Rewriting Laws: The Buu Saga

That is right. You read that headline correctly. I, Christopher “The Great” Haaf, has decided to take on the unreal Herculean task of trying to rewrite the largest and most divisive saga in all of Dragon Ball. It is so divisive in fact, that I should start this article with a disclaimer; None of what you will read here is an objective statement. It is simply a thought experiment or a theory craft about the saga, and simply another way to tell the overall story. Just because I think this would have made the story more enjoyable for me, that doesn't mean it is a statement of fact that the story would have been better with these changes.

With that out of the way, I am going to delve in to, what I believe to be, the biggest issues of the Buu saga, starting with the most obvious change: Goku should have never come back to life.

I know what you are thinking: “But Haaf, Goku is the hero of the entire dragon ball story! How can you tell this story without bringing him back to life!” Well, my dear reader, Goku was never intended to return to the world of the living after the Cell saga. Akira Toriyama intended originally for the climactic showdown with Dr. Gero's Perfected Bio Android to be the final fight in all of Dragon Ball, concluding the story and putting a neat little red ribbon on the franchise as a whole. There are a myriad of narrative clues alluding to this in the narrative.

Goku's entire life, from his first encounter with the Red Ribbon Army, to the Saiyan invasion, to Freiza arriving on earth (because Goku failed to double tap) was coming back to haunt him. The androids were constructed with Goku's battle data and a purpose to eliminate him specifically. Taking that a step further, Cell was built with the DNA of every single one of Goku's friends and enemies over his entire life.

The finale of this saga also served to pass the torch of protagonist to Gohan, his son, who dealt the killing blow to Perfect Cell after Goku determined he will die, and stay dead forever. He was grooming his son to take his role from him during that entire saga as well.

Because of this, Goku's final act was to save the earth and his family from an exploding Cell. This is the perfect cap to Goku's narrative, because his past finally came back to bite him, and he was forced to accept it, and sacrifice his life to pay for his mistakes. Hell, he even encourages Gohan from beyond the grave and helps to push his son beyond his perceived limits to finally win the day!

Goku's arc is over, and Gohan's is just beginning.

As you can maybe tell, this will throw a wrench the size of Texas into the story, and poses many questions:

1. What is Vegeta's motivation at the World Martial Arts Tournament?

2. Who fights Majin Vegeta at the end of the Bibidi arc?

3. How does the cast get the dragon radar from West City without Buu and Babidi noticing?

4. Is there still a Z Sword?

5. Will there be a fusion?

6. Who survives earth's destruction?

7. How, without Goku, do the heroes defeat Kid Buu?

I have about 30 notebooks tackling this entire idea, and I cannot wait to share each and every change I would make to this saga, and it may be way too big for just one article. This project could take months or even years, because I plan to attack each episode of this saga individually to see what would have to change, and the journey Gohan has to take in order to become the true hero of the Dragon Ball story.

I have been Haaf, and this has been the first edition of Rewriting Laws, we will see you next week.

If you have an idea for a show or story you want to see me rewrite, let me know at [email protected]