Dragon Ball/Headscratchers/General


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General questions

 * How the bloody hell can regular humans see the swift movements of the cast? It's very noticeable that the characters can move at such speed that they can a rock-paper-scissors game without people noticing; and that was from the original Dragonball manga, plus character after them are WAY faster. But in Z, they see punches, kicks, etc, that move several times the speed of sound, how does that work?


 * Ok, how come while the characters are getting stronger by millions of times over the course of the series, the ki blasts aren't noticeably bigger, except for energy balls and attacks specifically meant for Earthshattering Kaboom. I mean Vegeto's one handed Kamehameha wasn't big, but it roasted Buu so much that he couldn't regenerate and it was incredibly luminous.
 * They are focusing their power as much as they can because that's what's most effective. Think of ki like weaponized water (work with me) no matter how much water you have available you still want it coming out in as tight a pattern as possible if you want it to hurt someone. Dumping an entire pool of water ontop of someone doesn't have quite the same effect as a fire hose even if the amounts of water are the same.


 * Chao Tzu and Goku are both children in Dragon Ball. In DBZ Chao Tzu is still a child when Goku has gone on to have a son.
 * Dude's either a midget or some magical being that ages slowly. Note that his close friend Tien didn't seem to age much, either, and neither of them exactly match the standard human phenotype- Chao Tzu looks like a clown, and Tien's a Triclops.
 * Chiaotzu is a Chinese mythical being, I forget what it's called but it's like a zombie crossed with a vampire. There's also a Dragon Ball feature length adventure that implies he's a weird king with Tien as his bodyguard, but it's not quite canon. "Not the standard human phenotype" doesn't count for much in the Dragon Ball world, where aliens, animals, and mythical beasts rarely have any problems living, conversing, and breeding with humans.
 * Doesn't imply; him being an Emperor plays a noticable part of the movie.
 * The mythical being you're thinking of is a Jiang Shi, aka Hopping Vampire.


 * Why didn't occur to Goku to teach the Instant Transmission technique to any of his allies?
 * It annoys me more that Goku or King Kai never bothered teaching anyone else the kaioken technique. Maybe the humans would have been still too weak, but Piccolo would have probably been almost as strong as the strongest characters during the Cell Saga at least. Was Perfect Cell really that much more than 20 times as strong as Piccolo? Also, Kaioken just looks plain cooler, yes, cooler than super saiyan even.
 * During the Frieza fight, King Kai points out that Goku "has been using the Kaioken the entire time." It just wasn't shown any more. It's entirely possible that the other Z fighters actually were taught the technique, and WERE using it. They just never state it explicitly. This effect actually happens with other moves, too. The human ability to "sense chi" is something that Goku spent months/years learning from Mr. Popo. However, once he did learn it, it became a common ability for anybody that knew Goku. Even Vegeta was able to learn it with zero actual study.
 * Apparently, they might all know it after all. At least in Kai, when Piccolo is fighting Android 20, he says that all of them have learned to amplify their base energy in short bursts to give their strikes some extra kick.


 * Yamcha has eaten senzu beans at least once in the series. How come he still has scars on his face? After all, these very senzu beans are capable of healing broken necks (Gohan) and arms (Vegeta).
 * Because the scar tissue is old and no longer technically a "wound". If he ate the bean when he got the injury in the first place, it'd be a different story. Same basic reason the beans don't cause saiyans to regenerate lost tails.
 * Then why does Future Trunks tell Future Gohan (in their side story) that if only they had senzu they could heal his missing arm?
 * Because Future Trunks is somewhat of an idiot?
 * Then Future Gohan must be an idiot too, because he doesn't disagree.
 * The first answer is the correct one - Future Gohan's injury was mere hours old at this point. Yamcha had these scars from when he was a very young man. As a side point it actually has a basis in real world medicine - fresh wounds are far easier to repair then a semi-healed one.
 * It's not that it would regrow a missing arm; it's that they wouldn't have had to amputate it if they had had any senzu beans left.
 * Speaking of which, why the hell didn't Bulma just build him a replacement arm?
 * You really have to wonder how effective and/or useful that would have been considering the cyborgs that took his arm (not to mention Gohan himself) could've probably rendered it akin to torn tissue paper with little effort. He'd have it for five minutes, max, before it gets scrapped. Sure, it works for a guy like Tao, but Alter-Future Gohan and the Androids...whole other league.
 * Very good points about how useless a Tao style bionic arm would be in combat but two things occur to me. 1) Given Bulma's extensive technical abiity (shes smart enough to build a time machine) why hasn't she yet managed to copy a Gero style arm? Gohan would only need a basic copy in order to help him block attacks. 2) Even in an post-apocalyptic hellhole, an arm has other functions besides fighting. General things like eating, writing, cleaning... all of which he must logically be doing in between his battles.
 * Because they thought it was cooler if Gohan had one arm even though, logically, Bulma could've given him an arm that wouldn't have slowed him down.
 * In a similar vein to the Yamcha example above, during the run of GT Gohan dons a pair of glasses. This completely baffles me in a universe in which Dende, Majin Buu and the beans exist that Gohan should require any form of corrective eyewear. Unless he has taken a leaf out of the Tenth Doctor's book and has decided to wear a pair of brainy specs, the only reasonable conclusion I can see is that beyond healing fresh injuries restoring Ki, the Senzu are actually quite overrated - unless it's yet another GT plot hole of course.
 * He first dons the glasses at the end of DBZ and I always assumed he put them on just to look brainy, not because he actually needs it.
 * As a teenager, Gohan had eagle eyes- he was able to see that Hercule was holding a dog from thousands of feet in the air. Either the glasses are completely absurd, or as he aged, his eyesight drifted closer to that of a normal human: still extremely sharp by human standards, but deteriorating considerably from his ability to spot a puppy from a mile away.


 * Why were so many heroes and villains afraid that they would die if the planet they were standing on blew up? I mean, Vegeta and Nappa had the ability to destroy planets at the very beginning of DBZ and Goku was able to survive their blasts and it stands to reason that a planet that can be destroyed by a relatively weak ki blast, then the planet's explosion couldn't produce much more energy than it took to create the blast to cause a self destruct in the first place. And they never mentioned fear of being unable to breath in space, it was always the fear that the explosion would kill them.
 * This is stated by Frieza in the Original Language Anime; essentially that he would destroy the planet because Goku wouldn't be able to breathe in space, but Frieza could.
 * He also said it in the English dub.
 * He also said in the original Japanese manga, so it's canon.
 * Vegeta was therefore committing an almost suicidal action when he tried to blow up Earth. Shows just how off the rocker he gets when he finds he's outclassed.
 * Not necessarily. If Frieza, who was much, much stronger than Vegeta at that point had to wait five minutes for his blast to destroy Namek, Vegeta's would have likely taken even longer, which would give him time to get off the planet and leave everyone else to die.
 * In Frieza's case, he was in his final form (and each of his forms was explicitly stated to have less emotional control of itself than his original) and (according to Goku) wanted to fight Goku (more or less) fair and square, so he subconsciously limited the area of detonation in his attack to just nuke the core rather than the planet (Goku deliberately did a similar thing with his Genki-Dama, which he was afraid would destroy Namek if he couldn't control it), which is why there was a countdown at all. Goku even pointed out that if he really wanted to nuke the planet, there was nothing even SSJ Goku could have done to keep Frieza from just firing another blast straight down and finishing the job. My guess is that Vegeta can hold his breath for long enough for his ship to come find him. Goku's shown pretty good lung capacity much earlier in the series, and Vegeta subsequently stays underwater for many minutes while escaping from Frieza's base.
 * Surviving in deep space isn't just a matter of holding your breath, though.
 * The very first scene of the first episode(of Kai at least) was Bardok,, in Outer Space yelling at Frieza. Vegeta and Nappa are shown in Outer Space at least once(although thay may have been filler). I'm willing to bet that Goku could survive in space after Namek blew, however Goku has never had to test that ability and knows very little about his people. Frieza was just bluffing when he implied that Goku wouldn't have to cause him to panic.
 * For the last time, everything about Bardok apart from the fact that he existed and that he looked like Goku is filler. Popular, well-liked, well-known filler, but filler nevertheless.
 * The being alive in space part was made canon by his new Mini Manga.
 * What Mini Manga? If you're talking about the "Episode Bardock" thing, it wasn't really done by Toriyama. It was done by Ooishi Naho, with Toriyama as an 'advisor', which basically means he did nothing. I don't count it as canon.
 * But everyone knows that Goku was able to travel to the moon using only his power pole, which is not nearly as fast as the DBZ flying. Goku has spent quite a bit of time without atmosphere.
 * I don't think Sayians can actually survive in space longer than a moment or two. That's how long Goku would have been in space itself to drop off the Rabbit Gang and that story seems to indicate that the Dragon World moon has an atmosphere. Bardock was probably on the outer edges of Planet Vegeta's atmosphere; technically in space but just barely within the protection of the planet. Vegeta and Nappa were hovering near their space pods which were most likely casting an artificial atmospheric bubble.


 * Was it ever explained exactly why Kami created the Dragon Balls? Or does Toriyama want us to not think about it too much?
 * To grant the people of Earth's wishes of course!
 * I mean the real reason, of course.
 * Because the original unseparated guy wanted all the power that came with ruling the world, and to do that, 1) he had do all sorts of stuff like generally stay at the tower and not lord his power over the humans, and 2) after he split, Kami wanted to be helpful.
 * I always thought that after the massive genocide and disaster that King Piccolo's reign caused, Kami created the Dragon Balls to bring hope.
 * He wanted people to journey for them, they were supposed to be very hard to locate, but not impossible; so as to give people hope in even the darkest of times. Unfortunately, Bulma's dragon radar arguably made the Dragon Balls nothing more than a simple Reset Button; greatly cheapening their intended purpose as a grand symbol for hope. Whether or not you consider GT to be canon, you have to admit that the idea behind the Shadow Dragon Saga fit well into the canon, at least on a fundamental level (the dragon balls were being constantly abused and there were consequences due to that abuse.)
 * Yeah, according to his explanation after the battle against Piccolo Jr, the Dragon Balls were meant to grant a miracle to a hero diligent enough to gather them all, presumably after an entire lifetime of searching.
 * He created them as an unknowing imitation of the original Namekian Dragon Balls. Something of a racial memory, perhaps.


 * If Shenron can't do anything that's beyond Kami's abilities, why didn't Kami just resurrect everybody instead of having to search for the Dragon Balls every time? Hell, why didn't he render Goku (or failing that, HIMSELF) immortal?
 * So A) nobody ever wishes themselves immortal in DBZ, so we don't even know if the dragon can actually grant that wish. Piccolo grants himself youth, so maybe eternal youth is within the dragon's capabilities, but not preventing you from death in battle. But, then again, Roshi seems to live forever (he might have drunk some magic water at some point), too, so it is not as useful as you'd think. B) Just because something is within Kami's power, doesn't mean he has the skills to do it. Remember, it is magic!
 * At one point it's stated that Roshi has drunk from the Fountain of Youth AND at one time he had access to the legendary Phoenix which was apparently capable of granting immortality(This was his original reward for Goku before he decided on giving him the Flying Nimbus)
 * Garlic Jr actually does wish for immortality. Which just means the heroes shove him into The Dead Zone for all eternity. Besides, most in the DBZverseeven think about immortality less in terms of "Will never die" and more "Unkillable". Once you're strong enough to kick God's ass, living forever might seem to hold less allure.
 * Garlic Jr. Was this just in the movie or in the anime filler? Either way, not strictly canon. Regardless, I think the original query is just outside the dragon's powers -- and Kami cannot grant all sorts of wishes, no more than you can play video games on your laptop's battery. Kami is the source of the Dragon's power, that doesn't mean he has all the dragon's skills.
 * Also, Kami probably wouldn't have done it, because, outside the Dragon Balls, he doesn't like to specifically interfere with Earth. Remember, the Namek Dragon barely ever used his resurrection abilities because the Nameks saw death as natural, and it wasn't until someone started a genocidal campaign against them that they considered using it. As for rendering Goku immortal, at the end of Dragon Ball Goku specifically says he doesn't want Kami to do anything like that to him, and, as for himself... well, perhaps that's breaking the rules.
 * Yeah, I'd say for the Guardian of Earth, making someone immortal would be a very dangerous and unguardianly thing to do. However, like you mentioned, Goku had the opportunity to become the guardian at one point, which he turned down.
 * Rou-Dai-Kaioushin, the most ancient and wise of all of the DB-verse's Gods considers the Dragon Balls the equivalent of cosmic cheat codes, so presumably they allow a God's strength to be used to fuel abilities that the Gods themselves do not inherently possess.
 * I always figured it was something like the Dragon Balls were a rechargeable reflection of Kami's maximum potential. Like a young Kami in his prime using the full extent of his power would be able to do something like resurrect everyone on Earth or grant immortality to a person, but at the cost of his own life. Whereas the Dragon Balls are capable of doing the same with the only consequence being a 1 year recharging period.


 * The Saiyan's Zenkai ability to become stronger after a fight seems to be at first just noticeably significant, but then it becomes ridiculously exponential when their base power is close to the level where they can go Super Saiyan. Goku, Gohan and Vegeta get outrageous increases in power close to that point. Goku's power as per the Daizhenshuu guides went from 90,000 base to over 3,000,0000 after that healing following his fight with Ginyu, which is a 33 fold increase! However after crossing Super Saiyan, it seems to just fade away. By the time they come to the point where they've mastered Super Saiyan, it has no noticeable effect, expect a sudden twist with Cell, whose power somehow reached close to Super Saiyan 2. Just how can that be explained?
 * Power levels are bulls***!


