Dragon Ball (All Series)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Honestly, the no killing rule is pretty stupid for this tournament considering that the losing participants are going to die anyways along with their Universe upon being eliminated.

It just kind of limits the possibilities and tension that you could have with this set up.

[gunswordfist]

Uh, not really. Even if some members do get knocked out, their team could still win and they'll live on. Obviously no team will keep all of their members on the sun dial. Also, the no flying and killing rules were obviously made to try and even up the playing field for characters like Tien, Roshi and Krillin. And Zenoes playfully erasing everyone in an universe from existence, Mojito giving an evil smile after his own/said universe got completely wiped out and the mean/evil looks Goku and Grand Priest exchanged each other respectively didn't exactly relieve the tension...

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Uh, not really. Even if some members do get knocked out, their team could still win and they'll live on. Obviously no team will keep all of their members on the sun dial. Also, the no flying and killing rules were obviously made to try and even up the playing field for characters like Tien, Roshi and Krillin. And Zenoes playfully erasing everyone in an universe from existence, Mojito giving an evil smile after his own/said universe got completely wiped out and the mean/evil looks Goku and Grand Priest exchanged each other respectively didn't exactly relieve the tension...

Mistare Fusion had a pretty good response to defenses like this  (albeit this was in regard to DBM, but it still applies here). The thing is, everything thay you just said are merely reasons to justify why the no killing rule makes sense in terms of logic, not how it supports the actual strength of the narrative. My argument is that it is a boring device which limits the tension of the battle to only ring outs, which might be fine if this arc had a more comedic tone like the early martial arts tournaments from DB, but clearly that's not what they're going for over here.

For a point of context and comparison, the best fights in Dragon Ball were the group battles with Nappa and Vegeta, and both worked because the group dynamic actually mattered. Characters being able to drop dead on a moments notice was tense not simply because losing a character was like losing a valuable component to the team, but also because it was far less predictable how they would go out as opposed to being restricted to just one way of being eliminated.

As for evening out the playing field, that logic goes against your argument because going up against even odds is automatically less tense than going up against a much greater threat. I actually don't have a problem with things being more even though. I even said as much in an earlier post. I have a problem with how the rest of the tournament is structured. The no killing rule is one thing, but it's far from my main issue. Essentially we are just watching characters that we like fight a bunch of characters that we don't care about until they finally get to who we want to see them fight like Hit or Jiren.

And Zenoes playfully erasing everyone in an universe from existence, Mojito giving an evil smile after his own/said universe got completely wiped out and the mean/evil looks Goku and Grand Priest exchanged each other respectively didn't exactly relieve the tension...

These are merely descriptions of how other characters act or react to events that play out or to each other. That's only displaying how they feel. The tension that I'm talking about is the dramatic kind. The kind that applies to the audience. As an audience member I don't so easily feel nervous or excited or happy or sad or anxious simply because another character does something or the writing tells me that's how I'm supposed to feel. I feel the emotions that I should feel as a result of good story-telling and proper build-up. This current arc of Super lacks that so far, IMO.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It is pointless to have the no-killing rule if everyone from the losing universes die anyway. If they didn't have it at the very least we might be worried that even if they win, someone from the U7 team might die. I mean, any death would still be weightless since they can always use the Namekian Dragon Balls to anyone back to life no matter how times they've died...eh, thinking about it, you just can't have any real stakes going on in this scenario besides the total annihilation of the universe which we already know won't happen because we know everyone is fine in the ending of DBZ. I guess we should just shouldn't take the show so seriously and enjoy it as the meaningless pandering fanservicey bullshit it is. 

[Spark Of Spirit]

The no-killing rule is a way to make the fighters have to fight a different way than simply going Vegeta-on-Namek on everyone. The losers die either way, but the fight has to be fought this way for entertainment purposes.

[gunswordfist]

The no-killing rule is a way to make the fighters have to fight a different way than simply going Vegeta-on-Namek on everyone. The losers die either way, but the fight has to be fought this way for entertainment purposes.

Vegeta-on-Na..hhaahaha yeah. Exactly. It's supposed to also mix in some fun in with how dark the show is getting now. Throwing everyone in a legit war campaign would be a weird 180 with how silly Dragon Ball Super can be.

[Daikun]

Wisecrack covered the philosophy of the original series.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Seems like Goku will begin fighting Jiren in a 1-hour special on October 8th.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I was actually kind of hoping that we could get a special that focused on an entirely different part of the lore from the main story, like the Bardock and Trunks specials. Like, maybe we could've gotten an adaptation of the Jaco manga or something. Instead it's more like getting two normal episodes in one week, which is kind of rendered pointless when you consider that Super will be off the prior week when One Piece has its own special.

That said, the promotional poster art for these specials looks ridiculously good. Like, who the hell was it that put so much effort into making a poster that gorgeously drawn for some otherwise pretty standard TV specials? I'd seriously hang a textless version of that on my wall if I had one.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I was hoping for something of that sort too, or another crossover special. But One Piece's special is also just two episodes of the series, focusing on Luffy vs. Sanji. It seems like the idea behind this promotional stunt is just to hype up two big battles in both series that are happening around the same time.

And yeah, that promotional poster is beautiful. As a huge fan of covering every square inch of my basement walls with posters, I'd love to have a giant-sized print of that.

[gunswordfist]

Seems like Goku will begin fighting Jiren in a 1-hour special on October 8th.

Whoa, holy shit...

[Dr. Insomniac]

Plague's mad that Toei sidelines Tien almost as bad as Marvel sidelines the X-Men.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Hey, at least he took someone down with him. Krillin got it even worse....

[gunswordfist]

Krillin took out two people..

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Krillin took out two people..

Yeah, but he went out like a total bitch. Even his own wife (who had to assist him with those two in the first place) lost respect for him....