Theory: The Real Reason Buu was Deus Ex Removed from Team 7

That too, but I don't think that aspect would've been too much of a problem. I mean that would just make him pretty much a mix between Botamo and the Slime Guy that Jiren defeated. Like I said the real OPed aspect that probably brought it about was that he could just absorb an insanely absurd amount of non-participants pre-tourney and pretty much become Zen Buu of DBM, which would give him and U7 an extremely unfair advantage especially even more so if he'd be allowed to release those inside him and it counted as him creating entities via magic. Also he could spam turning enemies into candy by telekinetically lifting them into the air and fire a candy beam at the lot of those who couldn't resist the telekinetic attack. From there he could use telekinesis to expel them from the arena. I imagine that seeing as many fighters in the tournament ended up being rather weak that he could've therefore eliminated half of the opposition in probably the first couple seconds of the ToP.

It's possible, but even if that's the case, it's still interesting food for thought. Also if adding Freeza really was the whole reason he was removed, then why not remove some other character instead? Also it's not the first time Buu was removed from U7's team for a tournament involving more than 1 Universe and if I'm not mistaken for the very same reason of falling asleep at least in the anime. I mean do you really think Akira Toriyama has that much hatred for Majin Buu? I don't think so especially since Majin Buu was the very first main antagonist that he was allowed to have complete freedom over since his editors knew that he was tired of creating Z and that the only way to keep him going was to give him the one thing he always wanted which was complete freedom characters and story. In that sense I would imagine that Buu likely falls somewhere in his top 5 favorite villains, but maybe I'm wrong and he hates Buu despite that he was allowed complete freedom with Buu due to the fact that he really wanted to be done with the series after the Cell Games were over and from what I hear even earlier than that. Not sure if it's true, but I heard initially he wanted to finish things off with Frieza being the final antagonist of Dragon Ball (the Z not included since the manga never had the Z in the name in the original Japanese release).

There seem to be a lot of comedic characters at the tournament though from the episodes I saw. I don't think Buu is too comedic for this arc. Krillin beat someone by throwing his shoe at them. I also don't think Buu is too overpowered to work. With so many different characters and abilities created for this tournament that it seems unlikely they couldn't think of a way for characters to stop Majin Buu. There could have easily been someone with a sealing technique besides U7. Someone could use Buu's innocent nature against him to knock him out of the ring. There could just be someone who is plain stronger than Buu and can defeat him. Even absorption isn't a big obstacle. That was mostly tied to Super Buu. He was more intelligent than his Fat Buu/Mr. Buu incarnation that he actively used that ability to empower himself. Kid Buu and Fat Buu natures made them not using or overusing this ability feel natural. There could have even been an episode of someone trying to teach Buu how to use absorption thinking it would give them an edge only to have the attempts fail to comedic effects for a subplot to the episodes leading up to the tournament.

I side with Jim on it coming down to money and fan service. They seem to just be using the more memorable or older elements of DB. I mean Buu hasn't been used a lot, but neither have Trunks or Goten either. I really doubt it had anything to do with lack of experience being bad (and had everything to do with them only appearing in the last arc in the original series and not having nostalgia factor). As cool as Roshi's moments have been in this tournament it has been purely fan service. He already passed the torch to the younger generation back in the 22nd tournament and his story naturally ended after he failed to stop Piccolo. We can debate all day on Roshi's experience makes him more useful or not, but the fact is Krillin, Tien, Yamecha, and Chaozu are more tactical than the Saiyans and have more special abilities that could have easily been refined to have them do the same things as Roshi and it wouldn't be far fetched and they are very experienced fighters. Tien refining the Mafubu isn't a stretch considering he learned and mastered it in days. Krillin and Yaemcha developed less straightforward ki techniques that could be useful. Upgrading Chaozu telekinesis could have been good.

I imagine Roshi is popular in Japan so they chose to give him a major role again and not try to redeem Chaozu and Yamecha who are probably less popular than Roshi. I wouldn't be surprised is if the reason just comes down to Toriyama wanting more money and just uses the classics.    

Well seeing as Buu or probably Mr Satan came up with the concept of Slimmed Down Buu, I think it isn't a stretch to say he could be talked into absorbing others and if they had Bulma absorbed first then I don't even think he'd need anymore coaching in regards to absorbing others as by that point he'd be even more intelligent than Buuhan minus the fighting based knowledge, but that would be gained after tactically absorbing others.

And yeah I agree with the fact that it was probably down to popularity when they selected the members of the team other than Goku & Vegeta, but if they had been smart they could've easily done the Buu absorbing a bunch of extra characters to sneakily bypass the limit of 10 fighters. I mean just have Buu absorb more characters and release them after the tournament has started. They could've easily had that be okay by the rules via technicality in the same way that DBM's Vargas permitted Tapion to summon Hirudegarn.