 * Why do the humans refuse to try and keep up with the Saiyans? After just a few weeks training with King Kai they are stronger than Goku was after a year of the same training. Can you imagine what would have happened if they'd thought like Vegeta and said screw thousands of years of tradition and trained with technology?
 * Yamcha did try the gravity chamber and it almost killed him. Also, I wouldn't say they became stronger than Goku, just stronger than the Ginyu Force, and they still had some difficulty with that. Goku took the Ginyu Force down so easily he was surprised.
 * That's because Yamcha tried the gravity chamber at the same setting Vegeta was using (one that nearly crippled him when he first tried it), rather than starting from scratch.
 * Exactly he started at 100 or 300 times gravity instead of ten or twenty. If he'd gone through the steps it would have worked. And they were clearly stronger than Goku. Goku after training with King Kai could barely stand up to Vegeta. Several beatings and healings later Vegeta could not beat Recoom. The three of them beat four of the Ginyu Force without much difficulty. So clearly each of them was stronger then Vegeta had been on earth. And that was after a couple of weeks of training with King Kai not over a year. Humans couldn't keep up because they didn't try. Gravity training works.
 * Problem is; it always comes down to the same thing - humans can't transform. Then human Z Fighters were able to keep up with Goku and Vegeta during the Saiyan and Namek saga's but once they learnt Super Saiyan (for reference it multiplies their base power by 50) Yamcha, Krillin and Tien were never going to be able to fight equally. Theoretically the only two ways they could have potentially corrected this imbalance would be to A) train their bodies to sustain a Kaioken x50; with the problem that the Kaioken techique doesn't last as long as Super Saiyan or B) copy Master Roshi's ability to double in size; which whilst no doubt effective (it endowed Roshi the abilty to destroy the moon) it would have the same disadvantages of a Super Saiyan Grade 3 - namely it would reduce your speed dramatically.
 * The humans weren't even close in the Saiyan and Namek arcs to Goku and Vegeta, and there's no way they could even keep up with their base forms, let alone transformations. Goku on Namek had a power level of 3,000,000 and it is implied he went on to raise his base power level above Freeza's 120,000,000 by the Boo saga. The humans had power levels below 2,000 in the Saiyan saga, they had absolutely no chance at keeping up, no matter what they could have tried.
 * Humans vs Ginyu force was filler.
 * True, but there is at least something to be said about humans that is not filler. Consider this: after Goku beats Piccolo Daimao, he goes to train under Kami. After a whole three years of intense training, and then another five years where he must have at least not gone down in power, he has enough strength to... get easily splatted into a wall by Radish. Don't forget that Radish was said by Nappa to be about as strong as a Saibaman (poor guy). Now to the humans: when Bulma measures their power levels, we know they are far weaker than Goku or Piccolo. Even then, a single year (or even less) of training under Kami is enough to make them stronger than the Saibamen. I know it had to be done for the sake of the story, but it makes Goku's advancements seem a bit slow in perspective, and it makes the humans look pretty capable overall. Thus, we can only wonder just how strong they did get under King Kai. Tenshinhan is indeed able to somewhat keep Imperfect Cell at bay, after all.
 * It appears that the humans can in fact train with better results than even the Saiyans on a normal to normal basis, but what kills their chances is that they just don't have anything equivalent to Super Saiyan modes to ascend to or the remarkable healing ability.
 * The first case isn't just Kami's training, and not the same training Goku got. They got more advanced training, and did their own training afterwards. Even then, they developed at a pace they never had before, it was entirely plot driven. As was Tenshinhan holding down Semi-Perfect Cell, it was a clear example of Strong as They Need to Be seeing as one kick from Android 17 earlier was enough to take him out.
 * I think this is a major discrepancy. Also consider the idea that after fusing with Namek's strongest fighter, Piccolo only had enough strength to keep Frieza's 2nd form at bay, yet after fusing with Kami, who's something like 40 times weaker than Nail (assuming power levels aren't completely bullshit), he becomes stronger than a Super Saiyan. Sometimes the relative strengths of characters are just messed up.
 * Maybe that was because of the Fusion multiplier.
 * I think this deserves some elaboration. Humans can’t match Saiyans in power simply due to genetics. Starting with the latter’s so called “Zenkai Power”. Basically, every time a Saiyan recovers from a serious beating they get a large power up. Both, Goku and Vegeta, exploit this trait during the Namek Arc. Second, all the transformations in Super Saiyan, Full Power, SSJ II, SSJ III and whatnot. And third, the fact that human/saiyan hybrids are especially powerful. In the long run, Humans will always lose no matter the training.The whole thing with Ten Shin Han and Cell is not Strong as They Need to Be but rather Weak but Skilled. You see, techniques can dramatically increase the user’s “Battle Power”. This was very present in the early chapters and is the main reason Goku was able to take on Vegeta; the Kaioh Ken gives him a considerable powerboost at the cost of his body wearing faster and the Genki-Dama simply uses energy from another source. Finally, back then when The Elder Namekian read Krillin’s mind he identified Piccolo as the son of Kattatsu, a member of the dragon clan, and a prodigious with amazing potential…that got lowered severely when he split in two. This means Piccolo’s fusion with Kami goes beyond fusing with some guy to get more power; it’s basically becoming a complete being once again.
 * None of which changes the simple fact that other than on failed experiment by Yamcha the humans in particular but charachters in general have seen the results of training under extreme gravity or with a magical god putting ten ton donuts on your arms and yet they still decide to train under waterfalls. Given just how quickly the main cast got over the Saiyan and Frieza arcs (Raditz was supposedly by far the weakest named charachter in Frieza's army. By the time they reach Namek Krillan and Gohan are able to give Guldo, presumably in the top ten most powerful beings in the universe a good run for his money. Maybe the lack of transformations really is that crippling that they truly couldn't keep up but the point is they clearly aren't trying.
 * Gurdo was the weakest member of the team, you know; to the point Krillin wondered what he was doing there. The key word here is time, you see. Even if the humans trained with the same methods they would not develop their strength as fast as the Saiyans. Look at Piccolo, for example, who managed to surpass the power of the Super Saiyan for a short time by fusing with Kami only to quickly fall behind when new transformation stages were revealed. Last but not least, remember that Saiyans have greater longevity than humans.


 * Yamcha's defeatism bugs me. In the original Dragon Ball and early Z series he loved fighting to the extent he would devote months to constant training and in Anime filler started a fight with an entire baseball team for fun. Come the end of Z, despite his previous joy of fighting reaching near Saiyan levels, he had completely given up. Now the accepted fan theory is that he became genre savvy enough to realize he could never surpass the Super Saiyan's. 1) This never stopped Krillin from enjoying himself at the 25th World Martial Arts tournament, despite knowing he didn't stand a chance against Goku and Vegeta and despite Krillin never really having the same eagerness to fight Yamcha did. Neither did this stop Tien from training day and night to the point he could avoid Buu's Human Extinction Attack. 2) In real life how many martial artists are up to the standard of Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris? 5% maybe? doesn't stop the other 95% entering tournaments for competition, fun and general fitness does it? So here we have a situation where Yamcha, the strongest human in the world barring Tien and Krillin, who would almost certainly have won every single one of those Tournaments where Hercule was the only Z-Fighter competing - pathetically fizzling out for no adequate reason whatsoever.
 * I couldn't say why he's lazy when alive, but when Buu kills him and he goes to the afterlife, he starts training intently again, to the point of amazing even Krillin.
 * That was filler thrown in to please Yamcha fan, it never happened in the manga.
 * It bug me as well because even if Yamcha no longer wanted to fight super powered villains after his close brush with death during the Android sagas, he could still train and at least win the Budokai Tenkaichi tournaments barring no unusually powerful opponent appearing where he has no chance at winning (he's had bad luck at the early tournaments with Roshi posing as Jackie Chun, Tien, and Kami posing as "Hero" ). Yamcha could have been the "Champion of Earth" and not Mr Satan if he stayed competing. Yamcha is easily stronger than Mr Satan who has no grasp of Ki control and attacks. So his defeatist attitude really does suck.
 * And pray tell what would he achieve by becoming "champion of the earth"? Wealth? Fame? A city with his name? And when the next superpowered being comes to threaten the earth and the people call him for help he'll look down and whisper "no"? A lot of people can enjoy martial arts without having to enter a tournament or even sparring, you know. Yamcha is not looking to become the strongest like Goku and Vegeta nor does his life revolve around martial arts like Tenshinhan and Chaoz. He’s just a normal guy with other aspirations like Krillin. He’s already very powerful and doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody; moreover he’s more than willing to jump to action despite his limitations if it is for a good cause. Hardly the definition of “defeatist”.
 * For one, wealth. Yamcha once cancelled a date with Bulma for being broke. Or just competing for the fun of it since he did love the martial arts. only reason I would see him not bothering if he believed he had too much of an unfair advantage against the "normal" competitors. He also could inspire the people of Earth just as Mr Satan did only he knows the real heroes very well. While things worked out for everyone else, Yamcha has nothing to show for all his training as The Everyman.
 * Admitedly its possible that that was before he became a successful career in sports but it still makes no sense for Yamcha to give up fighting considering how much he loved it. Its said in Dragon Ball he's always wanted to win the World Martial Arts Tournament and we're shown many times that Yamcha greatly enjoys just competing and training, so it makes little sense for him to give up fighting or the Martial Arts tournaments.
 * That always used to bother me too until I has a stroke of Fridge Brilliance and worked out the exact moment that he would have come to that decision - when he was defeated by Android 19. He had the same three year warning as everyone else, was trained by the world's greatest martial arts masters Roshi and Kami, was there at every major battle the Z Fighters have ever had, was pumped, determined... and was effortlessly defeated without even a punch thrown. Now he Might have been able to get over that setback If mere hours later he wasn't forced to sit back and watch as his best friend and rival Tien was able to hold off Semi-Perfect Cell with the Tri-Beam; a fighter infinitesimally stronger than the minor Androids he had lost so easily to beforehand. That, combined with all his other crippling defeats, was finally enough to tip him over the edge and hang up his trademarked orange suit. With that knowledge in hand, Yamcha's words to Goku just prior to the Cell Games "I will come but I won't fight" take on a whole new meaning.
 * Tenshinhan wasn't even Yamcha's friend, let alone best friend. Tenshinhan's only friend is Chiaotzu. Also, the two were never rivals, they only had one battle against each other and that was their first meeting. Also, I hope you mean Semi-Perfect Cell is the "fighter infinitesimally stronger than the minor Androids", because Tenshinhan was obviously much weaker than the Androids, like Yamcha.
 * While Tenshinan and Yamcha aren't best friends, they are shown to be friends in the series and yeah they were rivals. Anyway Tenshinan was the strongest of the Earthlings for most of the series and Neo Tri-beam is one of(or the) strongest attack in the series, and seeing the strongest of them only stall Semi-Perfect with his strongest attack(using up his lifeforce in the process) must've been disheartening to the other Human fighters. This would explain why he would give up helping fight on the Front lines but does not in anyway explain why Yamcha gave up Martial Arts.
 * And who said he gave up martial arts? For all we see of Yamcha during his free time he could be still training at his own pace, taking part in some street fighting or even giving out self-defense classes. As for the Tenkaichi Budokai, remember the entire island where the last tournament in Dragon Ball took place was completely devastated by Piccolo's last attack; God knows how many years passed before the damage could be repaired. Then came the saiyajins, the whole being dead thing, then the androids, then Cell, etc. By the time they could participate again Yamcha figured it wasn't worth it. Sure, Krillin decided to take part but he was lucky to face against some poor sap and as soon as he went to the front lines he was deemed trash by Dabura and turned to stone. Last but not least, after the defeat of Buu, Mr. Satan had basically rigged the whole tournament by having Fat Buu participate, beat up everybody and "lose" against him.
 * Had Yamcha had remained competing and been "Champion Of Earth" instead of Mr. Satan, there would be know rigging of the tournament like that. the tournament itself had become meaningless and just a show stage for Mr. Satan. It only makes me wish more somebody stronger than Mr Satan competed against him.


 * Did Toriyama have ANY say about what went into the Anime? I assume he at least watched the episodes first, and if that's true then in certain episodes, such as Roshi's fake story about the creation of the Dragon Balls, why didn't Toriyama say to them "Actually I have my own plan on the origins of the Dragon Balls..." and even if he didn't watch the episodes why did Toei think that it'd be a good idea to make their own origin for them, the series is NAMED after them so surely they thought Toriyama would eventually get to the origin of them? The same goes for other things but that one comes to mind most.
 * Not that much say. In fact according to him he was waaaay too busy drawing the manga to even watch the show. He freely admits he hasn't seen the movies either. However he did pick voice actors like Nozawa for their parts, so I don't think he was entirely powerless either.
 * He also did a couple of character designs for filler arcs. IIRC, both Grand Kai from the Otherworld Tournament and Giru from GT were created by him. So he wasn't completely uninvolved in the anime, but he didn't have much input as to the story.


 * How come the citizens of the DBZ world never wonder how they keep dying and coming back to life? Apart from the Buu Saga, their memories of being killed were never explicitly wiped out, so why don't they ever wonder who brought them back to life and how?
 * The Buu saga is the only one where anyone besides the Z fighters themselves are brought back to life, so I'm not sure what you're talking about.
 * The Cell saga? They wished everyone in that saga to be brought back to life.
 * They probably thought it was a side effect of Hercule destroying Cell in that case.


 * So according to Dragon Ball Online, Goku and Vegeta knew their lives were coming to an end and left Earth for one final battle. Why the rush? It's not like they'd cease to exist after dying, they could just have their fight in Other World.
 * Like GT, Online has very questionable canonicity - whether Toriyama has given it his stamp of approval or not. I can't say for sure but I imagine that they were worried Vegeta was going to Hell... he may have had a heel face turn, but lets be honest: Vegeta never truly became Heaven material did he?
 * Yes, actually. In the end of the Buu arc, the Dragon Balls are used to specifically resurrect all the good people who died since the start of the tournament, and Goku conspicuously points out that Vegeta being raised by that wish means yes, he is one of the good guys now.
 * There's a massive difference between being good enough to be ressurected and being good enough for Heaven. Heaven is suppposed to be where the pure of heart live after death. The evil go to Hell/HFIL and the rest go to Limbo as a little puff of smoke. If Enma considers a man who spent his entire life killing, torturing and generally being being a douche to everyone he met - a man who was only a hero for a few years - in the same league as Goku or Olibu then frankly someone needs to seriously consider replacing him. It should also be pointed out that we know for certain Vegeta didn't go to Heaven during the Buu saga because Piccolo outright said so; and seeing as Kami was on first name terms with Enma as well as knowing Fortuneteller Baba (a woman with the power to grant Afterlife Visa's) he would have had a vast knowledge of what makes you a Heaven, Hell or Limbo type of person.
 * Basically above. Sacrificing himself to defeat Buu was probably the act that kept him from going to full-on HFIL.
 * Not even that. Piccolo (who has all of Kami's knowledge by this point) flat-out tells Vegeta that he's going straight to hell for all he's done, Heroic Sacrifice or not. Yama kept Vegeta around because the powers that be figured he might be needed as a last resort against Buu in the future, and they were right. Furthermore, is Limbo established as a specific place of rest? It seems to just be the station between heaven and hell. Yama tells Goku "You've done enough good to go straight to the upper world!" It sounds like a simple "good go to heaven, bad go to hell" rule, unless one's killed by a "demon" (such as Piccolo Sr. or his spawn), in which case they are established as drifting in limbo, unable to rest.


 * Why are ki attacks allowed at the World Martial Arts tournament? there are only three rules that govern this tournament: No weapons or items of any kind (this is taken to the extreme that even head protection isn't allowed) unless they are part of the body (Piccolo's Namekian abilities, Giran's Merry-Go-Round Gum and even Goku's Great Ape would all count) no low blows and no falling outside the ring. Now, whilst it is arguable that the general population of the world knew of ki attacks during the 21st, it most certainly didn't know by the 25th. Hercule had played a large part in convincing the world ki is little more than smoke and mirrors. This presents a problem: even the smallest trick would logically require a smoke grenade/mirror/firework/jetpack... why aren't the judges constantly going for that blatant use of an illegal weapon/item you have hereby forfited the match? If you had no knowledge of ki or magic, how would you interpret someone hovering or using the Kamehameha Wave? There is no way you wouldn't believe that Goku hadn't just broken the rules.
 * The judges, being fighting experts and being the same as for the 21st, did know. It was only the fighting-ignorant average joes that didn't know, and they had no bearing on decisions regarding the tournament.
 * Even if the judges weren't fighting experts (say if they got replaced or something) they'd still be unable to prove that the rules were being broken. Even if it seems like a rule is being broken, they still hold the burden of proof.


 * Supreme Kai always refers to the Z fighters as "Mere Mortals"... but isn't he himself a Mortal?
 * Yeah he is mortal in the sense that he can be killed, but not in the sense that he doesn't age and would never die of natural causes...he probably has lived for so long that for all intents and purposes he considered himself immortal.
 * Immortality in Dragon Ball has always been pretty consistant. It allows the user eternal life but not invincibility. For example Master Roshi was stated to have drunk from the Fountain of Youth which froze his age as an old man - but he is still very much vulnerable to being killed by outside sources. Garlic Junior wished for immortality and was indeed capable of regeneration on a semi-Buu like scale, but he was far from indestructible. The only reason they had to trap him in the Dead Zone is that they were completely hindered by their low power levels - a Super Saiyan would have been able to vapourize Garlic. The Kai's and Buu also work on the exact same principles - immunity to age but not immunity to death.
 * Didn't Garlic recover from a hole inside himself? Granted, it was the anime filler, but I assume that's on equal terms of "canon" as the Dead Zone movie.
 * Yes he did; but that proves that he can be killed it's just that like Cell and Buu you need to destroy every single bit of him before he regenerates. Like the Troper above points out that whilst Garlic seemed strong he was initially defeated by the pre-Raditz Z Fighters - Super Saiyan Goku would have done a lot more than blow a small hole in Garlic's chest.


