Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero launched with a roster of 182 characters. Playable fighters include Turles, Super Garlic Jr., Lord Slug, Android 13, Janemba, Tapion, Bojack, Broly, Cooler, Metal Cooler, and many many more.
However, it turns out that most of the villains that appear throughout the Dragon Ball Z movies aren’t actually canonical to the main timeline. Back in 2019, Dragon Ball University released a compilation that explains why almost all of the movies can’t happen (before Dragon Ball Z: Battle Gods, which ended up getting retconned and revised for Dragon Ball Super anyhow).
Starting with Garlic Jr., problems immediately arise as the plot effectively has it so that Goku must rescue his son, Gohan, from Garlic Jr. In order for this to happen, it would have to be before the arrival of Raditz to Earth, but this exposes the existence of Gohan to Bulma, Roshi, and Krillin. Despite this, they end up being incredibly shocked to learn that Goku has a son in the first episode of Dragon Ball Z.
The only logical explanation here is that the movies basically act as an alternate timeline of events to the series’ main story. The events of Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone, the movie in which Garlic Jr. debuts in, is theorized to happen at the same time as the first episode of Dragon Ball Z, but in a parallel universe.
Meanwhile, the events of The World’s Strongest, featuring Dr. Wheelo as the main antagonist, appears to happen after the battle with Nappa and Vegeta. However, Earth’s Dragon Balls and Piccolo both still appear to be around despite contradictions.
On the other hand, Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound, while likely still not canon to the main story, still feels like a plausible story that’s without major errors that would indicate otherwise. Similar things could be said of Dragon Ball Z: Cooler’s Revenge, but not Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler.
Check it all out below: