Fixing Dragon Ball Super (Part 1): Battle of Gods and Resurrection F

A long time ago, I wrote a series wherein I rewrote the Buu sage of Dragon Ball Z. I had to rework the story into something hopefully better while still keeping the iconic moments and major beats. That was a lot of fun; it was very satisfying to take the pieces the original work had and reconstruct them into something without so many holes. And for a while, I’d been thinking of what to do next.

Then I realized “Oh yeah, Dragon Ball Super exists.”

Super is a series with a lot of highs… and a lot of lows. It got off to a rough start by just redoing the last two DBZ films but worse. Then, when it started doing its own thing, it gave us arc after arc riddled with inconsistent writing, plot holes, and problematic antagonists. While I think the series overall is perfectly fine, it’s definitely far from perfect.

So, today, I’m going to try my hand at it. I’m gonna try and rework what we got in the anime version of Super into something a bit more coherent and interesting. Now note: this isn’t to tear down the original or to make myself seem like a better writer; I’ve had years to think about this and the people who actually made the show were on the time crunch of their lives. This is just a fun little writing experiment.

Now, let’s start with Battle of Gods!

I’m not changing anything. Nope. Honestly, I think that Battle of Gods is still one of the best modern Dragon Ball stories. Although I would just cut out the arc in the anime and replace it with the movie.

However, I would change the title of Super Saiyan God to just Saiyan God. That way, we can change Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan into just Super Saiyan God and save ourselves the headache. Plus, I feel it works better since the form more resembles his base form than any of the other forms.

Now, let’s actually start with Resurrection F! Which again: I’ll replace the anime arc with the movie. Because holy shit, the anime arc is so bad that I’d have to spend five whole articles just to get it working.

I think that the first half of this movie is really good. It does a good job of bringing Freeza back, it establishes where Goku and Vegeta are, it sprinkles in some hints for Ultra Instinct later on, and it gives us that excellent fight between the Z-Warriors and Freeza’s army.

However, this is where I’m making my first big change: how Goku and Vegeta are training. In our version, the two saiyans are training to achieve different things. Goku is working to control the form he got in Battle of Gods, Saiyan God, while Vegeta is training to catch up, since he didn’t get the magic power boost that Goku did. Then, when Freeza attacks and all the others are put in trouble (a weakened Gohan uses the last of his strength to give his father a signal to lock onto), Goku abandons his training partway through to go and help, using Instant Transmission to arrive faster than Vegeta or Whis can.

Next: Beerus and Whis are not present in the battle. I’m sorry, but I think that their inclusion in this story is to the movie’s detriment. Having someone around who is significantly stronger than Freeza, wholly willing to kick the galactic tyrant’s shit in if he threatens his buffet, drains the tension faster than Vegeta loses fights in the DBS manga. Not to mention that the time travel ability Whis has does the same thing, but even worse.

Now, with those two gone and Goku on the scene, we get to the battle. Initially, Goku goes in cool and confident, as he’s defeated Freeza before. Indeed, in their initial skirmish, he bests Freeza. However, just as Goku starts to get overconfident, Freeza reveals the fruits of his recent training: Golden Freeza.

Suddenly, Goku is put on the defensive. None of his forms can keep up with Golden Freeza and he still can’t active Saiyan God form at command. Freeza gleefully tortures Goku, basking in his revenge as Goku tries to attain the power he fought Beerus off with.

Eventually, he manages to do so, learning to use Saiyan God at will. Now, Goku and Freeza are once again evenly matched. However, Goku’s earlier injuries are slowing him down. Despite his power boost, he soon finds himself lagging behind Freeza once again. Sort of like an inverse of their fight on Namek.

Then, just as Goku is about to be defeated, Whis arrives with Vegeta in tow.

And Whis immediately steps back and states that he will not get involved even if the Earth ends up being blown up. Also, Beerus is still not there. That way, we can avoid the unfunny ice cream jokes.

Getting back to the plot: Vegeta swoops in and rescues Goku just as Freeza is about to deal the killing blow. Then the tyrant turns to the saiyan prince and begins to mock him, remembering how he killed Vegeta back on Namek. However, Vegeta turns to Freeza, his expression stern and serious.

Then, without a hint of cockiness to his voice, he proclaims that he is glad that Freeza came back to life. Because now he finally has the chance to avenge his people himself. Then, turning to Goku, he smiles and says, “Watch closely, Kakarot. Bear witness to my power.”

With a mighty roar, Vegeta transforms into a Super Saiyan God, his hair turning a brilliant blue.

This is the first big change I’m making for all of Super, not just this story. In our version, Goku will never achieve Super Saiyan Blue. Nor will Vegeta ever achieve Super Saiyan God. Instead, the two will walk down separate paths. Goku’s, the Saiyan God, achieved through the support of his family and friends. Vegeta’s, the Super Saiyan God, achieved through his own hard work and determination.

Because in our version, Vegeta actually learned his lesson from the end of the Buu saga and decided not to chase Goku’s tail for the rest of his life.

Now armed with divine power and without a scratch on him, Vegeta relentlessly attacks the exhausted Freeza. He doesn’t fight as he once did, arrogant and destructive. Rather, he is slow, calm, and brutal. As Vegeta claims his revenge, he calmly explains to Freeza that he has grown more than just physically. That he has long left Freeza in his past. That the tyrant is now nothing more than a persistent ghost of the past that refuses to go away.

Furious and desperate, Freeza tries to destroy the Earth, just like he did in the original. However, in our version, Vegeta doesn’t miss a beat. The moment Freeza goes to attack the planet, he stops him in his tracks. Then, with a small smile, he says, “Sorry Freeza. But you’re not dealing with the average saiyan warrior anymore.” With that, Vegeta delivers the killing blow, destroying Freeza once again.

Because we all know he should’ve been the one to kill Freeza in the original movie, let’s be honest.

With that, the movie/arc ends. Goku now knows how to use Saiyan God (red) and Vegeta has Super Saiyan God (blue). As they go back to resume their training with Whis, Gohan goes to train with Piccolo and regain his strength (and in our version, he actually will!) The remnants of Freeza’s army scatters once again, to be seen later on in the story… maybe.

Meanwhile, while the two Saiyans were off dealing with Freeza, Beerus has found himself with surprise guests: Vados and Champa. Why are they here? Because Champa heard that Beerus had recently found himself a strong opponent. With that, the story ends on a cliffhanger.

Several smaller elements from this arc will play into future arcs to come. Gohan’s training will be a subplot throughout all the arcs to come up until the Tournament of Power. Goku and Vegeta are now going down two separate paths of training, getting stronger in their own unique ways. Freeza’s death at the hands of Vegeta rather than Goku will come into play in the ToP as well. They’re all small connections, I’ll admit, but they should serve well enough to link the rest of the story to this arc, rather than this one simply becoming a filler story where the main two got a new form, as it was in the original.

And now, we come to the Universe 6 Tournament arc. Which is where we’re really gonna make some changes!