 * Why is it so relatively easy to kill a Namekian? Aren't they supposed to have a Healing Factor? In the Buu saga, Piccolo mentions he can regrow any part of his body, as long as his head isn't damaged. Yet in the Saiyan saga, he died despite only having a blast to his body, and several Namekians died from body blows when they go to Namek.
 * The Namekian healing factor is similar to the Regeneration of Time Lords - if you injure him too quickly or too extensively he dies. In actuality, this process is very similar to humans in that most of us can survive horrific injuries provided we have time to heal between afflictions. Also notice how a Namek's abilty to heal is a technique not a biological function and thus requires conscious thought and a fairly large level of ki that leaves him exhausted afterward. Cell is also a good example of how cumbersome and ki extensive Namekian regeneration is - it takes a long time for him to heal and would have died many times if it wasn't for the fact he essentially has a brain in every single cell of his body.
 * The only problem with this being that Piccolo regenerates from being shattered in the Buu saga.
 * Chalk that up to being a plot hole. Look how much time and effort it took for both Piccolo and Nail to regrow even a single arm - that episode in the Buu saga nearly gave him Cell like powers of regeneration that are completely inconsistent with everything we've seen before or since.
 * Or as another option, since it's an ability that requires concentration, he simply trained himself during the 7-year time skip to do it faster. Piccolo trains almost as much as the Saiyans, so it's quite possible.
 * Or as a third, and likely option, the fusions with Nail and Kami made Piccolo far stronger than he was before. Remember that dying from a blast to the chest happened before any of these fusions. Afterwards he even survived a chest hole and a broken neck.
 * There is something here that everyone seems to be missing: Namekians aren't Wolverine. All this technique does is regrow damaged body parts - it has never been shown to heal injuries. That's why Piccolo needed to pull off his entire arm in order to fix his broken bones; something he in no way would have needed to do if it accelerated his healing. Not forgetting the fact that Piccolo has required senzu beans on numerous occasions. It also explains why Piccolo could regenrate after being split in half as a statue but couldn't regenerate after being blasted through the chest.


 * Okay I know DBZ isn't exactly known for its romance (wow that's an understatement) but seriously, all the couples (I'm only counting the first generation, Gohan and Videl don't count, mostly because while they had development I found them unbelievably boring) on this show are either completely incompatible or just have no real emotion connection with each other. (excluding Bulma and Vegeta, who are similar enough in personality and seem to genuinely enjoy the Slap Slap Kiss thing they have going on enough to actually seem compatible). I mean Goku married ChiChi because she forced him into it, and seems to make every effort to not interact with her and leaves her for long periods of time without seeming to miss her or regret leaving her at all. Krillen and Android 18 are just....weird, there was no real development building up to their relationship (I know, I know, maybe I'm asking too much but even B/V had a whole mini plot going in both anime and manga, it wasn't long or detailed but it was there at least) it was just like one day he said 'i love you' and she was like 'sure why not.'
 * For what it's worth, Toriyama has stated that he doesn't know how to write romance, which is part of the reasons for the long timeskips, with the kids' existence starting as shorthand for "yes, their parents are still together."
 * I attribute Goku and Chi-Chi's relationship to this: They DO genuinely care about each other, really. It's just that sometimes their marriage lends itself to the Rule of Funny. It's more fun to see her flip out than take so much of it in stride (filler or not, I thought SHE was going to go Super Saiyan when she got lip from Krillin's first girlfriend). And I don't believe she forced him, he went along willingly (that's what I got from the dub). You really think a guy that can level mountains would stay with a woman that berates him so much if he didn't love her? Or that she would stay with a slow-witted bruiser if she didn't find something charming and loveable? As for Krillin...that guy gets so much abuse, so little credit, and doesn't get to be shown as powerful as he should be. I take #18 as Karma rewarding the guy. Yeah, it would've been interesting to see just HOW that relationship blossomed, but like you said, it's not what the show's about.
 * Correction: Vegeta and Bulma's mini-arc was pure filler in the anime. In the manga the only thing suggesting an attraction was Bulma telling him to behave himself while he stayed at her house. The anime added in filler because the relationship basically came out of nowhere because Toriyama needed another SSJ and Bulma was the only girl left.
 * The correction is partially right. While Bulma was picked because she was the only woman of the group left to bare the next SSJ, Toriyama has stated in an interview that the filler had accurately summarized his idea on how the two started to become involved (mostly on Bulma's part before her break up with Yamcha). It wasn't in the manga because, as a troper stated earlier, Toriyama didn't think he could write anything romantic and thus left it out.
 * Also, Krillin and 18 did have development, at least on a one-sided basis. Krillin crushed on her because of a combination of her whimsical kiss on the cheek and his slow realization that she and her brother were barely any more evil than he was as a kid. Acting on this all, when he could've suspended her with the controller Bulma built and destroyed her, he instead broke the controller, tried to urge her to run, and then fought by her side to fend Cell off even if it was in vain. After Gohan forced Cell to cough her up at the Cell Games (which has been debated about here as well), Krillin went and tended to her side for the duration of the battle. In the aftermath up on the lookout, she realized his feelings for her and got upset for a cup of coffee, but after watching how, when the gang summoned Shenron and had no ideas for the last wish, Krillin worked to spend it on her and her brother's behalf, she came to accept his kindness to a decent enough degree before leaving (although I'm not sure how much of this sentence was or wasn't filler, so take it as you may).
 * So you say there is no romantic developments in the same sentence as mentioning a couple that did have romantic development? Just because you didn't like it, doesn't mean you can say there is no development. Gohan/Videl isn't the only couple to get development, either.


 * In what way is Kami a guardian? He never does anything to guard the Earth. The only time he has ever shown trying to defend the Earth is when he went up agaisnt Piccolo during the 23rd budokai. All other times all he does is just sit on his lookout doing nothing, I wouldn't call him a "guardian". And sure he created the Dragon Balls but they could have been used just as much for evil as good. If he was a smart guardian, he would have just got rid of the time limit, removed the effect of them flying off every time they're used and kept them on his lookout for whenever something went wrong on Earth.
 * I don't think he guards in the physical sense so much as the spiritual sense; he is the god of the planet, remember, and has been shown dealing with the passage to the afterlife and negotiating of where in the afterlife people go. Plus, the threats kinda exceeded his ability to handle after Piccolo, and he DID provide consistent aid, training, and sanctuary for his Champions after that.
 * Plus he did try to stop Piccolo when he appeared at the tournament.
 * Technically, each Kaioh rules a quadrant of the universe, and each Kaiohshin rules the same quadrant AND the afterlife. It's All There in the Manual. But yeah, Dragon Ball deities are funny like that.
 * Before he was surpassed by Goku, with the exception of King Piccolo and perhaps Popo (given his ability to later spar two Super Saiyans), Kami was the strongest being on Earth for hundreds of years and thus perfectly capable of defending it. Its also shown that Kami has been drastically weakened by age so logically he should have been able to fight pre-Kaioken Goku is his prime. As for the Kais, they not only have a similar problem of being surpassed by new threats, but seem to have been the victim of great stagnation in their society. Every featured Kai has been shown to either be overconfident or lazy enough to believe they don't need to train; both King, Grand and Supreme Kai seem to spend their entire lives relaxing or clowning about - when was last time we have seen them practice? It's one of the reasons they're all so startled when they meet a Super Saiyan for the first time.
 * There is another alternative that no one seems to have considered... that Kami is a coward. When King Piccolo was released and started murdering martial artists, Kami had four very clear courses of action. 1) Seek out Piccolo and immediately kill his spawn (childs play for a warrior as powerful as him) so they can't get in his way, then use the Evil Containment wave to capture him. We know King Piccolo has no counter for this technique and we know he is so afraid of it that it strickens him with paralysis. 2) If option 1 fails, just confront Piccolo and fight him to the death. No matter who wins both will die. Every single one of the people he is pledged to protect is now saved. 3) Circumvent options 1 and 2 and just commit suicide in the comfort - resulting in the exact same result as 2. 4) Sit in your near-impregnable aerial fortress as a small child gets nearly beaten to death twice, watch as many innocent men and women are murdered and sit by and do nothing as King Piccolo conquers the planet and declares all law null and void. Options 1 - 3 are what a Hero pledged to guard the Earth would do. Option 4 is what Yajirobe or Oolong would do. And if you think I'm being too hard on Kami remember... this is the second time he has chosen option 4. In every flashback we have seen Kind Piccolo's original conquest of Earth, in which we saw global terror and Mutaito and the Hermits fight a losing battle to save the Earth, have we heard of a single thing Kami ever did? he is one of the two strongest beings on Earth. Options 2 - 3 are fully open to him at this point and arguably even option 1. Either Mutaito developed the Containment Wave himself or he learnt it from another Master; in both cases Kami would have to have learnt it during their lifetimes in order for him to be able to throw it against Piccolo Jr - assuming it wasn't Kami that taught Mutaito which would officially make Kami a dick as well as a coward.
 * Kami obviously doesn't have the physical ability to actually "guard" the Earth, but he helps in what ways he can - such as when he helped Goku to go see King Kai, and escorted him back to Earth, and allowing the Z Fighters to train on his lookout.


 * The series has shown that if you're not concentrating, you're as vulnerable as anyone else, as demonstrated by Goku getting hurt by a rock when sleeping, even in Super form. So why not have King Kai talk endlessly to the villains when the Z warriors fight them? His telepathy seems to be limitless. Surely both Cell and Frieza would have a harder time fighting at their best with bad jokes constantly echoing around their heads. Because KK lives in the afterlife, he needn't fear reprisals.
 * Because as amusing or even effective as that idea may be, it's stupid as hell...
 * It would only be effective briefly at best, since Kaioh is surprisingly easy to tune out.
 * Goku getting hurt by the rock as a Super Saiyan was filler.
 * No it wasn't. It was in Kai.


 * In Dragon Ball Ki techniques are well known all over the world, the Kamehameha is known to be the turtle schools signature attack, yet in DBZ humans will flinch at even something as simple as flying and call it a trick
 * That was only Hercule and the reporter during the Cell saga, they don't practice martial arts and as such don't know about flight or ki. If you've never even heard of muay tai, why would you know they use a technique called felling buffalo punch?
 * Actually, Hercule does practice Martial Arts, in fact, that's the reason why he's the champ. Plus, he usually wins fair and square when fighting normal humans, so barring Z-fighters, he is pretty strong.
 * The crowd in the 25th Tenka'ichi Budokai was surprised too. In the other hand, we're talking about the people who couldn't recognize Piccolo because he wore a hat. Sure, the world in Dragon Ball is full of weird people, but few of them are green, have weird musclearms, are over 2 meters tall and enjoy being called "demons"! And only three years have passed! THREE!
 * Actually, Piccolo Daimaou was more like twenty feet tall (Mai was knee high to him when he was seated and small trees and the gates to the Imperial Palace were about chin-high on him; his fist was comparable in size to Kid Goku's torso), wheras Ma, Jr. was originally about as tall as Goku (5'0" - 5'5", tops). It wasn't until after the next timeskip that he got taller, but never to the same level as his centuries-old dad.
 * One of the few established things in Dragon Ball is that ordinary people are ignorant, ordinary people are gullible and ordinary people have very short memories.
 * Three years between the Demon Piccolo saga and the 25th Budokai ? Gohan wasn't even born at this time. In fact, they just follow the Fleeting Demographic Rule.


 * Why are there so few female Saiyans? Was Goku's mother just some random woman nobody cared about? There's only the one I can recall for sure, on Bardock's squad, but even assuming there are others, it still seems the numbers are a little short.
 * We mostly saw the fighters. The females were, presumably, mostly off making babies, and are less combat-oriented. The two females of saiyan blood we've seen (Pan and Bra/Bulla), were notably less powerful and, in Bra's case, less interested in fighting in the first place.
 * We also have the female member of Bardock's group. Fasha, and the fact that she along with the rest of the group's growing power levels (IE, taking down an enemy encampment that not even Frieza's elite forces could handle) was what caused Frieza to become paranoid enough to destroy the Saiyan race to prevent them from potentially overthrowing them would indicate that she was pretty strong.
 * The only time in the story when female saiyans were available was during Bardock's movie, and the only one that mattered to the plot was Fasha, which is why none other appeared.
 * We can potentially solve this problem using science. If we look at the children born during the series - Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Pan, and bra; then take into account out of the thirty odd Saiyans we have seen there are only two females we can resonably conclude that the male birth rate is at least 60%. Given that we know the Saiyans evolved as a warrior race and have developed certain traits to aid these characteristics (decreased aging, ability to increase their strength after every battle) it would make sense that they produce far more of the physically stronger gender to increase their chances to fight. We should also remember that if Vegeta and Nappa's attitude toward women is any indication the Saiyan race is probably an incredibly sexist one that has limits on women fighting. It would therefore seem likely that Fasha was a very unique case.
 * Of course in the manga we never see any women at all, so there could have been billions of them on Planet Vegeta for all we know.
 * Maybe there aren't any! D8


 * I don't know how it works in the manga, but in the anime, characters exchange long, long series of blows in every fight, shoot little elliptical lights that are always effortlessly dodged, and otherwise use attacks that are never, ever shown to do anything. Only then do they proceed to smash each other into mountains or use powerful energy beams (and proceed to be amazed that the enemy survived them, but I digress). So, * why* do they do it? I know it's padding for the fights, but what's the in-universe reason? It doesn't really work as Rule of Cool, because the attacks are unimpressive when they never even connect. Don't the characters know the attacks do nothing? Are they showing off? Again, it's not impressive compared to their ultimate attacks. Are they "testing the waters" to see what the opponent is vulnerable to? But it never seems to pay off. For that matter, when the characters are more powerful, does a physical attack (like smashing someone into the ground with incredible speed) ever do anything? We don't even see an indication that the characters are in pain. Why don't they fight just by exchanging power beams and physical attacks that can actually do some damage? Not once, in the big fights, have I seen a kick or a punch that would actually hit its target.
 * For the mini blast, that's basically just a distraction and wishful thinking. Can't really answer the rest of your headscratcher.
 * You should really try the manga. Kicks and punches frequently connect, and painfully too.
 * In addition to this fact, the derp faces the characters make when said kicks and punches connect are really funny. This troper spent a good five minutes laughing at Yamcha in the early Dragon Ball.


