XXI vs Buu doesn't make much sense in hindsight
Mar 2, 2023 19:23:36 GMT
Post by northeal on Mar 2, 2023 19:23:36 GMT
This is just a small rant about something that I think doesn't work about their fight. The quarterfinals of DBM were pretty controversial. After taking years to reach them and having some pretty fantastic match ups. Goku vs Uub was pretty great and a good step for Uub's development. Vegeta vs Cell was a disappointing failure that just had the two dick around until the end because lord forbid Vegeta can't use his ultimate power until his pointless, tensionless rematch with Goku. The whole thing felt like a circlejerk for Vegeta, making Cell look like an idiot and seriously undermining all the growth he's shown to make Vegeta look good. Bra vs Gast did display some much needed development for Bra (although Gohan praising her and Phipsil forgiving her because she gave up a few minutes of punching a strong guy to save a universe felt completely unearned), but still ended up being incredibly dissapointing.
Then there's XXI vs Buu, a fight between two of the greatest magicians in the tournment, who have been playing everything to their advantage. The chapter cover is amazing and shows the two playing chess with the contestants as pieces. Annnnnd XXI wins in 6 pages. Now there are some cool things like XXI finally revealing his true form. However this rant won't be about the length. I take issue with it, especially since this is the quarter finals where every match should be meaningful, but it can be excused. Afterall, while fighting is enjoyable, it's usually not that captivating unless there's weight between the people fighting, stakes, a personal connection in some way (which Buu and XXI don't have but whatever). Uub vs Buu, Vegeta vs Raichi, and Cell vs Gohan are among the best fights in DBM not just because of the great choreography but because of what those fights meant for the characters. XXI is in many ways an antithesis to Dragonballs characters and combat. Most DB combatants are either just fighters or fighters with a few magic/hax abilities. XXI is nothing but magic and cheap tricks. Whether he'll be a good character will depend on how he's handled from here on out, but as of now he's compelling. He beats the strongest participant immediately. He then creates intrigue by having the exact thing needed to beat both #18 and Buu, that's interesting.
So what's my biggest gripe with the fight? Well, it's Buu's strategy, which he explains pretty clearly. He won't give XXI a moment to do things and attacks immediatly... with one ordinary ki blast. What's so bad about this? Well, for one thing, it's such a basic ass strategy that pretty much anyone should've come up with. This is a strategy even Gotenks or Kakarotto would probably come up with. The only reason Vegetto didn't do so was because he never saw XXI fight before. Hell, #18 tried the exact same thing and failed, and yet Buu decided it would be best to try the exact same thing? Sure #18's weakness was very specific and she's much weaker than Buu, but it still seems so dumb to run into the same brick wall as she did.
This is made even worse by the fact that Buu is supposed to be a genius. He's absorbed thousands of inhumanly intelligent people during the past 20 years. At the very least, he should be as smart as Bulma, who's fairly crafty and can create complex gadgets fairly quickly. He's supposedly some Jimmy Neutron tier genius or higher and yet all he could be bothered in the terms of strategy against the most mysterious combatant is to fire a normal ki blast really quick and hope that works? I understand that it's hard to write a character that's inhumanly genius. It's hard for writers to write characters smarter than themselves aside from having them create things like cloning devices or time machines. I don't expect the DBM writers to be able to fully portray Buu as this 1,000 iq being that he's supposed to be because it's hard to fully process someone that smart. But they could at least have him do better than this. Have him try to absorb XXI, or teleport him into space or a black hole, fire one blast that turns him into candy and another to destroy that candy just in case, something. What was marketed as this complex chess match between genius magicians turned into Buu attacking once and losing immediately.
But what makes it even worse is shortly afterwards we see Buu defeat Gast, where he uses several powerful magic tricks and claims he used "countless" sorcerers in order to stop him. So Buu prepared hundreds of different abilities to stop Gast, but only used a normal attack against XXI? That makes no sense. He should've tried some of those abilities against him, or at least prepared some defense. What makes it worse is that Buu probably didn't need all of that to defeat Gast. He's already stronger than him and could probably kill Gast easily if he just got the jump on him. It just doesn't make sense to me.
Oh well, maybe XXI vs Gast will be better. Thoughts?
Then there's XXI vs Buu, a fight between two of the greatest magicians in the tournment, who have been playing everything to their advantage. The chapter cover is amazing and shows the two playing chess with the contestants as pieces. Annnnnd XXI wins in 6 pages. Now there are some cool things like XXI finally revealing his true form. However this rant won't be about the length. I take issue with it, especially since this is the quarter finals where every match should be meaningful, but it can be excused. Afterall, while fighting is enjoyable, it's usually not that captivating unless there's weight between the people fighting, stakes, a personal connection in some way (which Buu and XXI don't have but whatever). Uub vs Buu, Vegeta vs Raichi, and Cell vs Gohan are among the best fights in DBM not just because of the great choreography but because of what those fights meant for the characters. XXI is in many ways an antithesis to Dragonballs characters and combat. Most DB combatants are either just fighters or fighters with a few magic/hax abilities. XXI is nothing but magic and cheap tricks. Whether he'll be a good character will depend on how he's handled from here on out, but as of now he's compelling. He beats the strongest participant immediately. He then creates intrigue by having the exact thing needed to beat both #18 and Buu, that's interesting.
So what's my biggest gripe with the fight? Well, it's Buu's strategy, which he explains pretty clearly. He won't give XXI a moment to do things and attacks immediatly... with one ordinary ki blast. What's so bad about this? Well, for one thing, it's such a basic ass strategy that pretty much anyone should've come up with. This is a strategy even Gotenks or Kakarotto would probably come up with. The only reason Vegetto didn't do so was because he never saw XXI fight before. Hell, #18 tried the exact same thing and failed, and yet Buu decided it would be best to try the exact same thing? Sure #18's weakness was very specific and she's much weaker than Buu, but it still seems so dumb to run into the same brick wall as she did.
This is made even worse by the fact that Buu is supposed to be a genius. He's absorbed thousands of inhumanly intelligent people during the past 20 years. At the very least, he should be as smart as Bulma, who's fairly crafty and can create complex gadgets fairly quickly. He's supposedly some Jimmy Neutron tier genius or higher and yet all he could be bothered in the terms of strategy against the most mysterious combatant is to fire a normal ki blast really quick and hope that works? I understand that it's hard to write a character that's inhumanly genius. It's hard for writers to write characters smarter than themselves aside from having them create things like cloning devices or time machines. I don't expect the DBM writers to be able to fully portray Buu as this 1,000 iq being that he's supposed to be because it's hard to fully process someone that smart. But they could at least have him do better than this. Have him try to absorb XXI, or teleport him into space or a black hole, fire one blast that turns him into candy and another to destroy that candy just in case, something. What was marketed as this complex chess match between genius magicians turned into Buu attacking once and losing immediately.
But what makes it even worse is shortly afterwards we see Buu defeat Gast, where he uses several powerful magic tricks and claims he used "countless" sorcerers in order to stop him. So Buu prepared hundreds of different abilities to stop Gast, but only used a normal attack against XXI? That makes no sense. He should've tried some of those abilities against him, or at least prepared some defense. What makes it worse is that Buu probably didn't need all of that to defeat Gast. He's already stronger than him and could probably kill Gast easily if he just got the jump on him. It just doesn't make sense to me.
Oh well, maybe XXI vs Gast will be better. Thoughts?