The last arc of this dreadful show had absolutely no planning. The only concern of the writers was to cram as many characters as possible and have them doing as many callbacks as possible, so they can pander the braindead audience with as little effort as possible. There is no plot to speak of, since it’s just random duels happening in whatever order the writers felt like at the moment, so I’m just going to describe how the participants were treated as means to prove how little thought there was in this horrible excuse of a finale. So, in order of elimination we start with:
Buu, who was not even in the tournament because the authors realized his powers were broken. He could turn opponents into candy, or heal his allies instantly, thus defeating pretty much everyone on his own, while taking away any sense of tension, since nobody would be running out of energy, or even getting injured. This is also why throughout the series, they were constantly keeping him out of the action by making him fall asleep or not knowing how to write his name. It clearly shows they didn’t plan anything ahead when they gave him a new power up right before the tournament and then changed their minds and had him falling asleep again. The funny thing is, the heroes could have simply taken him to the hyperbolic chamber so he would be awake by the time the tournament begins, but conveniently nobody thought of that. By the way, Vegeta blowing up the chamber was not an excuse for not putting Buu inside, since nobody knew Vegeta was inside, nor mentioned the possibility of using the chamber for speeding up his nap time. In retrospect, it was a mistake not including Buu in the roster, since he would be a fine excuse for why Goku and Vegeta were running out of energy, only to magically get it back after a few seconds, over and over again. As for the rule of not allowing healing during the fight, they broke every rule a hundred times so let’s not use that as an in-story excuse.
You don’t need any more proof regarding that, than seeing the flying fighters. Flying is not allowed, unless you got wings. Well, if that’s allowed because it’s a natural ability for them, then so if Buu’s healing powers, since it’s something natural for him. Also, what was the point of this limitation when everybody was constantly hovering and jumping and teleporting all the time, as if they were flying? It didn’t matter at all if they were on ground level or not, since they were constantly using energy blasts from afar to knock out someone, thus rendering distance inconsequential. As for those who were flying naturally, it didn’t give them any benefit whatsoever. That parrot guy was easily blasted out, that bat guy jumped out on his own, and that pixie bimbo literally forgot how to fly. So what was the point of not allowing flying? They had no idea of what they were doing with it.
Then it was the whole “attacking Goku from behind” gimmick, which got so old by being used all the time. Goku, like the complete dumbass he became in Super, was constantly being immobilized by someone grabbing him from behind. Something that is impossible after being able to sense someone from the other side of the universe and is a thousand times faster than light. But, hey, we need that fake suspense to make it seem like he can’t defeat everyone in a second, so let’s make it seem like he is unable to free himself right away. And let’s have the excuse of saving up his energy. Yeah, because he totally needed not to waste his energy, something he did twenty times and ran out of it a dozen more, only to magically get it all back after a couple of seconds. And the most insulting part was the orc-looking dude, who tried to sacrifice himself for taking Goku out of the ring. That is something most of the Z Fighters did, it was always heroic and tragic because they were characters you knew for decades, and also a cool way for them to leave the ring. But when a nobody like this orc-dude did the same, nobody gave a shit because he was not a Z Fighter. Even the show made it seem like it was nothing important, because the guy was cannon fodder. That’s how little the writers cared about everyone who was not an established character.
Then it’s the cheating when it comes to some of the powers. A wolf guy could poison even the strongest fighters, but because Goku had seen his power in the preliminaries, he knew how to avoid it. Meaning, the preliminaries existed only for nerfing universe 9 during the tournament. The wolf brothers were capable to take out most others, yet they were treated as complete fodders. One of them forgot he could become huge, and the rest assumed they could surround a guy that can teleport, or someone who couldn’t escape by simply jumping away. Universe 9 was treated as a complete joke when this is not what they were showing us before.
This is where the first deletion of a universe happened and every shonentard was losing his shit for no reason.
- Oh my god, the stakes have never been higher, as entire universes are being destroyed, and there is absolutely no way for them to be wished back at the end.
- Oh my god, Goku is a villain since the universes are being destroyed because of him, although this was not his idea since Zeno was planning on doing it, even if Goku hadn’t said a word.
- Oh my god, Goku is going to get character development when he realizes the destruction his battle frenzy causes, and will unlock the next power up because of it, although he never had and never will have any character development because this is a crappy shonen for people with low expectations.
- Oh my god, the angels are evil because they look really sinister and want to destroy everything, although they behave differently in every episode, thus you can’t be sure about anything.
- Oh my god, something terrible is going to happen at the end because Toriyama is out of ideas and is spreading lies just to keep his braindead audience watching.
Then there are cases of plain stupidity, such as that time android 18 needed to make sure someone was dead by coming closer. Turns out he was faking it, which was obvious, since if he wasn’t 18 would have been disqualified. You gotta be a real retard to fall for that.
And then we got the first KO for universe 7. Despite Kuririn being in the team for creating a new blinding attack and for somehow being as powerful as super saiyan blue (because power levels are bullshit and Goku is too stupid to know how to hold back) none of that mattered. His blinding attack was less useful than a smelly shoe. Which by the way, that counts as a weapon and he should have been disqualified. Not that anyone cares about the rules in this damn tournament. Anyways, he loses because he dropped his guard and not because he was overpowered. We can’t have one of the established heroes losing in a fair way; that would make him look weak. No, it has to be an unfair sneak attack by a bad guy. Something which by the way shouldn’t have happened in this case, because A, the bad guy was a hundred times stronger than him thus didn’t need to sneak attack him, and B, android 18 was right next to him covering his rear, therefore it shouldn’t be possible to be sneak attacked. How stupid is this bitch?
Even your typical fighting game like Street Fighter or Tekken bothers more to give all its characters some backdrop, as simple and cheesy as they might.