I dunno, never seen it.
I hope they adapt Broly first. It's got tons of stuff that could be expanded. Like, you could have almost a full episode of Goku trying to go Ultra Instinct only to fail and go Blue instead! (But seriously, I want more Bardock and maybe complete the Fatherhood theme the Broly movie had going for it for a while).
That would be dope, but i'm afraid they will go with the Moro arc anyway -_-
I didn't think the backstory itself was great, but I appreciated some contextualization which isn't usual for DB and was kinda refreshing. Just knowing where he was coming from emotionally added something DB antagonists have never really had.
Jiren was better for a few minutes in the manga where he basically had Superman's personality (initially refusing to participate in the tournament due to not wanting to destroy other universes), and then they added the "backstory".
Out of universe, although he has never said it, Toriyama clearly regrets pushing those two as relevant fighters in the Buu Saga sidelining the older cast for no reason. In universe, there are other fighters so they don't need to push them to the frontlines, they've also been portraying them as too reckless or unskilled to really be part of the main battles.
A tie with some guy who was beating up Gohan and Piccolo (although that entire episode was horribly written).
dragonballworld.fandom.com
I don't think there's any wide modern popularity poll, but here are some older ones.
Dragon Ball Popularity Polls
Results for this poll were given in Weekly Shonen Jump 1993 Issue No. 12 with Chapter 411. Son Gohan – 51,921 votes Son Goku – 51,256 votes Trunks – 29,627 votes Vegeta – 17,383 votes Piccolo – 9,454 votes Kulilin – 7,438 votes Mr. Satan – 1,892 votes Cell – 1,769 votes Bulma – 1,135 votes Dende...
Goten and Trunks did fine (especially Trunks, although I'm pretty sure they were adding up both Trunks together).
As for why I think it's all Toriyama? Look at the early marketing for Super. Goten and Trunks were pushed as part of the main cast by Toei's promotional material. They also were heavily featured in Toei original episodes/additional scenes, even getting inserted into RoF and getting a multi-parter original story. But that all slowly faded throughout when it became more and more clear Toriyama had no interest in them for his actual stories.
By the time of the ToP, they clearly gave up, getting much less presence in the new opening, little presence in marketing material and the anime itself showed them falling on their backs while kicking (basically, presenting them as completely unskilled fighters).
I think the thing is more that while Bulma and Chichi don't want them getting hurt, the rest don't think they're strong enough to do anything unless they're fused, and as Gotenks they're a liability due to his cockiness.
Hopefully. It'd be great especially after GT fucked Pan over. Super has been mentioned more than I'd ever expect them to mention him, even the manga's last chapter, which I have mixed feelings on Uub being involved in that chapter, but it's definitely interesting that he's being brought up so much.
