What-If DBZ Slowly Worked Up to Frieza?

I like this idea! Toriyama cranked the cosmic scale up to MAXIMUM BROLY levels when DB went from the domination of Earth by the Red Ribbon Army/King Piccolo to suddenly ALIENS.


Then we went from ALIENS to the Emperor of the UNIVERSE. Not the galaxy. Or galaxies. Or galactic quadrant. THE UNIVERSE. Which as we find out later in DBS is laughably small, but whatever. Going from Earth to the UNIVERSE is a huge jump and the result didn't really give us a whole lot. Compare this to U6, where Frost also had a massive empire but the universe just feels bigger thanks to it's Blade Runner vibes and stuff.

I feel like Babadi and Frieza just couldn't work out. He'd have to try and control Frieza through his evil magic and honestly, I don't see what Frieza could do to stop him. He was a lot more evil than Vegeta was at the time he became Majinized. This is of course barring some kind of change in how Babadi works.

I think Buu could still work out as he is, which is an ancient threat from times long past brought back to the present. Babadi could likewise be an ancient sorcerer seeking universal domination, and so seeks to unleash the power of Buu to achieve that goal. Raises some interesting possibilities/teasing/foreshadowing with Babadi potentially coming under attack from not only the Z Fighters, but from the Frieza Force as well.

Frieza going last also gives us the EPIC possibility of the Ginyu Squad facing off against the Great Saiyaman in a pose-off to the death.

I'd put Beerus after Frieza, in all honesty. Beerus would be a massive spike in danger with Frieza looking minuscule by comparison. (The alternative is Frieza somehow being stronger than Beerus, which rubs me the wrong way). By saving Beerus for after, or not even using him at all, Frieza is then built up as the ultimate, most powerful entity in DBZ. Could also tie-in nicely with Goku finally attaining Super Saiyan in the climactic grand finale atop an exploding and doomed Planet Namek against the Emperor of the Universe.

What about introducing the Androids Number 19 and 20 the same time as the Saiyan Saga? Gero would take less time for the Android creating process, that can line up with Vegeta’s arrival on Earth. It’d be a complete three-way war for Earth in a sense, Z warriors fighting the androids again in addition to protecting it from the Saiyans. Either side can defeat the Androids but a spy drone is still there to witness the rest of the Goku Vs Vegeta fight.

"Saiyan Saga"

"Normal" Android Saga... but really Cell and 17 and 18 Saga.

Majin Buu Saga (Off World)

FREEZA SAGA


Edit:

BoG and RoF.





Gonna ignore the Super series for now since this topic is under the Z section.

I wouldn't change power scaling too much, but their might be some room for have it not climb so quickly. Anyways after reading your posts, Ashanark & Axalon, I thought about how it does need maybe some more tweaking and I thought of something that could be tweaked at the beginning and a couple tweaks that could be done at the very end of the original DB.

So at the end of the original DB, we could have it shown that Goku and Chi-Chi have a son and they name him Gohan after Grandpa Gohan. Another thing we could have is that we see Dr. Gero and he clearly has the Red Ribbon symbol on him. He remembers finding the body of his dead son, the one that 16 was modeled after, right after Goku had defeated the Red Ribbon Army. He's in some secret location stewing in his anger and cursing Son Goku something mighty fierce.

So after those changes to the very end of DB, DBZ I'm thinking could start with quite a major tweak. Instead of starting with Raditz's appearance, it starts with the History of Trunks. We see a grown up Son Gohan fighting against Androids bearing the mark of the Red Ribbon Army. Instead of Gero being dead at the hands of the Androids, he is very much alive with having not happened. We see scenes of Gohan fighting Androids and also ones of him training Trunks. Then of course we get the scene of Gohan dying by the hands of the Androids and Trunks unleashing his rage becoming Super Saiyan. We then get a transition to a scene of Trunks talking with Bulma about the Time Machine she's building. That's where we end the History of Trunks sequence for now and we'd head back in time to the Saiyans part of the story.

I'm not sure where to go with it from here. I'm gonna need to give it some thought. My current train of thought is maybe that the Saiyan Saga happen and transition to Namek, but there is no Frieza presence on Namek. Feel free to help me out if you want.

Well the reason I was thinking Beerus should be before Frieza is so that SSJG & SSJB are achieved. The only major difference on the part of Golden Frieza is that trained many many years to finally reach that point. With him being the final villain, he'd hear that the Androids he had sent out to I guess retrieve Vegeta and dominate Earth had failed in their mission due to a Saiyan monkey accomplishing Super Saiyan. These Androids or maybe it's only one of them and a group of Frieza's generic soldiers wouldn't be 17 & 18. Anyways having heard that his greatest fear has finally happened, it would prompt him to train while he sends stronger henchmen after the Z Warriors. Each group would somehow end in failure until the final showdown with Frieza. Now that's not to say that the Z Warriors would win every battle the first time through. Maybe they lose and are forced to make tactical retreats in some scenarios.

