor bound to accomplish that mission, he's basically like a Drone bee, he existed for one purpose and once that purpose was fulfilled he was just....there....

 

with Vegeta Toriyama actually stated he was meant to die in his first appearance and never come back, but then the Publishers realized the readers liked him and told Toriyama to keep him around, at which point toriyama began a VERY drawn out redemption arc for him.....which IMO only worked because it took a VERY LONG TIME for that redemption to actually happen so it was easier to accept, had Vegeta suddenly became good after being a homicidal maniac it would not have made ANY sense, so having him still be an asshole for a long time SORT OF worked because by the time we accepted him as a good guy he'd been neutral for so long we no longer viewed him as evil, they basically destroyed who Vegeta was originally written as, and rebuilt an entirely new character with the same name from his wreckage, which is possibly why he's so OOC in Super, it's because from a personality standpoint,

This Vegeta

image.png.b4a1890fa49f47977082692b9f7043fa.png

and

This Vegeta

4b335feeb46bda4d9e7b846b74c20a0bb4d3a5af

are actually completely unrelated characters using the same character design

 

I bring this up because

Spoiler

they give Frieza a "redemption" in the upcoming arc...and it is awful, he basically just joins the heroes due to their being a greater evil for them to fight and everyone decides he's good even though he's literally still intending to kill Goku and Vegeta as soon as things calm down, of all of DBZ's Villains Frieza was the one Villain who absolutely didn't deserve a redemption

 

Edited by mochi
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In order to understand Piccolo, you have to understand Samurai mercenary culture. Piccolo was an assassin who was created to kill Goku, but after actually fulfilling that mission, he was free of that duty and was able to grow and develop his character to the point of being able to re-absorb his better nature in Kami, which he cast off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, PokeNirvash said:

Piccolo is the best DBZ character, prove me wrong.

I mean you're not wrong, he's treated even worse than Vegeta by the series though, Vegeta at least sometimes gets to battle

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...