The Most Notorious Retcons In Dragon Ball History

In my 18 years of watching Dragon Ball, I have seen some of the most notorious retcons that have angered many Dragon Ball fans like myself because they mess up the original concepts of certain things like “The Struggle To Go Super Saiyan”

Akira Toriyama is notorious for doing retcons and asspulls which has led to some of them being very controversial than others.

Here are the most notorious retcons in Dragon Ball history.

1. The Potara Fusion - In episode 66 of Dragon Ball Super near the climax of “The Future Trunks/Goku Black Arc” I was ecstatic when I saw my favorite Dragon Ball fusion in Vegito make his drastic return, but back in DBZ, the potara earring fusion was stated by the elder kai to be permanent, but here’s what pissed me off greatly about that particular episode is when the writers put in a very bad retcon by stating that two non-kais that are fused with the potara earrings can now last for only an hour and not only did this recon piss me off, but also we see Vegito in Super Saiyan Blue form going toe-to-toe against Merged Zamasu for at least 5 minutes and defuses and this greatly pissed me off as well.”

2. The Super Saiyan - One of the main things that a lot of people hated about Dragon Ball Super was the vicious retconning of the concept of the super saiyan transformation and it’s among the reason why a lot of the fandom (mostly misogynistic young wyt dudes) that despise strong female characters like Caulifla and Kale. When Cabba teaches them how to go Super Saiyan, Caulifla goes Super Saiyan and then Kale goes into her berserk form when Cabba got too close to Caulifla, and while Kale was about to blast Cabba away, Caulifla out of nowhere goes Super Saiyan 2 within the same episode and seeing these two young female saiyans obtain the Super Saiyan forms so easily definitely angered a lot of the fandom including myself who felt that the concept of the super saiyan transformation was not only badly retconned, but heavily asspulled in that episode which is one of the main reasons why a lot of the fandom (mostly misogynistic young wyt guys) despise Caulifla and Kale.”

3. Future Trunks Hair In Dragon Ball Super - I remember being so ecstatic seeing Future Trunks return in Dragon Ball Super, but the one retcon about him that I didn’t like very much was that they made his hair more lighter purple than the dark purple color that he was presented with during The DBZ Era that’s actually my favorite version of Future Trunks. I really wished they kept that dark purple hair color on him and not even retconning it. There’s an old saying “If it works, then don’t fix it.”

4. The Scouter - In the early parts of The DBZ Era, The Tsufruians aka Tuffles were the original inventors of the scouter as well as the space pods that were involved in a civil war with The Saiyans and lost very badly to The Saiyans that later “adopted” the space pod as well as the scouter and renaming the planet from Plant to Vegeta. But now in the upcoming Dragon Ball Super movie “Broly”, it was revealed recently that the invention of the scouter from DBZ has been heavily retconned in the upcoming DBS movie as it’s been revealed in the retconned version that a scientist named Kikono invented the scouter as well as the armor, spaceship, and spacepods. This retcon definitely bothers me quite a bit.

5. The Future Androids In Future Trunks’ Timeline (manga) - One of the most notorious retcons in Dragon Ball history actually happened in the Dragon Ball Z manga when manga readers discovered that the Future Androids of #19 & #20 were retconned to #17 and #18 while the future androids in the DBZ anime during The Future Trunks special and the very end of The Cell Saga were only seen as #17 & #18.

The Conclusion - Retconning original concepts of ideas can sometimes lead to fan backlash in ways that the writers wouldn’t even see coming. If the original concept works, then don’t change it.

By Kwame Shakir