Satan actually does mention that Buu usually only sleeps for incredibly brief periods of time back when Goku found out he'd fallen asleep and started scrambling for a 10th fighter, so it's not like they forgot about it...they just don't want Buu to participate for whatever reason.

Personally, I agree with the theory that he's just too OP and that Frieza is better fanservice. Not so OP to the point that Jiren couldn't just knock him off the stage or anything, but against all these fodder fighters that Goku and co. are up against it just wouldn't be fair to them. Not that anyone cares about the fodder fighters to begin with, but what's done is done.

I think the issue with Buu is simply the fact that someone with his abilities is next to impossible to have in a situation with long term tension. They either curbstomp the opposition or get curb stomped. His healing factor and unlimited stamina means that every fight he enters is pointless unless he loses one and the fact that he can heal his allies only makes it worse. At least with Frieza and 17 if an enemy actually lays the smackdown on them it'll actually mean something, with Buu though it might as well not of happened. It also doesn't help that Buu's personality just isn't that interesting anymore either meaning that having him around for character interaction isn't that good either.

I agree with this and what I actually think will happen is that when it comes to mortal entities will be what MasakoX stated in his recent video about the new psuedo-retconned reason for why Goku wants to train Uub. By the time Goku fights Uub in the tournament, Goku will have plateaued most likely and so will all other mortal entities that are likely to be later protagonists. Everyone will have reached the furthest that Ki-training can accomplish in terms of physical strength and the only way "to get stronger" will to strengthen the power of your mind aka your will. It'll be basically everyone that has maxxed out is the same physically in power, but the one who wins is the one that has the greatest willpower &/or is the smartest tactician.

What Uub will provide is maybe a potential to overcome this glass sealing since he is for all intensive purposes Kid Buu, but good. Maybe they'll focus on physically maxxed out characters learning on how to better move without thinking and learn/master special abilities like those that characters like Hit and Botamo have. Though only through Uub might such a thing become possible for those that aren't naturally gifted with such abilities. So maybe Goku will train Uub and Uub will unlock some magical power that can let him bestow special abilities onto others kinda like the Quirk All-for-One.

I agree they are running out of steam. Honestly it is not that hard to write around Buu anymore than any other character. Buu can regenerate, but we've seen in the past he can be beaten to a pulp to the point where his regeneration starts to slow down. Kid Buu nearly killed Fat Buu this way. Magic healing could be problematic, but it could also make him a target for everyone at the tournament. If this Jiren character knocked Buu's ass out later on in the tournament and U7 losing their healer it would create tension. If there was an actual magic user in one of these universes it is easy to have him or her counter Buu's abilities. Someone can even use Buu's regeneration against him by blowing him into several pieces then having someone could wait for him to come together then use a sealing technique on him.

This all comes down to the writers not having enough creativity to make these universes have more skilled or better fighters. As hax as Majin Buu is to most people that there are ways to write around him or have characters with unique abilities that could make them stand out and be counters to Buu. The fact that we are even discussing they couldn't think of ways to defeat Buu means to me DB needs to end and they have no ideas left. They either need to let the franchise die or do a total reboot to free their creative juices up to balance out power, skill, and technique better.

I really don't think that was the case. I think it had everything to do with Freeza being more popular and them wanting to play on nostalgia then them having foresight on a potential problem. They picked all the fan favorites and came up with reasons for the characters introduced in the Buu arc to sit out, since they weren't classic. At worse Toriyama just couldn't think of a way to write around Buu and he was asked to bring Freeza back, so he took care of both with one stone. If he wrote that it meant the anime was stuck with it regardless on if they could find a better way to write out Buu or make a opponent who could defeat him.

We have to remember Toriyama is the main creative force here. They have him do the outlines because they are afraid to have another GT on their hands. The problem here is Toriyama is only writing outlines and not a weekly manga where he would be forced to draw a chapter a week and find interesting or entertaining ways to work around problems. An outline is just giving basic ideas and letting someone else fill in the details. If Toriyama isn't drawing the tournament fight by fight the creative juices where he might have made better and more creative universes and opponents that could come to him while is at the drawing board isn't happening anymore. It's like asking him to write out every arc in advance, which isn't has helpful as people might think.

Ideas can change and evolve as they go along. Toriyama might have been able to make this tournament better and allow everyone more to do if he was still writing or drawing things out in detail than he is now when being asked to come up with a beginning, middle, end, and some highlights.