 * Why didn't Baba get any strong fighters from the past to help out agaisnt the Saiyans/Androids/Buu? I guess Buu fight of been too strong for anyone in otherworld, and POSSIBLY the Androids/Cell, but surely there was someone who had millions of years to train was strong enough to take down Vegeta and Nappa.
 * Picon (Pikon?) was the strongest of their lot and was explicitly outclassed by Goku. It wouldn't have helped.
 * Pikhan was outclassed by Goku after the Cell Games. He would have been far and away the stronger back in the Saiyan Saga.
 * Pikhan was filler. Also, why makes you think Baba *could* get Pikhan? There's no reason to think that Baba can get anyone from anywhere in the galaxy, and there might well have never been anyone on Earth strong enough to fight Vegeta.
 * Baba can't just go and get some dead warrior to fix the living problems, it's the live people who should take care of their own business, besides you only get one day to return from the afterlife and if those warriors hadn't already used theirs up then probably they wouldn't want to use it on that.
 * This unfortunately raises a massive plothole. Baba has an army that consists of four warriors permanently at her base - Spike the Devil Man, Fangs the vampire, the Invisible man and a Mummy. Now, these guys are incredibly weak by even King Piccolo's standards, explaining why we don't see them again. But... Spike the Devil Man has access to the Devilmite Beam, an attack capable of literally making the heart explode of any living fighter that doesn't have a pure heart. This technique works immediately and is capable of fully working even if there is the faintest trace of evil. This makes it one of the most powerful and devastating anti-personnel techniques in the entire Dragon Ball universe. Spike could one-shot any of the Saiyan Warriors, both Piccolo's, Frieza, the Ginyu Force, Baby, Omega Shenron and even a good percentage of the Z-Warriors. Remember how Goku was immune to the Devilmite Beam because of his pure heart? well Super Saiyan amplifies a Saiyans aggressive instincts making them cold and vicious - essentially meaning Spike could even kill Super Saiyan 4 Goku, Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks, Super Saiyan 2 Gohan and even Vegito. The only exceptions would be Cell and Buu due to their regenerative capabilites. Why have we never seen this guy again? why didn't Baba or any of her superiors in Otherworld order her to send Spike into battle alongside the Z Warriors? and why hasn't anyone tried to copy this technique given that it is essentially the most powerful non-destructive force in the history of the universe?
 * We don't really see MUCH evidence that going Super Saiyan makes you cold, evil or particularly aggressive. Goku becomes Super Saiyan and tries as hard as he can, to the point of giving him some energy so he can escape the dying world, to spare the man who'd just killed his best friend. That's not cold, it's barely aggressive. Vegeta doesn't change, nor does Trunks. Level 2 makes Gohan more aggressive but as we've seen from Gohan vs Raditz, Vegeta and Cell I'd say the common theme here is "DON'T HURT MY DADDY". I've always felt that Super Saiyan's rage was always a huge missed opportunity. Unlike Tailed Naruto or Masked Ichigo where even friends need to be on notice.
 * I wouldn't call it a plothole per se, just a case of Forgotten Phlebotinum that sort of makes sense. Not sure one could assume that technique could be copied either. Funnily enough, I think this technique is played for laughs in one of the Dragon Ball Z games(BT 3??) in where the move deals great damage under certain circumstances.
 * I agree with the above troper, and I'd also like to point out that "these guys are incredibly weak by even King Piccolo's standards". That technique didn't seem particularly fast/instantaneous to me, and I'm sure everyone near the level of King Piccolo would be fully able to avoid it.
 * Hell, why didn't Baba warn the Z-Fighters of every villain!? She clearly can see into the future, as seen at the end of the original series, so why didn't she look into the future, find the villain's weakpoint ("GRAB HIS TAIL! Like when you were a child!"), and tell them? Would've saved a lot of trouble! ("When you get to Namek, there will be a creature who is more powerful than Vegeta, and will kill your best friend!")
 * She stated just before the battle against the Saiyans that she wasn't able to predict the outcome of the fight. In the Fridge Brilliance section there's an interesting hint that all the time travel from Trunks and Cell could have messed up with her ability.


 * If Saiyans get stronger by recovering from near-death, why don't Son Goku, Vegeta and the others constantly beat each other up, eat Senzu beans, rinse and repeat? Much faster than all that tedious training.
 * Senzu beans aren't that plentiful. They apparently only grow in one spot, and there's generally only a handful of them around when they're needed.
 * Then what about those healing tanks Freeza has all over his bases? Surely Vegeta could tell Bulma how to build one of those, and healing from near-death to perfect health in them didn't seem to take all that long.
 * Why do we have any reason to assume Vegeta knows anything about building them at all? He's neither a technological nor a medical genius, after all. Just because he seems to know how to use it doesn't mean he knows how to make it.
 * They could make Dende do it.
 * Because that's the stupidest way of powering up, even if it's fast, it's very dangerous and not practical, Goku would never choose that over the regular "tedious" training he so enjoys, let alone Gohan, and Vegeta only tried it once when he had no other choices, but wouldn't do it just to get a power boost normally.
 * Simple. Goku and (slightly less so) Vegeta enjoy all the hard, tedious training to point that Goku actually mentioned this after leaving the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Gohan, Goten and Kid Trunks didn't inherit the Masochistic Saiyan Fighting spirit that would enable them to even consider self harming themselves - and there is no way Future Gohan and Bulma would have let Future Trunks intentionally hurt himself as they were very protective of him. There was never any canon evidence that the quarter-Saiyans Pan and Bra had even inherited the abilty - much less possessing one that actually worked to the extent where you could happily survive a serious injury.
 * Bra is Trunk's younger sister, making her half-Saiyan not quarter.
 * It probably has some limitation to how well it works. Notice how it's only mentioned once and for Cell at that after the Frieza Saga. When Goku is training at one hundred times regular gravity part of it consists of blasting kamehameha's in a circle and taking them straight to the chest. When Vegeta is training in the gravity chamber while he doesn't just blast himself he does train right up to the limit of death instead of taking breaks AND he returns to the Hyperbolic Room of Space and Time Chamber and presumably trains to the very limit.
 * If there is a limit, I'd like to know it. Vegeta went from 18k on earth to 24k on Namek to 30k after Zarbon kicks his ass. Pretty consistant 6k increases using the healing tanks up till this point. Then, Vegeta gets beaten by Racoom, eats a senzu bean, and shoots up to somewhere between 200k to 500k(being able to fight evenly against Frieza's first form, which various sources list at 200k or 530k). After getting blasted by Krillin and healed by Dende, he shoots up passed 2nd form Frieza, probably equal to 3rd form but no where near equal to 1% final form. Then you have Goku, going from 180k against Ginyu to shooting up to well over a million against final form Frieza after an hour or so in the healing tank. The effect certainly isn't additive, so one assumes it's either related to how severe the injuries being healed from are or how efficient the healing method is, or a combination of those two factors.
 * Even if a limitless supply of senzu beans made something like that viable, I'm sure none of the characters in the series, Saiyan or otherwise, enjoy being near death. Being near death several times successively would hold no appeal to anyone I can imagine.
 * Exactly, the power up doesn't come from simply being beaten up, they have to recover from an injury that carries a serious risk of death. Vegeta was desperate when he did what is being suggested on Namek.


 * So who the strongest human: Tenshinhan or Krillin? I always assumed Tien, but I've seen plenty of sites that state Krillin is the strongest, and he did receive that power-up on Namek. In fact, he's the last human character to receive a significant power-up. So, what's the verdict?
 * Krillin. He keeps training longer; the only reason Tien was better than him in the Cell Saga is because Tien's ki attacks are Cast From HP- other than that, Krillin was stronger even then.
 * Tien. The Buu saga clearly showed that Tien kept training and Krillin didn't. (For all the good it ultimately did.) The question gets muddier if you ask who potentially was the strongest. I still say Tien, but the argument can be made for either side.
 * Let's look at their most important moments for a possible answer:
 * Krillin has been in 3 Tenkaichi Budokais, making it to the semi-finals twice. He fought well against Jackie Chun but lost in the end. He also held his own against Goku for a bit, but lost when he tried to capitalize on a weakness that no longer existed (and he only did that because he was losing ground), got flattened by Piccolo Jr, but also put up another good showing (convincing Piccolo that conquering the world might even be difficult), and then wiped out three of the four remaining saibamen (he missed the fourth because it was able to hide at the last moment), and was the only human survivor of the Saiyan arc.
 * Tien: Pounded Yamcha (I know. No a big deal), mistakenly assuming he was the strongest the Kamesennin school had to offer (which is actually quite a compliment to Yamcha when you think about it. He did that well). Fought evenly with Jackie Chun, and by Jackie's own admission, would have won anyway if the latter had not decided to forfeit. Beat Goku on a technicality, but it was a hell of a fight that came down to the wire, and it might be said that Tien at that point might have been able to do it on his own without any lucky breaks. Got flattened by a a minion of Piccolo who was in turn flattened by Goku. Was toyed with by Goku in their rematch, although he matched the speed of a weighted down Goku, so it's not like he got weaker. Took down a single saibaman (he scored the first victory), and went berserk on Nappa, but accomplished nothing.
 * It's the Namek arc and beyond where things get iffy, since Krillin got that power-up, but Tien continues to train, well beyond. Plus neither of them have a serious fight afterwards, so gauging their strength fairly is difficult. Plus no power-level readings. I have to say, I'm leaning towards Tien myself, since he's fared well against opponent that have beaten Krillin with somewhat greater ease.
 * I always believed the reason Krillin surpassed Tien and possibly Yamcha was due to the Namekian Guru "unlocking" his potential despite Tien showing much more skill in technique and dedication to training. I have a feeling if Tien had met the Guru as well then he would be stronger than Krillin. As it stand now, Krillin is the strongest human.
 * After Namek, Krillin has a higher power level. However, Tien has substantially more skill and technique.
 * Let's face it : Krilin has no nose and Tien has a third eye. So they aren't really human if you think about it. In the end, the strongest real human is Yamcha.
 * No, both of them are explicitly human.
 * As far as Word of God is concerned, it's Krillin.
 * No disrespect to the great Toriyama - but he's wrong in every way. Uub is the strongest human alive; at the 28th World Martial Arts Tournament he was capable of holding his own against regular form Goku, something Tien and Krillin haven't been able to do since the original Dragon Ball.
 * Not necessarily. When Goku saw Oob, he realized Oob wasn't going to give him much of a fight and made him angry to temporarily draw out his dormant power, the same as Gohan did as a child. If that's the case, when he's placid, he might not be stronger than Krillin yet. The manga ends before Oob can start training and realize his true power, after all.
 * Discounting #17, #18, and Ubuu due to the fact that the majority of their power is not human in origin, I'd argue that Chichi might be the dark horse competitor in this running. Gal is apparently strong enough to train Goten to the point where he went SSJ, and in the anime she even tanked a punch from SSJ Goten without any actual damage. Shame about the lack of flight or any shown range game.
 * Frankly, I think Chichi's case is a healthy mix of Plot Armor and Rule of Funny (just like Mr. Satan). That aside, the strongest human (not taking Ub into account) would be Ten Shin Han. It's simply a matter of checking the records. He was clearly stronger than Krillin during the 2nd Tenkaichi Budokai. In the 3rd, he forced Goku to take off his heavy clothing; something even Kami commented on. During the fight against Nappa and Vegeta, Ten Shin Han lost because Nappa focused exclusively on him while Krillin took more advantage of teamwork with Piccolo and Gohan; yet the second Nappa got Krillin between his eyes he went down quickly. In the Namek Arc, Krillin's performance wasn't so great, really. He spent most of the time running, got into trouble against Gurdo and one shotted against Rikum and Frieza. Again, he prevailed by virtue of wits and quick thinking. Finally, let's not forget how Ten Shin Han's Kikohou raised his power high enough to push back Cell. All in all, Krillin is probably more cunning but Ten is definitely stronger.


 * Something that bugs me. After Goku achieves the Super Saiyan transformation, he stops using the techniques he learned while training with King Kai. I understand not using the Spirit Bomb: the Super Saiyan transformation precludes it, due to the transformation clouding his heart. However, why does he stop using the Kaioken technique? Multiplication of strength is multiplication of strength. It would only become more useful if he used it while transformed.
 * King Kai points out that Goku has been using the Kaio-ken the entire time during the Frieza fight. He's mastered it enough that he doesn't need to turn red and shout it out each time he uses it.
 * The Kaioken is an extremely dangerous technique. King Kai was doubtful that anything above a x2 wouldn't be ripped apart by the increase in ki energy. The only reason Goku goes x20 is because he's Goku - he's just that damn good. A Super Saiyan 1 is the equivalent of a x50 boost in power, meaning a single use of the Kaioken would give a x100 increase in power, a double Kaioken would give a x200 increase in power etc... even Goku would be destroyed when presented with such power - which is why they needed to train harder and achieve the upgraded levels of Super Saiyan in the first place.
 * Ah, that makes a lot of sense. So, I was right in thinking that it would give him amazing power. The problem is that it's too much for his body to handle. I get it.
 * Indeed. In the fight against Frieza and the Ginyu force preceding his upgrade to Super Saiyan he was able to use Kaioken x2 sustained over a long duration (against Captain Ginyu) and x20 for short bursts every time he attacked (against Frieza). This indicates that his body was ready, following his high-G training, for much higher power levels than what he had... and the Super Saiyan transformation finally capitalized on that. Using Kaioken AFTER that of course would have been dangerous, and not exactly necessary for taking out Frieza.
 * However, once he minimized the strain of his super form when he mastered it, he may well have been able to use it. Seems entirely possible to me, Cell would be forced to go all out... Which leads to yet another matter: Why Cell himself didn't use it against Vegeta or Gohan! Or Piccolo. Poor, silly Kaioh, Toriyama doesn't care all that much about your techniques!
 * In the manga fight against the Ginyu force, he's gotten to the point where he can use Kaioken for just a split second, at the moment of action (attack, dodge, block, whatever), and get the same result as constant usage. It's so brief, the scouters can't even pick it up. In addition to getting stronger and more resilient in terms of power boosts, he's gotten much more efficient with his power-up techniques, which is part of why he can consistently use x10. Kaioken is Weak But Skilled: the martial arts move, and isn't intended for prolonged usage. Think about this: if anything, the only problem comes when you expect to see that red aura. However, if you're doing it right, it's too quick to see. Not sure about this, but according to my theory, Goku has been using Kaioken ever since he learned it; now, it's as natural as moving.
 * ^ Unlikely, seeing as Kaioken on top of the various Super Saiyan transformations would yield incredibly high power (a normal Kx10 would result in x10 base power; an SSJ1 + Kx10 would result in x500 base power), and Goku was never demonstrated as being that much stronger than the other, non-Kaioken-using SSJs. It's more likely that he didn't use it because of the now-much-greater danger of overloading his physical body with ki energy, even if it's only for a short time - a danger that would get dramatically greater if, say he tried using it later on as an SSJ3 (which is already a state that is difficult to maintain by itself). The last time he is seen using it in the anime is in the filler Otherworld Tournament, on top of his Full-Power SSJ1 transformation - which is probably possible because:
 * (A.) He's pretty much mastered the strain of maintaining the SSJ1 level by now - that's the entire point of the Full-Power stage.
 * (B.) He's dead. That removes the normal restrictions of having a physical body, which is a huge plus (and the reason he's even able to achieve the SSJ3 level later on).


 * Has anyone asked how Krillin and Android 18 had a child yet? I mean... she's an android... is Marron supposed to be fully human despite being birthed by a robot?
 * This is a translation error. Androids 17 and 18 are not andriods, they are cyborgs. As in regular people with augmentations, like Cyber Frieza. Marron would be 100% human as the daughter of two humans. This translation error is because the Japanese word "jinzouningen" is closer to artificial human than to andriod. It's the same reason Cell is technically Android 21 even though he's not a robot.
 * How exactly do ki attacks injure/kill? Granted, sometimes we see people get blown to bits or annihilated utterly, but when Piccolo intercepted that shot from Nappa to protect Gohan, his body looked mostly intact, yet he died. Same for when Gohan got blasted point-blank by Majin Buu; he was obviously bloodied, and quite close to death, but there was nothing to show/tell exactly what kind of damage was done to his body. There are other examples, but it's been 2+ years since I've actually watched DBZ, so I can't remember them off-hand.
 * Perhaps, rather than being a really hot ball of Pure Energy, a ki attack is more like a Hard Light cannonball? Or a combination of those. The damage would be internal rather than really noticeable injuries for the stronger guys.
 * Ether that or he absorbed the energy as heat across his body and it cooked him.
 * That's what I figured myself. We see smoke coming from Piccolo after the attack, so while he physically looks...well...somewhat beaten up, his insides are just roasted meat, hence he dies.


 * What's with the idea of presenting something as high and sacred and then watering it down? I mean, back in Dragon Ball, "Kami's Tower" was this lofty forbidden place that only the strongest could enter. Fast forward in time, and you have little kids running around God's own palace. Okay, "Super Saiyan" kids, but still.
 * The "only the strongest" thing is descriptive, not proscriptive. You can only get there if you're strong enough to climb all the way up- which, at the time the statement was made, was something only the strongest could do. Then power levels started rising, as per shonen standard. By the time the main characters start hanging out there, they're all strong enough to make the climb. Or the flight, to be more accurate.


