Snubbed Characters

One thing that's always bothered me in Z is that Toriyama grooms specific characters to become the main hero once Goku leaves. The first two that come to mind are Gohan and Goten.

For Gohan, it seems like the entire first part of Z is setting him up for his role as the hero-son-of-Goku that will eventually take up his mantle as protector of the world. This all leads up to his fight with Cell and Goku's sacrifice. Gohan is now the strongest, and Goku leaves the world in his protection.
But...
For whatever reason, we fast forward to high-school Gohan who is weak, rusty, and kind of a moron. Way to go kid, you followed your father's last request to be the protector of Earth javascript:emoticonp(''). Seriously, this never should've happened. Yes, Gohan doesn't like to fight, but he has enough honor and common sense to know that it's all gonna be up to him if some powerful baddie shows up. In short, he ignores his father and becomes mental. It's all kind of an unfair treatment to what this character -should've- been like, something like Future Gohan.

Goten in the Buu saga is said multiple times to be like a young Goku (hell, his hair is the same!), said to be extremely strong, etc, etc. Also, he seems to love to fight, unlike Gohan. So we all know that, someday, Goten will likely uphold his father's position as protector. It just makes sense!
And yet, in the god-awful ten years later scenes, he's shown to be kinda whiny and more concerned about girls than training... He should've been training like Goku, but yet he for some reason has his role snubbed for (drum role) Uub?!
Facepalm.

Another character is Piccolo... what was one of the most badassington characters becomes a gag in the Buu saga...

it's not toriyama's fault.

he wanted to stop dbz after freeza. studios en fans wanted more.
then he wanted to stop dbz after cell, with gohan realy becoming the new protector. studios and fans demanded even more. and they demanded goku returns and be the star

goten was never considerd a new succesor. as a kid he was retarded and as a teen he seemed more like a stoner.

Stoner Goten? I see potential in this...

Goten and Trunks' High-Flying Adventure: the two get stoned and wake up on New Namek, with no idea how they got there. Or where their ship is. Or whether or not they used a ship to begin with. And so, they go on a mission to find the spaceship. Which eventually changes into a mission to find the dragonballs. Which eventually leads to the discovery that, during the previous night, Earth was invaded by the remnants of Freeza's forces, which they promptly defeated, commandeered, and took for a joyride to New Namek, where they were ditched.

Goten and Trunks go to white castle, which in DBZ is actually a planet that produces these burgers rather than a chain of restaurants.

glorious

I'm pr etty sure that Toriyama went abit down hill after the Cell Saga to show his publishers that he was getting sick and tired of it. I'm sure his wife once asked him to continue it, it was either after Cell or Freeza and as you could see with DBGT after 5 episodes he gave the studio the finger and left.

actualy the reason all kinds of crazy shit happend in the buu saga. was already toriyama giving everyone the finger.

the only involvement he had with gt. where some sketches nothing more.

well i love buu saga and dont like gohan or goten. so imo it was pwnage. the lame sons of goku fail and goku finds a real successor in uub.

funny again then that in gt he calls vegeta the new protector of earth (after he leaves ontop of shenlong)


it's a shame that piccolo became useless in the buu saga. he was always one of the most badass characters

if you remember, thats the fans fault. no one wanted piccolo as the majin warrior. they wanted goku vs vegeta.

Speaking of which, in the story mode of Shin Budokai, Piccolo actually does get taken over by Babidi with the Majin curse.

Happens in Super Sonic Warriors also. He kills Babidi and makes Buu his minion. ^_^

As seen with the two Human henchmen, Majin was supposed to give a gigantic power boost. It seems like it got switched from Piccolo to Vegeta sometime between their appearance and the event itself, and had to be taken back a notch.

That would've been kinda sweet. I hate how Piccolo becomes Goten and Trunks' (and Gotenks') bitch.

Majin Piccolo versus Gohan? That could've been a cool fight.

that would have been a glorious fight. to see piccolo beating the shit out of gohan.