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I'm sure there are plenty who have viewed an arc in retrospect and believe they could've made it better. What arcs do you find could be vastly improved and how would you go about it?
I won't bother listing thoughts about DB, since everything I could say has already been said in Keedounan's thread about how one would fix the series.
A few examples of my own...
Dark Tournament (Yu Yu Hakusho) - Perhaps the biggest problem with it's arc is the tournament setting itself limiting it's creativity. It stretches a conflict several times it's necessary length with a lot of pointless characters (the only opponent who was plot relevant outside of Team Toguro was Suzuki), the excitement of wondering who will emerge victorious on both sides doesn't exist when it's made obvious from the start that Team Toguro was Team Urameshi's endgame and despite being a series of death battles, the only death in the main cast occurred in a battle outside of the tournament. Taking a page from Togashi's current work, having the conflict and matches decided in a manner similar to Heaven's Arena would make things far better in terms of both pacing and creativity. Team Toguro would still remain the endgame whilst removing the fake tension of the tournament backers outside of Sakyo believing their favoured team stood a chance, it would give the main cast far more breathing time to train and progress when waiting for their next match to be arranged and if facing an honourable opponent such as Chu or Jin, it would provide an opportunity for Team Urameshi to be able to suffer some defeats and even act as further resolve if the winning team were to be quickly stomped by Toguro soon after.
I could also talk about improving the just as (if not more) problematic Chapter Black Arc and the absolutely terrible Three Kings Arc, but the changes to improve them would have to be so major they may as well be completely different arcs.
Mellow/Near (Death Note) - Near said that he and Mellow weren't a match for L individually. This should have been the main factor to their utilisation and Light's defeat, seeing as how bringing in two detectives rather than a new L as Near became was the whole point in them existing. That said, Mellow and Near eventually working together and trapping Kira in a pincer strategy due to him not being aware there were two detectives would make for an excellent arc in the series, rather than Near making a contrived deduction that caused Light to lose several dozen IQ points and Mellow being reduced to a jobber.
Sasuke Retrieval Arc (Naruto) - First, kill off Neji and Choji. Their deaths would serve as showing the reality of shinobi conflict and neither played any major role in the plot thereafter. Secondly, have only Gaara show up to fight Kimimaro and not Lee. The damage Lee suffered from going beyond his limits should have remained permanent as it was a good way of subverting the Shonen misconception that you can keep breaking your limits. Even with Tsunade healing him, Lee should've been limited to no longer being able to fight. Finally and perhaps most importantly, have Naruto be forced to kill Sasuke. The remainder of the story had Sausageke acting like an irrational edgelord and Naruto acting like his desperate ex-boyfriend. Having Naruto being forced to kill him would not only be an impactful way of showing not all problems can be Talk no Jutsu'd, but also act as additional resolve to Naruto's desire to improve.
Dressrosa (One Piece) - Whilst it's hard to say what role Doflamingo will play in the later story, having Law kill him with Gamma Knife or Shambles would have overall been a far less messy conclusion than revealing Luffy had Gear 4th all along and never bothered using it, even when almost dying when attempting to destroy the Noah, plus not having Luffy steal the win and getting rid of a character's problem rather than allowing them to overcome their trial like in almost every arc would have been a breath of fresh air. Also, don't waste so much time on fodder fights and give Dragon's orders as the reason Sabo didn't get involved in Marineford rather than amnesia.
The same can be said for Fishman Island and Whole Cake Island, though both would require far too many changes to make good to the point of being alien to their actual selves.
Chimera Ant (Hunter X Hunter) - Unlike the other arcs I mentioned, this is an arc I really like, though it still has a few flaws that's removal could bump up the quality by a few notches. For one, have Killua overcome his fears during the Rammot fight through his own willpower rather than asspulling Illumi's needle as the reason for his fear. Secondly, provide some proper foreshadowing for both the Rose Bomb and Adult Gon far in advance. Finally, either remove Meruem's amnesia or have it be something that is quickly overcome, since this was mainly just there to stretch the length of the arc out unnecessarily. Removing these flaws would have made it a 10/10 in my eyes.
I won't bother listing thoughts about DB, since everything I could say has already been said in Keedounan's thread about how one would fix the series.
A few examples of my own...
Dark Tournament (Yu Yu Hakusho) - Perhaps the biggest problem with it's arc is the tournament setting itself limiting it's creativity. It stretches a conflict several times it's necessary length with a lot of pointless characters (the only opponent who was plot relevant outside of Team Toguro was Suzuki), the excitement of wondering who will emerge victorious on both sides doesn't exist when it's made obvious from the start that Team Toguro was Team Urameshi's endgame and despite being a series of death battles, the only death in the main cast occurred in a battle outside of the tournament. Taking a page from Togashi's current work, having the conflict and matches decided in a manner similar to Heaven's Arena would make things far better in terms of both pacing and creativity. Team Toguro would still remain the endgame whilst removing the fake tension of the tournament backers outside of Sakyo believing their favoured team stood a chance, it would give the main cast far more breathing time to train and progress when waiting for their next match to be arranged and if facing an honourable opponent such as Chu or Jin, it would provide an opportunity for Team Urameshi to be able to suffer some defeats and even act as further resolve if the winning team were to be quickly stomped by Toguro soon after.
I could also talk about improving the just as (if not more) problematic Chapter Black Arc and the absolutely terrible Three Kings Arc, but the changes to improve them would have to be so major they may as well be completely different arcs.
Mellow/Near (Death Note) - Near said that he and Mellow weren't a match for L individually. This should have been the main factor to their utilisation and Light's defeat, seeing as how bringing in two detectives rather than a new L as Near became was the whole point in them existing. That said, Mellow and Near eventually working together and trapping Kira in a pincer strategy due to him not being aware there were two detectives would make for an excellent arc in the series, rather than Near making a contrived deduction that caused Light to lose several dozen IQ points and Mellow being reduced to a jobber.
Sasuke Retrieval Arc (Naruto) - First, kill off Neji and Choji. Their deaths would serve as showing the reality of shinobi conflict and neither played any major role in the plot thereafter. Secondly, have only Gaara show up to fight Kimimaro and not Lee. The damage Lee suffered from going beyond his limits should have remained permanent as it was a good way of subverting the Shonen misconception that you can keep breaking your limits. Even with Tsunade healing him, Lee should've been limited to no longer being able to fight. Finally and perhaps most importantly, have Naruto be forced to kill Sasuke. The remainder of the story had Sausageke acting like an irrational edgelord and Naruto acting like his desperate ex-boyfriend. Having Naruto being forced to kill him would not only be an impactful way of showing not all problems can be Talk no Jutsu'd, but also act as additional resolve to Naruto's desire to improve.
Dressrosa (One Piece) - Whilst it's hard to say what role Doflamingo will play in the later story, having Law kill him with Gamma Knife or Shambles would have overall been a far less messy conclusion than revealing Luffy had Gear 4th all along and never bothered using it, even when almost dying when attempting to destroy the Noah, plus not having Luffy steal the win and getting rid of a character's problem rather than allowing them to overcome their trial like in almost every arc would have been a breath of fresh air. Also, don't waste so much time on fodder fights and give Dragon's orders as the reason Sabo didn't get involved in Marineford rather than amnesia.
The same can be said for Fishman Island and Whole Cake Island, though both would require far too many changes to make good to the point of being alien to their actual selves.
Chimera Ant (Hunter X Hunter) - Unlike the other arcs I mentioned, this is an arc I really like, though it still has a few flaws that's removal could bump up the quality by a few notches. For one, have Killua overcome his fears during the Rammot fight through his own willpower rather than asspulling Illumi's needle as the reason for his fear. Secondly, provide some proper foreshadowing for both the Rose Bomb and Adult Gon far in advance. Finally, either remove Meruem's amnesia or have it be something that is quickly overcome, since this was mainly just there to stretch the length of the arc out unnecessarily. Removing these flaws would have made it a 10/10 in my eyes.