 * Shouldn't Vegeta be the king of all Saiyans instead of prince of all Saiyans considering the state of the fomer king? or is the Saiyan throne not hereditary?
 * What Saiyans? Goku and Gohan? Come on...'
 * Even worse than that. Assuming all the Sayians on the planet were pure-bloodied Sayians, that means the only other Sayain Vegeta could "rule" over is...Goku. The others (Gohan, Goten, and Trunks) are half-Sayians.
 * Vegeta is still prince for the same reason most "princess" without parents in fiction are still "princesses": because they like the title better.
 * Vegeta was born a prince, but he would have to be crowned in an official ceremony to be the King. Not exactly easy when your monarchy and the planet it is meant to rule is space dust.
 * Vegeta could declare himself King of the Saiyans at any time he wanted. Ceremony doesn't mean much when A) you would be the king of 4-8 people total, and B) you could kill any of those four without too much effort(Broly excluded from this point, and assuming it takes place before the saiyan saga to cover Goku). The thing is, even Vegeta, as vain as he was, could see what a pointless, petty, childish, immature act that would be. It would be akin to a kid sitting down in the sandbox at the park and declaring himself king of it, demanding tribute from the other kids who just shake their heads and go play on the swing set. He would get no end of mocking for it from the higher ups in Frieza's army, something he was well aware of. He was a prince by birth, had grown up as a prince when that still meant something, so he was comfortable using that title.


 * Why are some weapons so effective against superpowered, as opposed to others? Several times, bladed weapons, bullets, and explosions seem unable to harm the characters. Master Roshi takes a blade to the head, courtesy of Chi-Chi, and seems to consider it only a flesh wound. Child Goku is able to eliminate the entire Red Ribbon Army. Roshi is unconcerned when his opponent in the martial arts tournament pulls out a knife. An armored Nappa engages the Earth's military and complains that their toys (battleships and airplanes) are boring because they can't hurt him at all. Goku is stabbed by a bunch of arrows/spears in a hallway while in SS form, but the weapons just break on his skin and he isn't injured at all. But all this contrasts with the times when conventional weaponry is able to damage the characters. As children, Goku and Krillin have a lot of trouble handling that pirate robot. Tao Pai Pai is almost killed by a grenade. Yajirobe's sword proves able to cut Vegeta's transformed tail and his armored back, and it would have finished him off had Goku and Krillin not decided to spare him. Freezer is killed by SS Trunk with his sword, and he also appears to be able to hurt androids 17 and 18 with it (if I recall correctly, they dodge his strikes with it, implying that they expect to be injured if hit). Yet when King Cold brandishes this same sword against Trunks, SS Trunks is able to catch it with one hand and no damage. And android 16 expects a bomb built into his body to be powerful enough to take out Perfect Cell. Doesn't all this sound kind of... inconsistent?
 * Well the thing is, most of these weapons are conventional weapons made to hurt conventional human beings. As Goku and his friends rise above the limits of normal human strength, those weapons have less and less of an effect on him. Trunks weapon was made to hurt the androids, thus the sharpness. But it doesn't hurt him when Cold uses it because he knows it's coming and has prepared his finger to counter it, same with when Trunks uses it against Goku. As for Android 16 and Perfect Cell, that bomb was strong enough to destroy the planet, so it's not a stretch to imagine it would take Cell out in the process. Dr. Gero designed the bomb (and A16 and Cell, for that matter) so he knew what he was doing.
 * Just to further the previous Troper's answer - Trunk's sword was blatantly designed by Bulma to fight the Androids from his timeline, thus it has the power of a regular Super Saiyan able to kill Frieza, King Cold and the Androids from his timeline (remember they were weaker than those from the main timeline, Future Gohan was easily able to fight 1-1 whilst Vegeta was hopeless when he came to fight our Androids) but unable to fight anything Ascended Super Saiyan or higher (it broke). Yajirobe only managed to cut off Vegeta's tail because he blindsided him. Dragon Ball Z powers are dependent on focus and concentration; remember how Majin Vegeta knocked out Goku during the Buu Saga? that's also how Goku could defend with a finger a sword designed to fight those with Super Saiyan power levels (he concentrated all of his power into a single point.)
 * When was any of that established?
 * Any of what, specifically?
 * Firstly, Tao had access to tech that can allow him to be turned into a cyborg that was allegedly several times stronger than he was at that point. It's quite possible he got a grenade made from the same people that he went to for that (Dr. Gero, perhaps?). Secondly, in the manga (at least), a berserk Trunks landing a direct shot on #18's forearm with his sword only ended up with his sword getting a forearm-thick chunk of it cracked off (and, somehow, not even damaging her sleeve). As for #16's bomb being strong enough to kill Cell, remember that #16 himself (as well as #17, #18, #19, #20, and Cell himself) are all also "conventional" weapons that make Frieza look like a pansy and were all designed by the same guy.
 * Don't know about everything else, but the official story about Trunks' sword (official as in what That Other Wiki says) is that it's the same sword Tapion gives main timeline Trunks in "Wrath of the Dragon" (there's no explaination as to how Future Trunks got the sword and it's better that you don't think too much about it). As such, it's a magic sword and can't hurt it's owner. Don't blame me for the gaps in logic, I'm just parroting Wikipedia.
 * I must blame you for attempting to explain canon with non-canon material. Tapion doesn't even EXIST in the main storyline. Bottom line, we don't know where Trunks got the sword from.
 * About the whole "Nappa against battleships" incident. I'm guessing your resistance to conventional weapons is based on your power levels. When Tao tried to kill Goku with a grenade, I'm guessing his power levels was somewhere in between 100-250 based on what I've heard. Goku seems to think that the grenade can kill him or cause serious injury, otherwise why would he kick it back? Also, in video games, Hercule and General Blue use bombs and rocket launchers against their enemies, that seem to work quite well (I'm not sure if Blue did that in the actual series). So, if a rocket launcher or a grenade can kill/seriously injure someone with a power level of like 170(more or less), then why cant multiple giant battleship cannon shells and heat seaking missiles even mildy sting or annoy Nappa, who's power level is confirmed to be 4,000?
 * Because there's no guarantee that the missiles have a "hurting power" of over 4,000?
 * Okay, most of the explanations I can go with, but how is Vegetas not being able to see it supposed to enable Yajirobi to cut him?
 * Remember when Goku blocked Trunk's sword with his finger by focusing chi on that finger? Yajirobe's sword is super-sharp, but if Vegeta had seen him coming he would've been able to protect his tail.
 * They flat out stated in the Frieza saga that their durability is a lot lower when their guard is down. Vegeta deliberately lowered his to let Kuririn land a near fatal blow to take advantage of his race's inconsistent power-boost ability, and in the Buu saga Majin Vegeta oneshot SSJ 2 Goku with a sucker punch using a similar principle.
 * I'd say that the bulk of the characters' strength and toughness comes from ki control. If the fighters are completely relaxed, even being hit by a small rock would cause pain, as shown when Goku was relaxing in his Full-Power Super Saiyan form and Krillin threw a rock at him. If they are conscious, their training will reflexively channel their ki in order to strengthen their bodies enough to whitstand an incoming blow. Vegeta was caught off-guard by Yajirobe and Tien did not expect Mercenary Tao - a person he had such great admiration for - to use a knife, which is why Vegeta lost his tail and Tien suffered a cut on his chest, respectively. Perhaps Trunks managed to cut Frieza in half for one of two reasons, or perhaps even both: Trunks was too fast and Frieza got cut before he had the chance to channel his ki to protect himself OR Trunks can use his ki to make his blade stronger, to the point where it can bypass the defenses of incredibly powerful beings like Frieza. The latter had no effect on Android 18 because she was much more powerful than Trunks.
 * As for Mercenary Tao, we saw him get hit by that grenade and the aftermath, but we never saw Goku getting hit by the grenade. Perhaps the grenade really was THAT powerful, and Goku would have shared a similar fate to Mercenary Tao if he had been hit by it. Mercenary Tao was the greatest assassin in the world at the time and he charged insurmountable fees for his services. He was definetly filthy rich, so he could have used some of that money to custom-order a devastatingly powerful grenade to use as a last measure.


 * Does a Dragon Clan Namek have to be a Kami or whatever-Guru-was-if-that-was-his-name-and-not-a-title to make a set of Dragon Balls, or do they just have to be good enough? Is it sort of like a spirit bomb thing, only using the rightful power of the earth instead of its inhabitants? Or... what?
 * We don't know exactly how making it works, but no you don't have to be a Kami to do it, since Guru obviously wasn't, but you do have to be an immensely talented member of the Dragon clan, definitely.
 * It's entirely possible that he WAS Kami for Namek. We often forget that Kami is a title. Guru obviously held the highest "rank" on the planet. Perhaps it's functionally the same as Mr. President, King,Emperor and Prime Minister. They all functionally mean the same thing. Guy in charge. Just because Guru chose to live amongst his people and Kami chose to live above might not have any bearing.


 * Why could Piccolo Daimaoh eat food when Namekians can only drink water?
 * Food is decadence when water and sunlight are all you need. Surely the great Demon King Piccolo has time to enjoy a snack now and then?
 * When did Daimaoh eat food, btw? This troper can't remember.
 * He didn't really eat food, but when he seized the Earth's king palace he had his henchman order some grotesque food for him, spider legs and stuff.
 * Anime-only event, not canon. Outside of swallowing some (Dragon)balls, neither Piccolo Jr, Snr or Kami is ever shown eating anything.
 * YMMV on Manga to Anime canon. During the few episodes dedicated to the Z Fighters taining to kill the Androids, it is shown that Piccolo was living with Goku's family for a brief time. During which the only food they ever ate was fish due to some constant Daddy-Son bonding time. Piccolo is shown explicitly stating that he not only eats the fish but is getting bloody fed up with their diet consisting purely of fish. Also note that Nameks have teeth - teeth are only required if you need to chew solid food. The most logical answer is that Nameks are similar to the Wraith from Stargate Atlantis. At one point in their evoloution they ate like regular people but eventually developed the capability to exist solely on water. It would explain why they still have teeth, digestive systems and logically the ability to remove waste.
 * Piccolo living with the Son family is 100% filler. In any case, no Namek is ever shown eating in canon.
 * Because Piccolo Daimaoh wasn't Namekian at the time his character was created. He was simply a demon while the Namekian origin came later, along with the entire space theme the series would come to be known by.


 * How did Piccolo Jr. and Kami have a synch rate as though they were still two halves of the same being? Piccolo is Kami's other half's son, even if he was a clone he was still grown from an egg and had his own life, and had already absorbed Nail. Was it originally just because Kami was ridiculously powerful from his centuries as Patron God of Earth, and Piccolo had a young enough body and few enough restrictions to use that power, and the translation messed it up? Or was it always an issue? (On a related subject, I don't recall the original being ever being named. Was he just referred to as "the guy Kami was before he threw off the evil that became Piccolo" since it was long enough ago that Kami forgot and Piccolo Jr. never knew it?)
 * Piccolo Jr. wasn't just a son. As I recall, Piccolo Daimaoh somehow managed to reincarnate himself as his own son, forcing his soul into the son's body- resulting in a sort of ancestral memory, and the souls between Jr. and Kami still fitting together like puzzle pieces. As for the name, he himself put it best. "I am neither Piccolo nor Kami. I am a Namek that has long since forgotten his name".
 * I addressed "wasn't just a son" above, but that still doesn't explain Nail. Did he just hang around all discorporeal and asentient, increasing Piccolo's power level but not actually changing him in any meaningful way? Like a piece of power-increasing bubble gum stuck to Piccolo's puzzle piece? (Continuing the line of thought, did Piccolo ever mention whether he gained all of Kami's memories from his time in the watchtower? Or did he not say anything about it either way?)
 * Answer, "Yes." In fact one of the things Nail tells Piccolo to get him to agree to the fusion is that he, Nail, will not interfere with Piccolo in any way but will just act as a catalyst to give him stronger powers. We can tell this isn't exactly true, though, because Picco Nail knows Dende on sight.
 * You referred to him as a clone, with his own life. He doesn't have his own life, he has his father's life, with emotional and subconscious associations reset to zero.
 * All Namekians came from Guru, even Kami, so because they all have the same genetic structure(I'm assuming here), they'd be able to merge/split as they wish, as they would have the same ability. Which leads me to this question: Why the hell didn't all the warrior nameks just fuse into a Super Namek to fight Frieza?
 * Wrong. Kami did not come from Guru. Kami and Guru were the only two survivors of the Namek cataclysm.
 * Life as in the one that you live, not life as in that thing that sort of hangs around inside you all invisible and sometimes lets you Cast From Hit Points.


 * Saiyans keep their hairstyle from birth. Saiyans have extremely spiky hair. Discuss.
 * Not just that. During Goku's battle with Taopaipai, part of his hair gets cut off. How does it grow back?
 * Because they keep their hairstyle at birth. Just as when Wolverine loses an arm from the base it grows back anyway just the way it was, a Saiyan's hair grows back until it is just the way it was.
 * How could Wolverine lose an arm? Doesn't he have an Adamantium skeleton?
 * His bones are indestructible. His joints, ligaments, and muscles are not (merely very tough).
 * The hairs grow for their whole life but fall off when they reach certain length. Just like human body hair.
 * It may be spikey, but its just hair. Its not hard, just naturally in bizarre formations. It can be pushed down, compressed, or slicked back when pressure is applied just like our own- it simply bounces back to status quo once you remove your pressure.
 * They're like Hedgehogs? Born fluffy, get spikey a few hours after bring born?
 * Alternatively, maybe we can just toss the whole idea into Fanon Discontinuity, since it makes roughly zero stinkin' sense.
 * Because a race of alien, shape-shifting battle-psionics/mages that are compatible with humans is otherwise completely logical?


 * How does Goku ever figure out what it was that killed Grandpa Gohan? IIRC, Gohan told him never to look at the full moon (presumably after seeing Goku transform into his giant ape form once), but Goku did anyway somehow and killed him. Goku never has any recollection of his actions when he's in that state, so how did he know that it was a giant ape that killed Gohan? How did he end up connecting Vegeta's transformation to 'the same monster that killed my Grandpa'? At any point, does he ever realize what he did, and that he did it?
 * In DBZ Season 1, Vegeta tells Goku about the Oozaru transformation. (Keep in mind that no one ever told Goku this; they just said he shouldn't look at the full moon whilst sporting a Saiyan monkey tail.) After hearing that, it's so clear to him what happened that he actually becomes upset with his friends for keeping him in the dark. (Imagine if everytime you looked at the full moon, you woke up naked and confused, everything around you destroyed, and your friends all terrified, telling you to never look at the full moon again. Goku can be pretty goofy in the head sometimes but he's not blind.)
 * He actually DOES get upset at them?
 * Well, he keeps it to himself, but yes.
 * Typical Goku fashion, he doesn't dwell on it too long and it's never referred to again.
 * Also, when he's first told about the full moon being out in the first season of Dragon Ball, he tells his friends that Grandpa Gohan told him about a giant monkey that came out when the moon was full. Full-moon-giant-monkey-leaves-footprints-on-Grandpa plus Vegeta-makes-artificial-full-moon-and-turns-into-giant-monkey equals obvious, even to Goku.
 * You killed my grandfather! (No, really, he said that to Vegeta. After being explained that all Saiyans with tails do that, he put 2 and 2 together and got 4).
 * Actually, that was just the Ocean Dub.
 * It's in the Viz translated manga too. Vegeta's very amused.