Of course this is more or less a skeleton with just a little bit more on the bones than just bones. I'll have to work more on how I think events would go. I still have to think about how I want Saiyan Saga and what-not to go down.

It is still possible to make King Piccolo a significant threat even within DBZ. Now his death in original dragon ball should definitely be the same, which will result in Piccolo's reincarnated birth. But there are two perspectives you need to decide on before you can carry on.

1. King Piccolo IS Piccolo, but reincarnated. So they are one in the same, which explains why Kami still exists when the demonic namekian passed away.

2. The reincarnation was not complete, so King Piccolo's soul ends up in Hell while a apart of him (Piccolo) lives on on Earth.

When you picked one (I choose option 2), you simply have to create a reason to bring him back for whatever purpose you want him to serve in your rewrite. For me, lets just say during the namek saga that everything was going similar to the way it was in canon [Note: Again it depends how much you are willing to change from the canon source to make this hypothetical scenario work out. Since I do not know your specific plot scenarios, I will stick to canon just to get the point across.], but Piccolo felt like that Frieza's power is literally insurmountable after seeing him flex his muscles. Still dead in Otherworld, Piccolo orders King Kai to bring King Piccolo up [Note: Similar to what King Kai does with the Ginyu Force in anime filler.] where both father and son battle. Piccolo absorbs King Piccolo, gets revived, fuses with Nail, then heads out to challenge Frieza. When everything is all said and done (Only Goku is still able to defeat Frieza), we find out later that King Piccolo has been doing some training in Hell and has learned a way to plague with his sons mind if he fuses with him as the fusee. Over time Piccolo slowly becomes King Piccolo before fully "transforming" into his sire. The demon king then charades as the normal Piccolo to remain undercover. King Piccolo then fuses with Kami to become a powerful threat, and rechallenges Goku for vengeance [Note: Kami only fuses with Piccolo in the need to silence the growing evil within him, which the demon king has already accounted for and set up necessary precautions to prevent his inner influence.]. However King Piccolo is only as strong as Frieza, and is still inferior to the legendary super saiyan despite having the power of four namekians, which includes him. Defeated, he hangs low until he can make his revenge. And Dende becomes the new guardian, though it takes him a little bit of time to resurrect Shenron since he was not fully done with his dragon clan training.

But if you want to add more spin to it, make sure that this happens during the three year time period before the androids that you've rewritten so that Lord Slug can debut. Make King Piccolo somehow absorb him, and become a incredible force that is superior to Frieza, whom up to this point was the strongest villain ever.

And King Piccolo will be a great villain to surpass Frieza since he was a enemy who Goku has known longer than the space tyrant. It will be perfect, and makes the original dragon ball even more relevant since a nemesis has came back who is now the most powerful fighter ever.

Back to the story, King Piccolo attempts for world domination again, but will do so only after he goes into space to visit new namek a year before the android arrive. Afraid of the demonic super namekian, the heroes (mainly Goku, Gohan, Krillin, or even Vegeta) chase after him. King Piccolo arrives first and manages to summon Porunga just when the heroes arrive to wish for immortality [Note: Instant Transmission will fail Goku in reaching New Namek faster since he fails to think of using King Kai's location as a basis.]. Piccolo then fights the heroes and dominates, but the remaining namekian elders uses the second wish of Porunga to seal him, but the seal itself will only last a year before it ruptures. The third wish restores the lost namekian lives as the heroes take the sealed Piccolo with them back to Earth, and train to surpass him when he reemerges. 

But unknown to everyone, King Piccolo gives birth to a sole mutated son on Earth before going to namek, where his purpose is to remain on standby just in case if he was defeated. But unknown to even King Piccolo when he was sealed, Dr. Gero kidnaps him and transforms his body into the basis for his creation that will later become "Cell". But thanks to his impressive namekian heritage, his mature form will still feel connected to Piccolo as his development will reach completion within the same hours of the android invasion. [Note: Piccolo being able to go from a infant to a "teenager" within three years is the reason why a modified bio-android will go from infancy to "perfection" in a single year.]

[Note: No Future Trunks will occur in this AU. Time traveling antics get annoying after a while, so you can prevent all of that drama by literally preventing it from happening.]

