Manga/Dragon Ball

Piccolo called Vegeta a genius because he let his ki get absorbed by Android 19 so that Vegeta could know that they absorb ki, something that Vegeta already knew.

Oh right that happened.

I found Vegeta musing he expected a member of Frieza's race to be evil when Frost turned out to be Evil All Along hypocritical, if understandable. The Saiyans were close to if not outright Always Chaotic Evil (albeit for cultural and not inherent reasons), even if they did have some Punch-Clock Villain and Pet the Dog traits. If Frieza was a Benevolent Boss who liked the Saiyans they'd probably still be happily rampaging across the galaxy

It's especially weird when a counterpoint to that assumption is also on the opposing team in Cabba.

wait wait wait

Raditz is stronger than Kami?

Indeed he was. Last I remember, Kami had a powerlevel of 220, though I'm sure he got stronger by the time Piccolo absorbed him. Considering he was introduced right after the King Piccolo Saga ended, he was pretty much one of the strongest character at that point in time but still weaker than his evil half.

Edited by Rinsankajugin on Apr 28th 2024 at 7:23:31 AM

When you say Kami was weaker than his evil half, are you talking about Daimou, or Jr?

IIRC he was stronger than Piccolo Daimao, but weaker than Piccolo Jr.. He even says something to the effect of Daimao having always been the "weaker half".

It is kinda funny though, how at the the end of the Piccolo Jr. Saga, triple digit powerlevels were considered massive, but then came Raditz... And then the escalation got so drastic in such a short amount of time that most of the heroes ended up surpassing Raditz pretty quickly anyways.

Edited by Rinsankajugin on Apr 28th 2024 at 8:12:49 AM

I do find it funny that while Nappa and Vegeta outclass the fighters when they arrived, they managed to beat or match Raditz's power in the short amount of training. Maybe Raditz was just that lazy.

Edited by Ookamikun on Apr 28th 2024 at 9:48:10 PM

Digit power levels didn't exist...period.

Until Raditz showed up. They weren't any kind of deal.

...and Raditz didn't have much of a reaction Goku and Piccolo's respective numbers, he only freaked out about Gohan's since it was close to his.

Edited by randomness4 on Apr 28th 2024 at 9:52:02 AM

The reason Piccolo Jr was stronger than King Piccolo is because Piccolo Jr was created as a Warrior Clan Namekian while King Piccolo was a Dragon Clan Namekian (the Nameless Namekian was Dragon Clan, that's why Kami can make Dragon Balls).

Also,

Buu actually doesn't have infinite energy. You need to beat him up a lot, but he can get tired.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Apr 28th 2024 at 7:44:01 AM

True that, he does sleep a lot.

If you look at King Piccolo's fighting style, it's very unrefined. He never needed technique before, he could always just brute strength his way through any enemy. Goku needed an enemy with both power and skill to beat him. Thus, Jr.

And Jr. failed.

Hell, Raditz was destroying Goku and Piccolo together, and he (compared to the two of them) mostly had power without much technique.

Maybe that's why everyone caught up to (or in the case of Piccolo and Goku) surpassed him. Raditz was all smash and no style, and lacked any proper technique.

Isn't it lore that while Earthlings may be weak, their skills and techniques are among the best?

So Goku having trained on Earth would have that advantage over Raditz.

I'm not so sure about that.

Like, Ki sensing and hiding powers came from Namek I think.

Goku learned the Kaioken from King Kai, and Instant Transmission from aliens.

The humans did come up with their own stuff, but Word of God has said Tenshihan has Alien ancestry, and Yamcha and Krillin's techniques have never worked for them

I guess all Earthlings have going for them is that the smart ones can build robots that surpass Gods of Destruction.

The same Daizenshuu that said Tenshinhan has 3-Eye Tribe alien ancestry also includes him among the humans and says that Krillin is the strongest human. By the way.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Apr 28th 2024 at 9:54:34 AM

Oh yeah, the ki sensing was something they just developed off-screen right?

By the way, if you're on Tumblr, reblog Tobias Drake's posts. He's been COOKING with the analytical essays on Dragon Ball recently, mostly stuff we talked about here during his watch-through.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Apr 28th 2024 at 11:14:20 AM

What about those of us who don't use Tumblr?

I dunno. Make an account? Tumblr stops you and tells you to log in if you try to scroll too far logged out, but Tumblr is one of the few social media sites right now that's not completely terrible (it's still terrible, just not completely).

Here's his account.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Apr 28th 2024 at 11:21:24 AM

Oh hey, I recognize Bocaj on the suggested.

Yeah, I can't really see much Dragon Ball essays till I get locked out, and I'm not in the mood to try Tumblr.

Maybe next time. If I remember.

Tumblr is right to recommend me.