 * Why do people keep say Toriyama originally intended to end the series at the Freeza Saga when there is absolutely no proof of it?
 * He actually said so in a Shonen Jump interview. Actually, it was an extension for the loyal fans, but more because of Executive Meddling that it continued.
 * He's also said that his initial plan was to stop it after the Piccolo arc: Goku's grown up and married, he finally won the Budokai, Piccolo's defeated, everybody's alive and happy.
 * Fun fact: Dragon Ball Z Kai is touted as being DBZ "as the creator original intended it," so it's likely to end without ever getting into the Garlic Jr. Saga or beyond. Tough break on that version of Krillin (what with not getting the hot, blonde wife).
 * No, Kai is going through the whole series. Except Garlic Jr., of course, since that's filler.
 * It's just something that went around in the early days of the internet that people just accepted without question. The supposed interview where he mentions this never existed; see the following essays on Toriyama's writing process and his actual statements on ending/continuing the series.
 * The only documented ending points that this troper knows of are 1) When he said he'd planned to end it after they gathered the dragon balls and 2) When he said in one of the early post-volume letters that he was thinking of running it for 10 volumes.

B) As we saw when Piccolo and Krillin used the Tri-form against Nappa, and he swatted them, it probably wouldn't have helped much.
 * Why can't Piccolo hatch demon warriors like Demon King Piccolo could? I mean, they're both standard Namekians, and Piccolo is a clone of his dad, after all. Come to think of it, why didn't Nail just hatch himself an army once Frieza started killing stuff? Come to think of it again, why didn't Kami try that once he got wind of Vegeta and Nappa? Before you say "too old", Demon King Piccolo made Tambourine and Cymbal before wishing himself back to youth. And even if they were fairly weak, an army would've been nice to have against the saiyans.
 * Good news for you: the live action movie combines Picollo Daimaoh with Picollo Jr., thus giving "Picollo" the ability to summon monsters.
 * A) IIRC, generating a minion of useful strength literally took years off King Piccolo's life. Piccolo Jr. most likely knew this and preferred to rely on his own power.
 * The way I see it, that's just not Piccolo's style under any situation, and we all saw what came of the last guy made out of Kami, so I can see him being apprehensive about the idea.
 * And Yajirobe, who is no match for Demon King Piccolo, was literally eating Demon Warriors for breakfast.
 * He could have at least used them against those weird little plant man minons that Nappa planted, so as to even the playing field...
 * Each of the Saibamen was as strong as Raditz was. He didn't want to risk any kids being killed instantly- he was starting to have a Heel Face Turn, so he wouldn't want to give birth literally for no reason but to condemn the kids to death.
 * Incidentally, this probably explains where Cell got the ability to produce offspring.


 * What's with all the grunting sounds? How many times have we all seen stuff online about Z fighters taking a crap?
 * Presumably, because a character producing absurd amounts of power with obvious difficulty and staying dead silent the entire time would be really freakin' weird. The grunting sounds are annoying (and, of course, lend themselves to lowbrow humor) but a lack of them would be disconcerting.
 * Try clenching your muscles really really hard as if you are charging up. Hurts a little. Imagine doing this while generating on the order of (estimating) several giga-joules of energy.
 * I don't know about you guys, but hearing that grunting actually psyched me up. Maybe I'm just weird.

B) Toriyama was openly sick of the series by this time and was fond of running crap up the flagpole and seeing who saluted (See also, Mystic!Gohan's build-up and rapid pwnage). C) This still doesn't explain why Pan couldn't do it. (The handwave there is that the ability to go SSJ is Y-chromosome-linked)
 * Why the heck are Trunks and Goten so stupidly powerful? Goten especially. He achieves Super Saiyan at, what? Age 8? Younger? At that age, Goku, a full-blooded Saiyan, mind you, was running from bees and finding himself an even match with Yamcha.
 * It was stated somewhere that Saiyan/Human hybrids are abnormally powerful, for example, Gohan. It could also be the fact that when they Goku and Vegeta did their wives, they were both already Super Saiyans, giving them the "trait" to access Super Saiyan as easily as they could.
 * You just said "for example Gohan" but Goku wasn't Super Saiyan when he fathered Gohan, remember?
 * I believe that troper was referring to how insanely powerful Gohan was at such a young age, compared to his father or Piccolo. Also consider that Chi-chi wasn't a bad fighter in her own right, either.
 * And don't you need to be, like, emotionally focused to the breaking point to achieve Super Saiyan in the first place? Yeah, I know they're supposed to be stronger then their parents, somehow, but this is just ridiculous.
 * Lamarck Was Right?
 * A) The standard Hand Wave is that once Goku and Vegeta reached SSJ level, it altered their genes, giving Chibi!Trunks and Goten the ability to go SSJ at will.
 * Who says Pan couldn't? she shows up younger at the end of the series than Trunks and Goten did, so there's still time (and GT isn't canon)
 * Actually, Toriyama stated that Pan couldn't because a person has to have more Saiyan blood than human blood to turn SSJ and Pan is only 1/4 Saiyan. Toriyama later added that he really just didn't want to draw Pan as a SSJ because he thought it would be too difficult.
 * YMMV on GT's canonicity, but that Goku/Vegeta Jr fight was a complete farce. There is evidence to support the fact that either the Y Chromosome or 1/4 is the cut-off point for Super Saiyan. The only two prerequisites for being a Super Saiyan are sufficient power and sufficient motivation. No one can tell me that, at any point during the Baby, Super 17 or Shadow Dragon saga, whilst watching her entire family get critically injured, did she not once find the motivation to go Super Saiyan 1. Yes it wouldn't have helped in the slightest, but thats not the point for a girl who is essentially a younger version of Videl - she would have tried to help anyway. She was also at least as strong as Goten during the early part of the Buu saga - so really the only two reasons are plot hole and Toriyama's open contempt for what his series had become.
 * D) Nobody ever told them it was supposed to be hard. Vegeta could likely have achieved it much much earlier if he hadn't had a complex about "legendary Saiyans" and "pure hearts" and "chosen ones".
 * Saiyan-human hybrids always have an easier time reaching Super Saiyan, but it never pans out; this gets amplified as the Saiyan blood gets more diluted. Straight-up Saiyans like Goku, Vegeta, and Broly always come out on top.
 * Although this seems to be more Executive Meddling than any real intent on Toriyama's part. Look at Gohan during the Saiyan and Frieza arcs, where his barely trained power was on par with Goku's (pre-SSJ transformation). The intent was clearly for Gohan to surpass his father in power - a POV made explicit during the Cell Games. It was only during the Buu Saga - where Toriyama was more or less throwing shit against the wall and seeing what stuck - where you got insta-Super Saiyans.
 * This isn't entirely true. In Future Trunks's flackbacks in the Cell saga (manga only), it shows him at an early age, sparring with his timeline's Gohan. He's already Super Saiyan at that point.


 * How the HFIL is Gohan such a remarkably well-adjusted individual? Lets review his childhood, shall we?
 * Age 4-5(Raditz, Piccolo's training): Dad dies. Training From Hell by Satan away from home and family
 * Technically, Satan junior, who is Satan's clone-son, but still....
 * So, not The Devil, The Antichrist.
 * "DODGE!"
 * Age 5-7(In Space): In space, still away from home and family, "company" and adult influences a grown woman pushing 30 and childlike midget. Witness to genocide, fighting for own life nigh-constantly. Best friend/only adult influence (the childlike midget) dies.
 * Age 7-8(Between return to earth and arrival of Trunks, Garlic Jr. goes here) : Vacation, at home. Everyone on earth suddenly against him, must save God, fighting closest family and friends. Dad MIA.
 * Garlic Jr. is insignificant anime filler.
 * Still, must have been psychologically taxing in the animeverse.
 * But the animeverse is insignificant filler and thus has no bearing on Gohan's canon psychology.
 * I disagree. While the anime is filled with stuff that wasn't in the manga and filler material, it does have some level of canon. I know it's hard to accept what with all the contradictions but the anime IS the next highest level of canon after the manga. However Garlic Junior seems to be somewhat of an exception, as it has no mention at all in the manga and thus is a bit disputed.
 * Screw it, lets just call them two alternate universes. Mangaverse becomes Dragon Ball Online, Animeverse becomes GT, all the arguing over filler, canon and stuff just ends and everybody is happy.
 * Age 8-11(training for androids, androids): More Training From Hell, threat of apocalyptic level robots killing everyone he knows and loves hanging over his head. Followed by several weeks of on the run and hiding from undetectable killer robots.
 * He doesn't consider it training from hell at all. He's with his Dad and beloved Piccolo, after all.
 * The threat of killer robots fated to kill them all probably weighed on his mind a bit
 * 11-12(year in Room of Spirit and Time): Still more training, now in nigh-solitary confinement with nigh-sensory deprivation, uncomfortable climate, and extreme gravity
 * Doesn't consider it training from hell.
 * What? Goku himself points out that he woudn't have been able to psychologically handle it at Gohan's age. Nobody could be there for any extended period of time without going loco. It may have been fun for the first few weeks, but not much past.
 * To clarify, he doesn't consider it Training From Hell because he's with his Dad. If he was alone like Goku was at that age, of course he wouldn't be able to stand it either.
 * Age 12(vs Cell): Sees dad die again, bit of a mental breakdown seen while fighting Cell. Saves world (barely), extreme injury, no recognition or appreciation whatsoever.
 * No argument there.
 * At least he hears his Dad say "Gohan, I'm so proud of you!"
 * *sniffle* Crowning Moment of Heartwarming *sniffle*
 * He doesn't really care about recognition. On the other hand, him indulging his super powered evil side is the reason that Goku was dead in the first place.
 * 12-19(pre-Buu timeskip): Living at home in boonies with psycho mother and no contact with any of closest friends
 * Mother is not psycho. Grandfather is there too. Beloved little brother is around too. Does not appear to mind living in the boonies.
 * Not psycho? She's literally trying to suppress the instincts of 50% of his genome and putting the planet at risk so she can have a smart son. And he doesn't mind? He's probably just bottling any problems up.
 * To him she's not psycho. Remember he does want to be a scholar, far more than he wants to fight, despite his great fighting potential.
 * Has contact with other people. It is mentioned he visits Trunks (and obviously Trunks and Goten play together), and Bulma told him before going to school that showing his new strength could be trouble. I assume given he isn't as clueless as his father, he takes advantage of his speed to visit Kame House on occasion. He is still seems to have no friends his age, but he does have social contact outside his family. Although, now that I think about it, he does visit Dende, who is roughly his age, despite being God and all.
 * How the hell did a guy with his formative years spent like that end up a well-adjusted functioning member of society easily mistakable in manner for a librarian, and not a semi-psychopathic bundle of neuroses?
 * Well, right around where your list ends, he becomes active as the Great Saiyaman. Is this well-adjusted? Sure, there's all kinds of stuff going on in this Verse, but Sentai heroism comes across as... less than sane. Also, he retires from any and all serious villain-bashing at this point, despite being powerful enough to turn some of those tides (Buu Saga fuck-up notwithstanding).
 * Would you really want to see The Great Saiyaman as a Nineties Anti-Hero?
 * Yes, yes I would. Also, his "human" persona seems to be a bit Stepford Smiler in post-Cell Z, and shallow in GT. This troper assumes he stayed snapped after Cell, and just used some psychological cellophane tape instead of trying to work things out nice and proper. (Perfect fodder for a 90s antihero Great Saiyaman.)
 * Given how unflappable both his parents are, it would've been more surprising if he was more screwed up.
 * And, even besides that his whole Great Saiyaman thing, he's screwed up anyway. When he gets angry he turns into a brutally different person? Who loves to sadistically beat the life out of anyone who angers him? Yeah, that's normal... And, even said, there was a pretty good story on a particular website many of us know of that deals with Babidi choosing him as his Majin warrior instead of Vegeta just for the sadistic hell of it.
 * And after all, the kid is half-Saiyan. Judging by what little we know of Saiyan society it seems to be a rather brutal, militaristic, and chaotic lifestyle. The traditional Saiyan childhood probably involves a lot of fighting for one's life and watching friends and family members get killed. Setting aside the psychological implications of the whole Great Saiyaman thing, maybe Saiyans are just naturally better at dealing with emotional trauma.
 * Gohan's been surrounded all his life by people who've grown up among chaos, violence and weirdness, presumably they've helped him adapt to that kind of life, especially Piccolo. That, and he seems to have inherited his happy-go-lucky streak from his father. As for the physical trauma, I'm pretty sure that after all that Training From Hell he doesn't mind at all. That and Saiyans seem to have a pretty high pain tolerance.
 * Btw, according to my math, Gohan would've been between 9 and a half and 10 when he fought Cell, not 12. In DBZ volume 20 it says he is 16 years old, and then Chichi mentions it's been 7 years since she last saw Goku. 16-7 = 9, 10 at most if he'll be 17 later that year.
 * He was six during the Namek saga, year later Frieza shows up on Earth(seven), three years later the Androids show up(ten), spends the better part of a year inside the hyperbolic time chamber(eleven) and fights Cell. So he's ten/eleven during the Cell fight; I could be remembering it wrong and if I'm not it was probably just anime filler, but I'm fairly sure there was an episode detailing his eleventh birthday party just prior to the cell games, actually.
 * I think the "five" age in the original English dub was a deliberate translation error. Not sure what difference that would make.


 * Now that the Dragon Balls are as easy to find as picking flowers, how come Vegeta has never tried to bring back Planet Vegeta and his family? By the end of the series he's powerful enough that none of them would be a match for him, and Goku would just swat them down if they tried to take over any planets.
 * For the same reason Superman didn't travel back in time to save Krypton, or Batman didn't travel back in time to save his parents, even thought the JLA Watchtower has a time machine: because the story says so.
 * By that time, the Earth Dragon Balls could've only restored the planet, not the people. (One-year time limit to resurrect someone). The Namekian Dragon Balls could've circumvented this (maybe), but you'd need to make the wishes in the Namek native tongue. And The Nameks wouldn't have helped him (and not just because they'd remember him killing as many of their kind as Frieza).
 * I'm talking at any time in the series, not just during the Namek saga. After Buu, maybe. If necessary have Goku make the wish for you (bait him with the thought of super strong fighters). What I'm wondering is why Vegeta never even thought of it.
 * Still would've been far too late to resurrect the people with the Earth Dragon Balls (even the Goku!Balls)
 * Not necessarily. They had Dende as a new god who could make new Dragon Balls with new rules.
 * Which he did, and they still couldn't.
 * I don't remember them saying at that point that the old rule was still in effect. So many old rules had been tossed out at that point anyway.
 * Use the Earth Dragon Balls to find out how to phrase the wish in Namekian, then use the Namekian ones to make the main wish.
 * Which still leaves you with the problem with the Nameks saying "no".
 * Also (as reminded by the Deader Than Dead section), the Namek Dragon Balls can resurrect dead people multiple times, but it was explicitly stated that they can only bring back one person per wish. (See Piccolo's resurrection)
 * This limitation did no longer apply to the new Dragon Balls. During the Buu-Saga, they were able to revive all humans at the same time.
 * Why would Vegeta want to bring back his family? He's expressed his disdain for them several times in the series (notably to Doria and later to Freezer). He explicitly says he's not using the Dragon Balls to bring back Raditz, and he kills Nappa himself. The only Saiyan he ever gets any kind of respect for is Goku, and the first time he admits it is towards the end of the Cell arc.
 * There's a big difference between Vegeta not liking Raditz or his family all that much and Vegeta not caring that his entire species was essentially extinct. I mean, I guess you could say Vegeta didn't want to risk any other Saiyan surpassing him in power (early in the Frieza Saga he got all bent out of shape that a "common soldier" like Goku turned out to be more powerful than him) but even that seems a bit of a stretch...
 * Vegeta couldn't revive his race if he wanted to. Of course, when he realized Goku was resurrected, he thought of wishing for his own immortality before the Saiyan race. But even then, the Saiyans had been wiped out for twenty-five years. Arguably nothing could be done. Also, the resurrection of the Nameks killed by Freeza or in his name were resurrected. Not those by Vegeta. One would presume that they couldn't revive that group if they wanted. However, it would seem the Namekian Dragon Balls also have a one-year limit to death. Or in their case, three Namekian years. Also, what good is reviving the planet (If possible. It was destroyed over several decades ago), if the Dragon God can't revive the people?
 * A better question would have been, why didn't Vegeta use Earth's Dragon Balls to wish himself immortal? He considered it, but then just forgot about it. Isn't there a Hand Wave or something?
 * If I'm not mistaken, the reason why he wanted immortality in the first place was to always be able to eventually kill Freeza, no matter how many times he lost. After Freeza's death and attaining a family, it wasn't important to him anymore.

