Headscratchers / Dragon Ball Filler

Red Ribbon Army/Mercenary Tao/General Blue Saga filler

• When the young Goku was getting visions from Corin's three water vessels, the past and present visions made perfect sense. The future vision, on the other hand, was mainly about Dragon Balls knocked around like billiards, and Goku getting attacked by giant centipedes. This isn't ringing any bells.
  • They were just being vague because they didn't know what was going to happen later in the anime.
  • Giant centipedes? As the giant centipedes in Dragon Ball GT?

King Piccolo Saga filler

• Did Kami Sama actually send young Goku back in time to Mutaito's school and all those other places, or was it imaginary? (There were several hints that it was real, but... why?)
  • Good question. I'd say it was sorta like Harry Potter meeting Dumbledore in The Deathly Hallows (sorry for bringing in non-franchise examples) in that it was in his head, but it was still real, in a sense
  • The whole sequence being imaginary is the only thing that makes sense. Not only do Young Roshi and Shen act exactly like they do in the present day, but Mutaito somehow managed to defeat Goku despite the fact that Goku should be too strong and fast for Mutaito to even see move, much less block his blows.

Saiyan Saga filler

• In the anime, why were Nappa and Vegeta coloured differently before arriving at Earth?
  • Probably because they were in space. The bug planet they landed on along the way had a different atmosphere and... um... maybe the colour of the sun was different...? I'm not too sure, but that would be my best guess.
  • The actual reason is due to Toei having to choose the color pallet themselves, simply because at that time neither Vegeta nor Nappa had been seen colored in the manga, their next appearance had their colors "fixed" Also of note is in Dragon Ball Kai, Toei went back and colored Vegeta's hair the correct color in that scene, though they left Nappa's armor color alone, so one can simply assume that between his first and second appearance he simply changed into a different colored suit of armor.

• When Goku was wished back after his first training with King Kai, in order to fight the saiyans, why did he waste so much time running down Snake Way again, when he could've just jumped off it into HFIL and taken that shortcut to King Yama's desk drawer again? He could've been back on Earth inside of an hour that way.
  • It's safe to say that HFIL is quite a huge place. Depending on where on snake way he drops, he might land in a different part and it might take exactly as long to get to the tunnel to Yama's desk. And once down there, how could he know where to go? HFIL isn't exactly full of friendly people. Anyway, there was no way Goku could be sure.
  • Because he would still had to travel a long distance to get back to the shortcut, in fact the Snake Way isn't a complete straight line, so he would had taken even longer just by trying to figure out were to go.

Frieza Saga filler

• When Goku's friends are training after they are killed, Kaio says that if they die now, nothing will happen, since they are already dead. Then Piccolo kills Chaotzu, and Chaotzu is fine. However, during the Buu saga, Goku says that if he dies while being already dead, he'll disappear. What?
  • It might be that a dead person killing another dead person has no effect while Buu, thanks to his dimension hopping powers, can kill with the whole existence erasure effect. That, or Retcon.
    • It's also possible that if you "die" in the Underworld you're okay, but if you come back to Earth and "die" somehow, you'll be erased.
    • Actually the Buu saga makes it clear that you can still "die" in the afterlife when Kid Buu shows up there and threatens the Z fighters in heaven, and the same rules apply. If you die again, you stop existing, so this is just a massive retcon caused by the anime writers jumping the gun a bit.
• Maybe it bothers me more than the others since I'm the only one who noticed this, but how is King Kai able to bring the dead Ginyu Force members if, in the manga and later in the anime (the japanese version anyway), King Kai says that Namek wasn't on his territory. And, if King Yenma works under King Kai, King Yenma can't bring them to King Kai's planet since they are not on his territory. This is why they needed to wish back Krillin's soul on earth since King Kai and Yenma can't do anything about it.

