For many, Dragon Ball GT is the franchise’s black sheep. From the series’ initial concept to its three messy arcs, there are many things for fans to be disappointed with. The series has been beaten to death with criticism, leading to the latest series, Dragon Ball DAIMA, suffering from its own initial premise being compared to the perceived failures of Dragon Ball GT.

While some criticisms may seem superficial and based on poor judgment, it’s important to acknowledge that others have provided valid reasons for their dislike of the series. These plot developments, which have prevented the series from being truly special, are among the most disliked, and this list can help us understand why.

10

Goku Never Turning Back into An Adult Gave Dragon Ball GT Superficial Drama

An Interesting Concept that Is Never Resolved in the Anime Series Runtime

While many shrugged off the decision to revert Goku into a child, it makes perfect sense on a narrative level. The power scale for the Z-Fighters was far too high after the Buu Saga, so there had to be a way to nerf Goku again to make the series fights not feel like a waste of time. Dragon Ball DAIMA is suffering from this problem with a power scaling issue worse than Dragon Ball GT‘s. The anime turned Goku into a kid to make the adventure aspect work and give the series a sense of stakes, as he isn’t strong enough to handle threats like he used to.

The problem with this plot development is that it never revolved. Throughout the series, Goku remains a child but becomes an adult when he transforms into Super Saiyan 4. The reasoning for this was that the story never had a moment for Goku to turn back into an adult because of the spin-off anime’s back-to-back saga nature. Considering the series’ villains grew stronger than Super Saiyan 4, there was no reason to keep Goku a kid besides superficial drama. It’s a strange plot that the series never had the characters accomplish their goal of bringing Goku back to adulthood, as it would have gotten fans back into the series.

9

Trunks Never Got His Moment in Dragon Ball GT

Trunks Remained Comedic Relief Until Spin-off Series Concluded

Future Trunks is arguably the most popular character in Dragon Ball Z. Fans were enamored with the character because of his remarkable appearance, slick fashion design, great fighting, and cool sword. When present Trunks grew up, fans became excited to see what kind of extraordinary fighter Trunks would turn into. Dragon Ball GT gave us an older version of Trunks, who was in charge of Capsule Corporation and had left fighting behind. He becomes one of the main characters, joining Goku on the trip to find the Black Star Dragon Balls. Other series would have had Trunks undergo some character arc, one similar to current-day Gohan’s, where he learned to never slack on his training.

Unfortunately, Trunks doesn’t grow during the entire series. He barely gets any wins in battle, especially with major antagonists. Trunks could only use the basic Super Saiyan transformation, and his traveler outfit looked embarrassing compared to his counterpart. What’s most unfortunate is that Trunks never grows or undergoes any arc; he remains the same static character from the start of the series, not even increasing in power and fading to irrelevancy by the time the other arcs started after the Baby Saga.

8

Dragon Ball GT Does a Disservice to Goten’s Character Development

Stuck On Earth Goten is a Nothing Character With No Major Moments

Goten is the second son of Goku, a position that would give him some relevancy. Especially after all the love Gohan got in the series. Instead, Goten in Dragon Ball Z plays second fiddle to Trunks thanks to his age difference and weaker power. Dragon Ball GT had a real chance to change this by having Goten join his father on an adventure in space to hunt down the Black Star Dragon Balls.

The first episodes tease this by showing how Trunks and Goten are considerably weaker, have noticeable flaws, and could use an adventure to grow as people and fighters. Instead, the show leaves Goten behind on Earth, giving the character nothing to do. He struggles with every fight and loses to Baby; unfortunately, this was one of Goten’s best fights and helped doom the planet. After this, the thing that Goten does most is flirt with girls, which became this version of Goten’s defining character trait.

7

Vegeta Cheats to Reach Super Saiyan 4 in Dragon Ball GT

Good-bye to All of the Hard Work the Prince Is Known For

Vegeta is one of Dragon Ball‘s hardest workers, a trait he gained after learning that privilege and status can’t give him the power he wants. Seeing his character work so hard reminded audiences of what makes Goku and Dragon Ball so unique: the concept of hard work winning out over genetics. This nurture-over-nature theme is prevalent in all Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball GT had a similar approach by having Goku unlock the Super Saiyan 4 transformation through a reminder of the family he nurtured while resorting to his Saiyan instincts as a Golden Great Ape. It’s a decisive moment for the character and gives Super Saiyan 4 a great symbolic theme that Vegeta should have carried.

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Instead, Vegeta gains Super Saiyan 4 using a Blutz Wave Generator built by Bulma. He can achieve the Super Saiyan 4 with no internal struggle between his nature and nurture and gains the form, slightly cheapening the form’s value. The Blutz Wave Generator is a silly invention, but it could have shown how the bond Vegeta nurtured with Bulma helped him unlock this form if given time to develop. But like many traits in Dragon Ball GT, it falls flat.

6

Piccolo Dies Seemingly For No Reason in Dragon Ball GT

Piccolo Dies For Good in an Arc He Was Barely Present For

Piccolo is an essential character in Dragon Ball, even creator Akira Toriyama’s favorite character. He’s a vital character with many connections and tons of lore about him. Despite all of this, he has no significance in Dragon Ball GT and ends up being worthless for the entire series until the end of the Baby Saga, where he’s permanently killed off. The Earth explodes at the end of the Baby Saga because of some nonsense with the Black Star Dragon Balls.

While everyone is leaving, Piccolo stays and dies on Earth, ending the cycle of the Dragon Balls with him and destroying the Black Star Dragon Balls for good. This is a bizarre treatment for Piccolo since he has no relevance in the story, so his death comes out of left field. It’s a strange decision, too, considering there’s no reason to have Piccolo die when the Black Star Dragon Balls can just be destroyed themselves, or the Dragon Balls summoned can just be killed. Killing Piccolo here is a triumphant sacrifice with no weight behind it.

5

Dragon Ball GT Completely Ignores the Other Z-Fighters

The Anime Series Quickly Becomes What Fans Call “Goku Time.”

The Dragon Ball series has always had Goku in the spotlight; it’s built off of his personality, which is why Gohan couldn’t become the protagonist during the Buu Saga. But the series hasn’t been shy of using other characters to not only up the drama but to showcase that Earth has a proper team of fighters. Even when they were outclassed in Cell, characters like Tien, Yamcha, Krillin, and more came to fight and support their allies.

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Dragon Ball GT doesn’t do this. Instead, Goku defeats all the villains and significant threats. Major villains like Baby, Super 17, and Omega Shrenon make sense, but Goku’s overwhelming strength handles even minor antagonists. Some of the human Z-Fighters may be too old to let them do any fighting, even though that doesn’t stop Master Roshi, but even characters like Gohan, Vegeta, and Uub don’t have any meaningful fights against the villains. The focus on Goku makes Dragon Ball GT feel like such a drag for fans.

4

Super 17 is Dragon Ball GT’s Ridiculous and Short Plot Thread

The Anime Series’ Shortest Saga is Seven Episodes

The arc introduced a villain who didn’t even show up in Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, Super 17. A villain who combines two 17s together to create an even more robust 17, somehow. The other 17 were built in Hell thanks to Dr. Myuu after he allied with Dr. Gero in Hell. Doing this lets all the villains from Hell break loose and move to terrorize Earth. Not only is Super 17 a strange moment for this, but he and Goku have never shared a conversation and don’t offer any interesting narratives together. Even the resurgence of the series of former villains offers nothing interesting, as characters have no comment on reuniting with old enemies.

What’s even stranger is that it breaks Dragon Ball‘s ruleset by having these villains appear with bodies. The only major moment of this battle is Krillin’s awkward death, which sparks Android 18 to do something about getting revenge for her husband. But this revenge is never gotten, and once again, the show defaults to Goku getting the win against the enemies. It’s a mess of an arc with nothing of great note happening.

3

Dragon Ball GT Drops Uub’s Potential as the Next Protagonist

Dragon Ball once Again Drops The Next Generation Angle

Uub is teased to be the next major protector of Earth at the end of Dragon Ball Z. Especially since he becomes Goku’s sole student at the end of the series and is the Good reincarnation of Majin Buu. The story sets him up as the next protagonist who could carry Goku’s legacy, whereas Gohan and Goten can’t. After fusing with Majin Buu permanently and becoming the powerful Majuub, there’s a sense that now it’ll be his time to shine. Sadly, Uub is immediately sidelined after this moment and fades into the background with the other characters.

It’s a disappointing and wild decision to emphasize Uub only to drop it. Uub loses every major fight he’s in and has little interaction with the rest of the Z-Fighters. Even by the end of the series, he isn’t set up to be Earth’s next protector; Vegeta is. It makes the viewer question why Goku bothered doing any training if all Uub could do was be another body to lose to the villain like the others. After Gohan and Goten, it sucks that the series hs once again left behind the next generation angle.

2

Dragon Ball GT’s Shadow Dragons Were Wasted Villains

The Concept with the Most Potential But Zero Developments

The Shadow Dragons are presented with such grandeur and gravitas that one would think they’d be the strongest foes the cast would ever fight. And with seven of them, there’s enough for every member of the Z-Fighters to fight against them. Instead, Dragon Ball GT decides that only Pan and Goku can confront the Shadow Dragons and that the first of them will be jokes with simple solutions. Why bother with an intense number of villains if only two characters are going to combat them, one being a non-combatant like Pan?

The Dragons outside Nueva, Eis, and Syn have tiny personalities, and their central gimmick of being centered on a wish never feels as relevant to the story. The series doesn’t even have the characters reflect on what the Shadow Dragons mean or combat their overreliance on the Dragon Balls. Nor does it bring up the good point that the Dragon Balls have only been used for good on the cast’s side. For a show to question the cast’s main item and then not do anything with that question is a horrible choice from the anime.

1

Pan Has No Legacy, No Growth, and No Value

Pan Is a Shell of Her Former Self and Ends Up a Damsel

When Pan, Gohan’s daughter and the granddaughter of Goku and Hercule, was revealed, fans fell in love with her immediately. Unlike her father, she had a fighter’s spirit and the early power to back it up. She was like a child female version of Goku, and fans were excited to see how she’d grow up as a fighter. While it was upsetting for many fans when she became the deuteragonist of Dragon Ball GT, there was at least some excitement that Pan’s growth would be a grand adventure. That doesn’t happen.

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Pan in Dragon Ball GT is annoying, under-developed, and often gets placed in the damsel in distress position throughout the course of the series. Her inclusion makes her the show’s biggest issue, as the writing never gives fans a reason to root for or like her. Dragon Ball Super has shown that Pan can be a fan favorite with good writing. The saddest part about Pan’s inclusion in the series is her lack of Super Saiyan transformation. She could have been the first female Super Saiyan and cemented her place in the franchise’s history. All she ends up being is one of Dragon Ball GT‘s worst plot developments.