"Splits from the group after Pilaf.
 * Why has no one ever called Goku on his selfish bullshit? He'd disappear for - literally - years at a time, without a word to anyone. He decides it's time to come back how and EVERYONE (Except Vegeta) is all "OMG GOKU! YAYZ!"
 * Because it's not selfish most of the time. See here:

Reason: Roshi offered to let him live there; Goku said he would after the Dragon Balls were collected.

Leaves after 21st Tournament

To find his grandpa's Dragon Ball, and meets with everyone again over the next couple days anyway

Leaves after Baba's tournament

Roshi orders him to train on his own all over the world.

Leaves after the 22nd Tournament

To get vengeance for Krillin's death.

Stays on Kami's Lookout after King Piccolo

Deal to restore the Dragon Balls; everyone dies anyway if he doesn't.

Leaves after 23rd Tournament

Has a wife.

Leaves after Raditz.

Dead. And everyone else is dead if he doesn't jump through some Otherworld hoops.

Says no to coming back on Porunga's wish

In the middle of teleportation training, and learning to control the violent Super Saiyan form.

Leaves after Cell"

- Dead, can't be wished back. Note that even without his goodbye speech, Shenron had already said "Nope, can't do it" so it was a moot point.


 * Only at the end of Z does he just run off for selfish reason, and we don't get to see the reactions to him coming back.


 * I was referring more to his DBZ absences. He didn't owe anybody anything in Dragon Ball and was free to come and go as he chose. The ones I was referring to:
 * After Frieza: Chose not to come back, spends two more years in space. Doesn't tell anyone why.
 * I think the reason given for this was that he was learning how to control his newfound Super Saiyan powers out of fear that he would accidentally transform and hurt someone.
 * No, he never mentioned that. Goku's stated reason in canon is that he's learning teleportation from the Yadarat, and it took him a while year to learn it.
 * After Cell: Shenron couldn't bring him back for the same reason he couldn't simply yank him back after Frieza: He can't directly effect someone stronger than him, against his will (The same reason he couldn't simply zap Nappa and Vegeta before they got to Earth). With his wife and son listening in, he straight up states he doesn't want to come back. Note that he's an even bigger Jerkass in the manga. At least in the anime he gives some bullshit "everything bad that's happened is directly my fault and if I'm gone, those things won't happen" excuse. In the Manga? "All the strong guys are dead or related to me. Earth is boring, I'm going exploring."
 * Don't make stuff up. In the manga he uses the same "everything bad that's happened is directly my fault and if I'm gone, those things won't happen" excuse, and this is AFTER Shenlong has said he can't bring Goku back not because he can't yank him back but because the new Dragon Balls that Dende made can't bring back anyone who has already been resurrected. Goku can't come back either way you cut it. And in fact, Goku is never revived by the Dragon Balls for the rest of the series. Read the post above you again. And read the manga too while you're at it.
 * After Buu - runs off from his wife and TWO sons (one of which he'd just found out about) to go train the Uub, Buu's reincarnation.
 * "After Buu"? "Just found out about"? He stayed with his family for ten years after Buu's death before running off to train Uub.
 * There's also nothing that indicated he didn't make trips to visit his family during the training period of Uub (and GT doesn't exist in canon, so don't bring it up) it's not like it'd take him more than 5 seconds with his teleportation.
 * In fact, he explicitly mentions to Pan that he will visit (in episode 276/291 in the anime). He says this in the manga too, btw.
 * Also, this is part of the charm of Chichi/Milk's character: she's the only one who sees Goku as a selfish asshole who constantly runs away from his home and family to fight.
 * 'Charm'? There's a word I've never heard in connection to Chi-Chi.
 * Try "lethal fascination."
 * Would YOU want to be Chichi's husband?
 * Oh yeah. I would wreck that chick.
 * Also, if you point out out Goku loves a good fight (not marital), and loves a good rival even better, being a Saiyan, Goku just felt compelled to train Uub. Yes. That's right. The word is train. Not so selfish when you look at it from that point of view is it? I mean, only a guy like Goku would want to help a boy with a vast potential control his powers so that he can be a hero like him. And that's not say he didn't have his rematch with Vegeta, say hello to his many friends and visit and spend time with his family.
 * Given everyone's reaction when he reappeared in GT, I'd say he didn't visit, or at least he didn't very often. And, frankly, it's not that training Uub did all that much good, in the long run.
 * Who cares what GT says? Discontinuity, anyone?
 * Fanon Discontinuity (and Fanon) are an individual thing, not a "you have to agree" thing. I see it as, Animeverse leads to GT, Mangaverse leads to Online. And I prefer the Animeverse.
 * Not quite true. GT relies on Z more so than Z leads to GT, although in some dubs you see GT foreshadowing from Z (like Elder Kai's opposition to using the dragon balls). "Animeverse" is supposed to be the "Mangaverse" with more depth (ie: it relies on it).
 * Besides, the cast never keep in contact with each other between arcs.
 * Well, before the final tournament Bulma points that Goku is the only one who doesn't show at reunions.
 * Okay, just so that I can include a bit more on the whole not coming back at the end of the Cell Games: Yeah, okay, Shenlong couldn't bring him back, because he was wished back to life once before. However, Goku could've been selfless this time and simply said, "Okay! Use the Namekian dragonballs! King Kai and I know where it is, and we'll help you get there!" He was being a total ass to his son and wife. If I were Gohan, I would've turned into SS 2 and asked Shenlong to teleport me to whereever Goku was and beat the crap out of him.


 * Seriously - why was Tien the only one not willing to let Vegeta off the hook for all the nasty things he did? Not attacking him because he could kill you without effort is one thing. But the other Z-Senshi were downright chummy with him. (Well, as chummy as you could be with Vegeta).
 * Yamcha never had much of a backbone, Krillin outright says he doesn't antagonize Vegeta (and Piccolo, for that matter) so they won't go on a rampage, Gohan has practically zero interaction with him, and Goku's just that kind of guy. Nobody else is anywhere near his weight class.
 * Also, think about what happened to Tien in the Saiyan Arc. Sure, Piccolo and Yamcha also died at Nappa's hand, but Tien had to watch Chiaotzu die in a vain attempt to kill Nappa, and then he had his freaking arm torn off before he died too.
 * Speaking of which, Nappa killed all their friends,and Vegeta killed Nappa.So,shouldn't that help his case?
 * Nope, because he didn't kill him out of repentance or penance but because Nappa was embarrassing him. It's the thought that counts, not the deed.
 * By the time Cell and the androids rolled around, even Ten Shin Han accepted Vegeta as part of the team.
 * Even with all these guys, to call their relationships "chummy" is an extreme exaggeration. They put up with him and vice-versa, but all the way to the end of the Cell saga, the only one who even tries to be friendly with Vegeta is Goku. Even Gohan keeps his distance until the Saiyaman saga, by which point Vegeta had softened up considerably.
 * Except for Bulma, who has a kid by and later MARRIES the man responsible for her ex-boyfriend's death.
 * Well, Krillin implied/told Bulma during Freeza's return episodes that it would be a good idea to become friends with Vegeta so that he can do a Heel Face Turn. They are likely "Friends with Benefits," by the Cell Saga.
 * Even Bulma still thinks he's a huge jerk all the way to the end of Cell Saga...which leaves us fans to be eternally tormented by the question of how exactly they got far enough to err, produce Trunks. This troper suspects alcohol was involved.
 * This troper agrees with the above statement about alcohol.
 * The Cell Saga made it clear that what Vegeta and Bulma had was lust, not love. See Trunks' blushing confession that their relationship was "more of a physical thing." (other troper question: where is this line stated? I don't remember it) This Troper could easily see them as the anime equivalent of The Bickersons. The really WT Fery comes with the Great Saiyaman story where they're Happily Married. Note that neither the manga nor anime try to explain how those two have stayed together without a murder occuring.
 * How? They're raising a child together. Neither wants to hurt little Trunks, so they don't separate, and they find common ground in raising him and such. Insert generic romance movie here.
 * Future Trunks is responsible for that. In 'his' timeline Bulma and Vegeta never did get together, but thanks to Vegeta meeting FT in this timeline he realized "you know my son's a pretty cool guy" and he wanted to stick around and raise him. Cue Happily Married for them and "my dad wasn't so bad" for Future Trunks and everybody's happy.
 * I think I solved the Bulma-Vegeta puzzle. Calculating her age at the time Trunks was born she would've been 31/32-ish. Nothing like The Attack of the Biological Clock Blues to make the nearest vaguely male alien look attractive. As for Vegeta, who'd turn down a free slice of hot poontang pie?
 * The answer to this question is pretty easy to explain. It's basically kinda like in Watchmen between Edward Blake(the Comedian) and Sally Jupiter (the first Silk Spectre), without the Attempted Rape. As Future Trunks explained, Yamcha and Bulma broke up. Bulma was feeling very lonely, but then she saw in Vegeta the same loneliness and his gradual decency (but not that much yet), masked by pride. They had a one-night stand, but no romance developed further from there until years later. That's all. Nothing confusing about it. That's how they can dislike each other, but still have a kid together. Plenty of examples like that in Real Life.
 * Further question, how the hell do Saiyans "produce" with humans without any major squick happening?
 * What's Squick about it? We can tell from naked pics of Goku from his childhood that Saiyans are built exactly like humans, except for the tail thing. In a world populated with flying cats, talking pigs and dinosaurs, a human (or so they think) with a tail isn't anything to be squicked out about. No one's squicked by Tenshinhan, for example, and he's got three eyes. And as for Bulma she most likely didn't care.
 * I think he's talking about the Saiyans "breaking" their partner. Remember, even though he WAS in SS at the time Goku shattered a wine glass by accident. With two fingers. Now then imagine what happens when they're all "riled up" and don't have the best self control
 * AFAIK only Goku has problems controlling his strength in the manga (remember him whacking Chichi by accident). All the other Saiyan and Saiyan hybrids hold themselves back just fine. It's either because of his head trauma or because he's just plain Goku.
 * Or, you know, Rule of Funny.
 * Vegeta is awful forgiving awful fast. I know becoming the most powerful being on the presumably in the universe can put you in a mighty good mood but honestly after at everything Gohan and Krillian put him through both intentionally and unintentionally there is no way they'd still be alive when Goku arrives two years later if I'm Vegeta. I kill Piccolo and Gohan out right because they are threats expecially if I let my gaurd down. I don't believe Goku's alive so I'm not worried about him showing up. Meanwhile I either train up to Super Saiyan which I now know is possible OR I install myself as the the new emperor of Earth. Sure it ends badly for me when Goku shows up and curb stomps me but no way is the kid who screwed me out of immortality getting a pass.
 * At the end of the Namek saga, Piccolo was pretty much his equal. "Just kill Piccolo" just wasn't going to happen. Not to mention Vegeta's purpose in life was destroying Frieza and becoming the strongest Saiyan ever. With Goku swiping both goals out from under him, his focus shifted to defeating/surpassing Goku. Ruling Earth never crossed his mind. And even if it did: Again - Piccolo (who, at this point, still had his trump card of re-merging with Kami)
 * We don't have anyway of knowing if Kami would have consented. Considering he didn't use that solution with Vegeta and Nappa, a decision that directly led to his death, and how hestant he was to step into the andriod situation it's likely that King Vegeta is not a sufficient threat for him to accept that.
 * Piccolo was nowhere near Vegeta's level. He didn't get much of a chance to show off after his final Namek-era power-up (assuming that being resurrected didn't give him yet another one), but Vegeta was able to flat out outrun(fly) an attack that Piccolo only saw as a glint of light that instantly caused people/islands behind him to die. On the other hand, without Frieza to try and overthrow, he had no real reason to try and avenge himself on the guys that had nearly gotten themselves killed repeatedly (or actually, in Kuririn's case) helping him overthrow Frieza, and put themselves in harm's way to save his life at least once (against Recoome). He only wanted the immortality so that he could beat Frieza, so as long as they leave him alone now that all that is done with, he's just dandy with training himself to Goku's level. Besides, he might even appreciate his first beating, considering that it was what allowed him to stand a chance against Frieza's men on Namek.
 * What's with Dr. Gero and Androids? Okay, I can understand making yourself an android and converting two young adults into cyborgs. I can even understand making a Gentle Giant like #16. But why would you make your partner a bastardized Chinese doll? Why would you make your earlier androids some silver guy with a ponytail and the most racist caricature ever of a black man? And why would you make the android directly preceding him a perfect fit for a KKK rally, Southern accent and all?
 * Can't speak about 19 (the doll), but 13 (the southern guy), 14 (the ponytailed guy) and 15 (the purple guy) only appear in a Movie, therefore aren't canon (at least their appearance isn't).
 * Two things: one, if you had a battle machine powerful enough to destroy a city in the blink of an eye at your beck and call, would you really care what does it look like? Two, the whole racial caricature and southern accent comes from the Funimation dub. In the original Japanese (and Latin American for that matter) dub, Androids 14 and 15 are nearly mute, save for a couple of “Son Goku” mutterings, while Android 13 speaks with no “accent”.


 * Why does almost every character treat Yamcha with extreme callousness during and after the Android arc? Yamcha lost the women he was with from his early teens to mid thirties to the sociopath who had previously killed him and its even implied he was planning on marrying her. Then later Yamcha finds out he's weak and quits defending the World which must be the equivalent of losing your job. His friends rather then support Yamcha, respond by making jokes that the baby isn't his or about his weakness. So much for True Companions, did the series turn into a Sadist Show when I wasn't looking?
 * Toriyama wasn't focusing on personal relationships at all at that time and all of the digs are Dub Text by Funimation.


 * Why are Saiyan hybrids considered to be so strong in this series? Saiyans by themselves are already a powerful race. They can become stronger everytime they heal from a near death experience, remain in their prime longer and can access certain transformations like the Great Ape and Super Saiyan which can increase their power up to 50 times their original. What possible trait could a human offer? Humans in this show are often show to be weak and pale in comparision to a Saiyan. The strongest human in the world is Krillin and he hasn't done anything on the league that any Saiyan can do, and most of the human characters are downright useless when it comes to fighting enemies like Frieza, Cell or Buu. Wouldn't a hybrid be weaker than a pure blooded Saiyan since the Saiyan blood would be diluted and they should in theory have their Saiyan traits weakened?
 * I never saw the Saiyan-Human hybrids to be necessarily "stronger" than their pure-blood Saiyans counterparts. It makes more sense if you look at it as Saiyans having greater ki potential (higher power levels) while Humans much more easily access, manipulate and strengthen that ki.
 * Saiyan-Human hybrids are explicitly stated to be stronger than pure-blood Saiyans, with a higher potential for strength. There's nothing to indicate that humans have better access or manipulation of ki.