Garlic Jr. filler Saga

• This saga is one of the anime series' prime examples of Continuity Snarl. The fact that it even exists is a headscratcher (storyline-wise, not production-wise). Toei tried to cram it into the anime like it could possibly be canon, but it just doesn't fit. In this saga, Garlic Jr. comes back for revenge after his defeat in Dead Zone, the first of several non-canon movies. Now, the problem lies on how they handled the knowledge of Gohan's existence in said movie. In the anime, Goku introduces his son Gohan to his friends at the Kame House for the first time and literally about 4 minutes later, Raditz shows up and kidnaps him, right there in front of the Kame House. But in Dead Zone, they're all at the Kame House and already know who Gohan is, so it's literally impossible for Gohan to get kidnapped by Garlic's henchmen, be rescued, go back to the Kame House with his dad and friends, and then get kidnapped by Raditz. It's made even stranger when Icarus the dragon from the third movie The Tree of Might shows up in this saga and what's even worse, it's full of inconsistencies to the continuity of the anime, moreso than Dead Zone.
• Okay, Garlic Jr. is immortal. So what? Piccolo was able to out-fight Frieza's second form and put up a decent fight against his third. Just because he can't kill Garlic Jr. doesn't change the fact that he's far more powerful than Garlic is. Why can't Piccolo just karate-chop Garlic's head off and mount it on a wall somewhere? The head will still be alive, but that doesn't mean it's a threat to anybody.
  • He's a Namek, he'd just regenerate and besides Piccolo doesn't seem to be stronger than Garlic Jr.s second form. Certainly not by enough to deal with an opponent that he couldn't kill.
    • Garlic Junior isn't a Namekian, he's a demon from the Makyo Star.
  • Garlic is an alien from a comet. The passing of that comet near the spot he entered the dead zone super charged him and all the other aliens from that comet, making them roughly as powerful as Gohan, Krillin and Piccolo. When Gohan destroys the comet, he goes back to being weaker than Raditz
• Why did Garlic Jr. use the ONE MOVE that could backfire on him? All he had to do was literally not that and he might have ruled the world, even if he wasn't mounted on Piccolo's wall.
  • Because he wanted revenge and for people to suffer being in the Dead Zone just like his father did. Considering how the fight was going there was no reason not to take the time out to exact your revenge just so. The heroes only won because Gohan for whatever reason is immune to Garlic Jr.'s power.
• When Krillin and Gohan are searching for the Mermaid's Tear to give to Maron, they also come across a shipwreck loaded with all sorts of gold and jewelry, any piece of which would be enough to make them rich/wealthy. When they fail to take the Mermaid's Tear from the aquatic creatures guarding it, why didn't they just go back and collect the unguarded treasure from the ship instead? They didn't have to give Maron the Mermaid's Tear, nor did Krillin even promise to give her anything in particular. If he just collected the treasure from the shipwreck, he would've wowed his girlfriend, made himself happy knowing that he had given something special to give her, he could easily split the treasure with Gohan and his other friends, and the fish would be able to keep the Mermaid's Tear to themselves; All parties would be happy.

Cell Saga filler

• Okay, so Goku and Gohan are training in the Room of Spirit and Time and Gohan is trying to reach the level of Super Saiyan by way of "pain from loss". When Goku says, "Imagine Cell killing us all." Gohan says he has no idea what Cell looks like. That's all fine and good...right when we get into Gohan's nightmare of Cell killing his mother and Piccolo. What bugs me? If Gohan didn't know what Cell looked like, then how was he able to picture Cell exactly how we know him? Did Goku describe/draw Cell for Gohan? Was this just for our conviences so we wouldn't be confused?
  • Saiyans do seem to have a degree of psychic powers, even in the manga (Goku reading Krillin's mind on Namek). I think this can explain how his subconcious was able to construct an image of Cell.

• During the filler before the Cell Saga, Chichi has Goku learn to drive so he can take her shopping. Then who's driving the flying car when Chichi drops Gohan off at Master Roshi's house before they take off to go to Namek?
  • It's not just for the shopping, it's so Goku does something and isn't a poster boy for the NEETs.
    • IIRC he's shown driving several times in the manga, so he probably got the license long before. The real question is why he and his family don't just fly. Maybe the neighbors will talk.
    • The general impression you get from any of her scenes, is that Chichi herself wants her family life to be as "normal" as possible.
    • Can Chichi even use ki - much less fly? as far as I can tell she's the female Yajirobe.
    • Probably not, but if Videl can learn in a few days then so can Chichi.
    • Teaching Chichi to fly would be a bit pointless, everybody in her family can carry her with ease. Even though it's never stated I thought the reason Goku's DL was important was because shopping. Most DBZ characters don't have any telekinesis. Goku might be able to carry the entire supermarket back to his house but assuming you didn't want your eggs broken and your cans crushed how well would Goku fare with a dozen bags of groceries?
    • Well if he didn't eat all the groceries first, there's always Instant Transmission.