King Piccolo's emergence happens during the day the androids attack. [Note: All of the androids are weaker than Frieza, but having a renegade evil namekian will make things much more difficult.] Now lets just say that all androids were destroyed minus 16 and 18 since they were redeemable. Before the heroes can relax from a excruciating hard battle, King Piccolo's seal erupts on the lookout and immediately flies to the area of the worn out z-fighters. With no senzu beans left, they and the two androids remain on guard until the super namek arrives.

After a intense stare-off and argument ensures, Gohan was the first to attack but is dealt with a harsh defeat despite his best efforts. But his will to save Piccolo no matter what transforms him into a super saiyan (the third one after Goku and Vegeta), but is still pounded into the ground. Everyone else is later defeated too, with a nearly unconscious, shirtless Goku dangling in the palms of the evil namek. But right before he kills him, Cell emerges and reveals he is his son born anew. Shocked at what happened to him, but glad he now understands on why he couldn't sense him until now, King Piccolo questions his current loyalty, but is pleased that he still sides with his father. Cell then convinces his father that instead of killing them, a world martial arts tournament shall be held to proclaim the strongest underneath the heavens. King Piccolo obliges, and announce the tournament at both the ZTV station and at King Furries palace.

And that gives ten days for the heroes to train as both King Piccolo and Cell contemplate on their shared ambition of global conquering. The likes of both Cooler and Broly can happen, but these two will play a role on how they were defeated which can take multiple routes.

When the tournament begins. the heroes (Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Krillin, Yamcha, and Tien) and Androids 16 and 18 arrive to challenge the father and son duo. Deciding on a two vs two matchup, both of the androids go in first. Piccolo easily manages to push 18 around, but 16 became close into killing off Cell with his self destruction sequence, but Piccolo saves his son before detonation occurred. 18 is then killed by Cell, with 16's body parts dotting all over the landscape before Cell crushes his head. With two allies dead, Gohan has enough and goes in alone, though Goku convinces his son that he is helping him. With both father and sons battling each other, Gohan fights against Cell and are equals in every way, which is impressive since they are already stronger than Frieza, barely. But King Piccolo still pushes Goku around, and has him where he wants him most of the time. However the psychological aspects begins to plague Gohan, with his lost mentor and the androids deaths overriding his will to fight despite his life and everyone else being on the line. Cell then slowly torments Gohan, and is crushed in his arms as Goku is incapable of reaching him thanks to Piccolo. The demon king then begins to beat on Goku, and once again has his battered body in his hands. Piccolo then kills Goku, which causes Gohan to have regret of not saving his father while a highly distorted piece of memory of Piccolo killing Goku during the battle of Raditz infecting his mind. Gohan then becomes a super saiyan 2, which frees him from Cell as he prepares to kill both for their inequities. Gohan first beats down Cell effortless, and seemingly kills him with a super kamehameha. Stunned, Piccolo fights against Gohan, but is no match for the ascended saiyan hybrid as he gets beaten. Plagued of flashbacks of Kid Goku defeating him and his "son's" memories of being Gohan's teacher, King Piccolo vows to not lose and will make the boy pay for his transgressions. But Gohan still beats him down, which causes the king to lose his mind and simply see the child as Kid Goku reincarnated.

But eventually the immortal is lay in a crater with Gohan walking ominously to him, and is terrified of him beyond reasoning. But unknown to everyone, Cell survives and goes to his father since he has received a little zenkai boost. Seeing a new chance at victory, King Piccolo fuses with Cell to increase his power tremendously, and is almost comparable to the young saiyan. 

And round 2 starts.

Despite the magnificent increase and now matching Gohan, Piccolo slowly begins to suffer from unforeseen complications since Cell is not entirely namekian. His complicated makeup that consists of human, saiyan, and frost demon cells begins to mutate him in both mind and body. Soon his body begins to swell and appears like he is about to explode, but it is just the outworld expression of a new battle raging.

And it is a battle inside of his mind.

Awakened from the strange phenomenon within his body, the likes of Piccolo, Nail, and Kami attempt to gain dominance against King Piccolo and Cell. Slug is just the middle man who fights for himself. And since they all now share the same body, their power is equal with the forces of good winning out in the end. Thanks to this, the outside of Piccolo's body misfires in the explosion to reveal the regular ol' good Piccolo in its wake as Cell is expunged from him. Piccolo then kills Cell, and manages to prove to young Gohan that he is the real deal, which makes the young boy break down with tears of joy.

And the Earth is restored with the evil of King Piccolo put to rest. Goku remains dead, and peace settles for the next seven years.

Until the Buu saga begins.

Here King Piccolo will briefly influence the namek when he gets majinized, but will return to normal thanks to the events surrounding the arc. I'll leave it up to you if you want to continue this scenario.