I don't think Dragon Ball Z Abridged is "more accurate" or anything like that, but I do think that if they didn't want people elevating it above the original work they shouldn't have gone so hard on the serious parts. Like, the Cell Saga has a lot of scenes that are just fully dramatic with zero jokes. That pushes it into being both parody and a valid alternate dub, if we're going to speak in those terms. But members of TFS would say they don't want it thought of that way, and it's like, well, why did they make it that way then, right?
Very fair. I always get confused by that too. It’s like, why are you saying you don’t want ppl to think it’s better than the original when there were moments where you went out of your way to try and make it better than the original?
But I can kinda see where they’re coming from. When you make something for a fandom you love, you want it to be the best it can be, like fanfics. But when people start saying they like what you made more than the original work, it’s kinda infuriating. Like, ya, I wanted this to be really good, but this wouldn’t exist without what you just made fun of. So I can understand the annoyance TFS has sometimes. I don’t particularly like a lot of their opinions, but I at least respect their love for the series.
I think the real problem is how incessant the abridged fandom is, especially because most of it is made up of ppl who either haven’t watched the original DBZ, or have forgotten everything about it. (It’s really annoying when ppl make claims about dragon ball that are so obviously wrong, but at the same time so obviously something they learned from abridged, like Goku not needing to take his medicine being turned into Goku not wanting to take it)
Comedy series are often elevated by the small splices of drama they have, but I think the main issue is that most of the people who watched Abridged watched it as only a comedy series, instead of a parody series.
They also think the dramatic scenes elevate the entire series, which they don’t. They at most elevate a moment or an episode. It doesn’t retroactively make the series better (in the same way a lighthearted show switching to horror wouldn’t automatically make the show better).
I’ll be the first to say the dramatic scenes in abridged are great, but the issue is when the audience thinks these scenes are what make the abridged series better than the original, when the dramatic scenes the abridged series does have come directly from the original series. Android 16’s talk and Gohan’s ssj2 transformation chiefly. Those are literally just recreations of the original Dragon Ball Z moments, and thats a big reason as to why they are so impactful.
But anyway, ya, I totally see what you mean. I’ve gotten mad about it a few times too. It’s just overall so disheartening seeing people dunk on a show because they think the show they like is better, when the show they like wouldn’t exist without the show they just dunked on.