Buu Saga filler

• In Hell, why is Dr. Gero allowed to keep his Android 20 body? Frieza used to be a cyborg and his natural body was restored, but why not Gero's natural body?
  • Maybe Gero just created his Android body to look EXACTLY the same as his Human body
  • Even the glass view of his brain?
  • I've always imagined that Gero, for some reason best known to him, re-converted himself in Hell.
    • Considering GT (I know, I know) shows him building Hell Fighter 17 there are apparently tools in hell and Gero would have good reason to re-convert himself in Hell. Natural Gero is probably at best a little stronger than Bulma, as an Android he seems to be somewhere around Frieza's power level which means that even by the time the Buu Saga ends Android Gero is still fairly high on Hell's picking order, with his only confirmed superior being Cell. As a human. It's also possible that Frieza choose to return to his natural body.
  • Likely out-of-universe explanation: They wanted Freeza to be in his natural form because it's his most recognizable/iconic appearance. Same reason why Dr Gero his still an android.

Uncategorised

• There is a particular Filler episode in the Anime where Chichi hires a Private Tutor for Gohan - who begins to continuously beat him. Was that sort of thing even remotely legal in Japan when the episode was first aired?
  • The tutor is a bad guy. Chichi kicks his ass when she finds out about it. His beating Gohan isn't supposed to be a good or acceptable thing at all.
  • A better question is why the hell is the tutor even remotely capable of hurting Gohan? At this point he's been shown to be able to fight Saiyan warriors, Freeza's mooks and even do some damage to Form 3 Freeza. Gohan could probably just nudge the tutor and send him flying.
  • I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, but if a Saiyan, or any other warrior, have their guard down, they're vulnerable to attacks. Case in point, Gohan wasn't in 'fight mode' like he was with the Saiyans, Frieza's mooks, and Frieza himself. He wasn't expecting any attack coming his way when he's in his own home studying. As for why Gohan didn't send his tutor flying? Well, he probably didn't want to upset his mother by attacking his tutor.
    • He could easily have entered fight mode however and mostly ignored the tutor. Since nobody uses conventional weapons in DBZ it's hard to gauge for sure but given Raditz could catch bullets I think post Frieza saga Gohan could probably just ignore small arms fire and a pathetic human with a ruler? At worst after the first blow it should have been something like a man trying to break down a bunker with a broomstick.
  • Wait, I thought he was beating Gohan with a whip? In any event, yes logically Gohan would simply enter a 'passive' form of fight-mode and not be able to feel anything the tutor does to him. I'd chalk this up as drama for drama's sake. What would make us hate the tutor more? Him beating Gohan and the kid doesn't even register it? Or him beating Gohan and the kid shows clear pain and anger from the whole ordeal?
• Why couldn't Chichi just get a license herself if she wanted to drive around instead of making Goku and Piccolo do it? She does realize she is allowed to drive, right?
  • She probably could, but that's kind of the joke. That whole episode runs on Rule of Funny.
  • She clearly wants Goku to be more a "normal" human being. Normal people drive.
• Why are the Dragonballs inert for one year after use? At first I assumed that one year was simply the amount of time and most likely an estimate anyway. However Namek apparently either has a much faster orbit than Earth (and how fast you orbit your local star is actually important. In which case I would highly recommend making Dragonballs on planets with short orbits and keeping them on hand) or they take a year to recharge because Kami said so and I wonder why Dende didn't make the balls more similar to the ones he grew up with. He made them more powerful but left the one year rule in place.
  • Perhaps that was a consequence of making them more powerful- keeping the one-year rule in place.
    • The issue here is that one year is clearly arbitrary. The Namekian balls recharge after six months because that's how long a Namekian year lasts apparently. That was true even when the Dragon Balls of Namek were reactivated on Earth after Guru passed. So what, if anything, is it actually tied to?
    • It was more likely that it was simply a cooldown/recharge period for the dragon balls themselves. Sure, they are mystical artefacts, but they don't have limiteless power to be used over and over in the span of a week. They need time to regain the energy, and their stone-ball form is a way to enforce that. It takes a year for the Earth Dragon Balls to recharge, the Namekian Dragon Balls were simply more power-efficient.
  • It's just a rule Kami imposes on them. He allowed an exception after King Piccolo was defeated so his victims could be revived immediately, and again after he was brought back to life during the Namek saga. So if there was ever any urgency to use the Dragon Balls again within the year there's precedent for it being possible.
• Arale is a small robot built by a half-competent inventor in a small village for no reason other than building an android as human-like as possible. Super strength was never a consideration. And yet, going by Dragon Ball Super filler, she's far more powerful than Cell, who was created by the Red Ribbon Army's top scientist from the data of many of the world's greatest fighters to be the ultimate battle robot, and could mop the floor with galactic threats like Frieza. What. Maybe the RRA should have hired Senbei Norimaki, seeing how he seemingly can build almighty robots without even trying.
  • This is explained in the Super episode where she fights Vegeta: she is a Gag Manga character. The conventional rules do not apply to her.