 * What happened to Oolong's shapeshifting ability? I only saw the beginning of Dragon Ball, and throughout the entirety of Dragon Ball Z, Oolong doesn't shapeshift, not even once. Did he lose his power, or does he simply choose not to use it anymore or something?
 * It's simply not very useful. It lasts for precisely five minutes, and replicates appearance, not power level. He'd gain advantages of larger muscles and claws, but not the increased strength from higher ki levels, putting the transformation in the useless category long before Raditz lands.
 * He wouldn't even gain those advantages. He states that his strength remains exactly the same no matter what form he takes.
 * Indeed. Even before his Heel Face Turn, Oolong's transformations only served to frighten a local village into doing what he wanted. When it became clear that Goku would not be intimidated though, all he could do then was try to run away.


 * Is it possible to trap a person inside a Capsule House when it reforms into handheld form? In the Namek saga Bulma's house contains a fridge full of food - meaning that organic material can definitely be shrunk within. If indeed it is possible why all that messing around trying to use the Mafuba Wave during the King Piccolo saga when you could simply lure the guy into Kame House, press the magic button, stand back. Alternatively, if all else fails, a specially modified house would make a heck of a bigger target for the Mafuba than a bloody rice cooker...
 * I remember Roshi making sure everyone was out of the house (or was it Bulma?) before shrinking it down, so it's likely people can be shrunk but they probably won't survive the experience. As for the rice cooker, it's not just about getting Daimaoh into the thing, it's also about keeping him in there, which is much easier with a narrow opening (bottle, cooker) than with a huge house.
 * My guess is that the people won't shrink, thus breaking the house.
 * So what's the problem with attempting to trap him in the capsule house? If it kills him it's all the better, the only reason they attempt to capture him is because they can't think of a way to kill him in the first place.
 * As was said, the problem would be getting him in there, keeping him inside long enough to run outside and press the button, etc. The logistics of the situation demanded a surprise attack, not asking him inside for a nice cup of tea then barring all the doors and windows so he can't escape, etc.
 * Recall that when Roshi, Krillin, and Chaotzu were killed during the King Piccolo Saga, Bulma made special caskets to preserve their bodies. Those caskets were Capsule Corp. technology. A LIVING being, on the other hand...given that capsules don't have the mystical properties of the jar Roshi attempted to use, Piccolo may've just blasted his way out and automatically returned to normal size. Just a guess on that last part, though.
 * Disagree with half of the guesses above. Think it's entirely possible, and thus Fridge Horrorific. Like you said, Krillin, Roshi, and Chiaotzu were seen to be reduced to Capsule size inside the Freezer capsules. They could have been easily resurrected with the Dragon Balls while still inside the capsule. Considering that the cast takes great care in DB to make sure no one is inside, it seems entirely possible. My guess is that it would almost EXACTLY like Pokemon: you're trapping living creatures in a small containment thing that forcibly shrinks them so they fit inside. You could thus easily hide bodies, money, ANYTHING inside a capsule. The Fridge Horror comes from the fact that anyone could do it any day of the week. It never came up in the writing, but you'd think there has to be some sort of safety release or law that explicitly prevents such exploitation of the capsule system. If there isn't, then the Briefs family obviously has some other business making them rich.
 * As mentioned above, the fact that Bulma makes sure everyone is out before shrinking the house means that either a)capsules don't work when living things are inside or b)the results are so horrific no one willingly does it.


 * If Bulma was the one who made the Dragon Radar that gave her the opportunity to search for the Dragon Balls better than anyone else could before, and it was her skills at inventing that helped her make it, why do so many other people have their own kind of Dragon Radar?
 * Contrary to what Bulma would have us think, she's not the only big brain on DBZ's Earth
 * Red Ribbon's radar was created by Dr. Gero, and Bulma acknowledges he's a genius too.
 * Well, the truth is, those other Dragon Radars tend to suck. They either take up an entire room, are not all that accurate, or have other limitations. Bulma seems to be able to make these out of spare parts in DB.
 * IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!
 * Well a psychic baby was able to build one out of broken pieces of the same device.
 * To be fair, that entire segment was pretty much a Big Lipped Alligator Moment in order to give a fond cameo to the cast of Dr. Slump, what with the Fourth Wall breaking and a guy who has used Toon Physics to build things that made the time-space continuum his bitch being impressed by a portable global radar system.
 * By "other people" do you mean average people or the main characters? If it's the former, she probably doesn't sell the technology because she doesn't want anyone other than the main characters finding the Dragon Balls. That might sound selfish, but since the Z warriors are often busy saving the universe and working alongside deities, it makes sense that they would want the Dragon Balls to be available to be used during critical situations. As for why she doesn't make a personal Dragon Radar for the other characters, maybe ie's because she fears that they - being the fight-crazy bunch that they are, always busy with training - might forget the radar somewhere, which would result in someone else finding it to possibly disastrous results.
 * So here is a quick and easy way for them to hide/transport the dragonballs on both Earth and Namek... capsule them. Put them in one of Bulma's capsule vehicles and shrink them. Why all the fuss of trying to hide the things when you can store the entire lot in your pocket? Also, whilst we have no way to be sure, wouldn't hiding the things in a capsule dampen the Electromagnetic signal they give off? would have been at least WORTH an attempt when you are trying to hide them from the Red Ribbon Army or Frieza's Trade Organization for example.
 * It's not really worth the effort. Frieza was the last villian searching for the Dragonballs and there is no reason to take precautions against guys like Pillaf at all.


 * Just out of curiosity, just how sick was Toriyama of the show toward the end? Why didn't he just let someone else handle it if he were tired of the series? Someone he could trust would do the series justice?
 * I can think of a reason.
 * Think about it: Why would he hand over an obvious cash-making series to someone else and have them recieve all the money instead? 'Tis a sad fact sometimes: The creator cares more about money than the thing he/she's working on, and it shows, especially during the Buu saga.
 * But if Toriyama wanted Gohan to be the hero of the Buu saga, why didn't he just go on and do it? To hell with what the fans and other poeple wanted! He created the damned thing, so he gets to have final say as to what happens.
 * If Gohan was born with a tail, why weren't any of the other part-Saiyans?
 * Real world answer? the producers were trying to distance themselves from the original series by limiting any more Monkey Boys. Notice how there are also no anthropomorphic animals either. I'm guessing its move away from adventure themed anime/manga to balls to the wall action anime/manga as well as the move away from the majority of the slapstick humour made them embarrassed of it; which if you agree with me that the original series was actually better than Z or GT it comes off as bit of an insult.
 * They may have been born with tails, but their respective families (Gohan for Goten, Vegeta for Trunks) knew how to permanently remove the tails so they wouldn't have to deal with the 'possible giant ape on full moon' thing.
 * Word of God / Shrug of God is that in saiyan/human crossbreeds, tails are recessive and Gohan's actually the freak of the bunch.
 * Did Vegeta and Bulma actually got married? They are treated as husband and wife late in the series, and in GT at least with its dubious canonicity Bulma calls herself the Wife of the Prince of the Saiyajin; but I know that doesn't mean they actually did the whole process.
 * I think we're supposed to assume they did the whole process during the three-year time skip before the Androids, or the seven-year time skip before Buu. You could ask the same of Krillin and 18. All we know is that they're apparently raising their daughter together, and apparently live together even though we don't see them do the actual wedding.
 * I believe in real life there's a concept called common-law marriage, where if two romantic partners live together for a long enough time they can be considered legally married in some jurisdictions. Maybe while parenting Trunks for seven years Bulma and Vegeta became married this way along the road?
 * If Vegeta and Bulma actually got married instead of just going common-law, then it would have been in the post-Cell pre-Buu time skip. It's generally implied that their relationship started as a purely physical thing and they only ever really bonded over their kid, and even that was only really a thing because Vegeta spent so much time with future-Trunks during the Cell Saga.
 * Where do Saiyanjin get psychic powers? I've seen a couple of fics in English mention them, but I'm pretty sure that in the Latin Dub (that's very close to the original) they don't have them. Did the English Dub gave the Saiyajin Psychic Powers or where they cut in Latin America?
 * I seem to recall Goku catching up to speed telepathically when he first arrives on Namek.

"Me:  Finally, another human I can talk to!"
 * Here's what I don't get: With all the times they've seen ki attacks decimate mountain tops, create giant craters in the ground, split the ground in half, etc, why do they always panic like it's the first time they've seen it? It's like if a roach killer suddenly freeze and gasp heavily whenever he sees a huge infestation of roaches. C'mon! You've seen this before!
 * Well, partly because they aren't just seeing it, they're feeling it. They can sense the output. Said output doesn't necessarily always match the visible results, however. Vegeta's self destruct attack against Buu was presumably far more powerful than, say, Frieza's planet busters, but the visible results were far less noticeable. We may just see a crater or ruble where a mountain used to be while their reaction is meant to be the indicator that even though this did less visible damage, it's more powerful than stuff we've seen before.
 * May have been discussed before: Why, in a world of cat and dog people, do normal humans seem to have near cardiac arrests when they see what appears to be ordinary humans with weird hair styles, yet don't react at all when confronted with said dog/cat people? I mean, if I were in that universe:

"Gohan: Hey, don't hate on the cat/dog people.
 * In-Universe, that'd sound incredibly racist.
 * Well, at least I wouldn't make myself look like an idiot for freaking out at some dude who, as far as anyone can tell, is just a regular human with weird hair. The racist part? Clearly an opening for character development where the Z-warriors teach me to not hate on people who are different from me. xD Think that kind of story doesn't exist in the DBZ universe? Observe!

Me: Why?

Monster Of The Week: RAWR!

Cat/Dog Person: 

Me: Well, I guess they're not so bad after all."


 * Why do people in the martial arts tournaments act like they've never seen flying before? Especially the announcer (seeing as he's apparently immortal.)
 * I assumed the announcer was hamming it up for the audience. Common with wrestling announcers who talk about how they've "never seen anything like this before!!!" when they see something that's happened dozens of times. Maybe the Three Month Rule and the Seven Year Rule apply to martial arts tournaments in the dragon ball universe.
 * Why didn't Piccolo take over as guardian of earth at some point after the Cell Saga? By that point he was considerably stronger than a regular super saiyan; one of the most stated limitations of the dragon balls is the dragon can't affect beings stronger than its creator. If Piccolo took over and made a new dragon, then Shenron's powers would presumably vastly increase. While this wasn't necessarily an immediate concern, what with Gohan and Vegeta still around to handle any threats during this time, Piccolo was going to outlive them and the dragon balls would still be around for hundreds of years, giving future generations a huge advantage.
 * Because by that point, Dende was the new Guardian of the Earth. Either it just never occured to Piccolo that he could take over after Kami, or he didn't want the job (didn't he once comment how he thought Kami's job was a waste?) I mean, if he did want to be the new guardian, he would've cut Goku's search short by saying that he'd gladly do it.
 * The reason Kami and Piccolo separated in the first place was because the evil that was inside the Nameless Namekian, which made him unfit to become Kamisama. After they reunited Piccolo was again unfit to become Earth's god so Dende had to stay permanently in place, he wasn't a temporal solution. Also, apparently only a Namek in a Planet's guardian/god position (Kami, Guru) is able to make Dragonballs in the first place, so there.
 * Except the evil inside the Nameless Namekian disqualifying him to be Kamisama was the OPINION of the previous Kami. He apparently was strong enough that he had to give up his position or at least the Namelss was polite enough not to force his hand. Also where is it stated that only a God/Gaurdian can create Dragonballs?


 * I know that Dragonball Z isn't really known for its scientific accuracy, but how come the Z fighters are able to hear each other while they're flying? The roar of the wind rushing past their ears should be enough to drown their voices out even if they're yelling. And let's not forget that later in the series these characters are clearly flying faster than the speed of sound (it's been mentioned several times that they're able to fly faster than the fastest jets), so in those cases they'd be outrunning the sounds their own voices, and then their voices would be drowned out by the sonic boom.
 * Ki enhanced hearing. Yes its a cop out but everything in this series is the result of either ki or magic.

And the WTO doesn't have to track their power levels. They control the Saiyans, and that includes the pods they travel in. They would only have to track the pods and where they were last sent.
 * Chilled was incredibly powerful, a lot more than we saw. We know that Frieza's species doesn't actually transform "up" to gain power, they transform DOWN to control their radical power. Chilled in his most restrained form was able breifly to hold off an attack from a Super Saiyan. Compare this to Frieza who needed his 4th form to fight a NON Super Saiyan. Judging by how much more powerful Frieza's 4th and Cooler's 5th form are Chilled probably would have curb stomped Bardock in form 2.
 * I'm sorry but who is Chilled? because he sounds like he has Ass Pull level powers to me.
 * He is the villain from the new Bardock manga and Ova, an ancestor of Frieza's family who fought SSJ Bardock and was defeated. Speaking of which, Bardock was around 10k points in the Special, if he got a Zenkai after Frieza's attack his power may have raised to around 20k, so when he transformed into SSJ his power would have gone up to around 500k-1M, if Bardock was able to defeat Chilled he would have had to be much weaker than that, which makes him inferior to Form 1 Frieza.
 * I'm not going to argue Personal Continuity here because we all have the right to discover our own interpretation of how a story should be told. However plot holes as glaring as that one is why barely canon manga/films such as this tend to drag down the entire franchise. For example if we were to assume both Chilled and Cooler are real, then how the hell did Frieza become so feared and powerful when he was so god damn weak in comparison to the rest of his family? Also the family theme naming is starting to get pretty ridiculous. I would bet real money we will one day encounter the dreaded Icebox.
 * You could make argument that Frieza is the most powerful member of his family. Chilled never got started, all we know for certain is he couldn't beat a Super Saiyan in his weakest form. As for Cooler he had to transform to a fifth form to fight Goku and got destroyed when Goku went Super Saiyan. All the evidence suppors Frieza>Cooler. King Cold and Chilled we honestly don't have enough data to chart them.
 * Fourth form Frieza was 120million, Fifth form Cooler was 470million(Frieza was stronger than Cooler's fourth form, though). That being said, we're not entirely clear on how the species transformations work. Yes, we know they transform down to limit their power instead of transforming up to increase it, and yes we know that Frieza's fourth form was his true form. We do not, however, know for certainty that Chilled wasn't in his true form when he fought Bardock. Likewise, we don't know that Cold is actually in his "second form" or that Cooler is actually in his "fourth form". Just because their appearances are similar to Frieza's various forms doesn't mean they have the same number or equate to the same relative level of power.
 * Where is it documented that Fifth Form Cooler was 470 million? Super Saiyan Goku wasn't that much stronger than Frieza and in Cooler's revenge he clearly hadn't managed to master transforming at will. I find it hard to believe he was over 500 million in the movie.
 * Freezer’s battle power was one million five hundred thousand while Goku’s was three million. Heck, to give you an idea, Broly’s BP is thirty three million; enough to beat up the Super Saiyan 2 with ease. So yeah, four hundred and seventy million is a bit of an exaggeration. That aside, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to assume Cooler has a better control of his powers as well as having surpassed the limits by getting an extra transformation. Can’t speak about King Cold, though. And as for Chilled…evidently Toriyama was in the need to remodel his kitchen.
 * Planet Vegeta is composed of a society that has advanced enough technology to spread their warrior race across the galaxy and routinely send babies to other worlds where they will be expected to conquer said planets. Are we supposed to realistically believe that only 4 (8 if you count the movies) Saiyans weren't on Planet Vegeta at the time, or that Frieza systematically killed every stray Saiyan on the countless worlds that they inhabit? That is statistically impossible.
 * As far as I'm aware we have never had a canonical statistic on just how many Saiyans there were at the time of Frieza's genocide - given their warlike nature and the fact we have never seen a canonical female (unless you count Seripa in the Bardock Movie) I don't think its very unlikely at all that the Saiyan population numbered in the thousands. In fact I would go as far to say that they could have been on the endangered species list in a few generations. Secondly we have absolutely no proof that sending babies to other planets was a common practice as again we know of only one canonical example and that is Kakarot. Finally the World Trade Organization can track energy levels from a huge distance - if the portable eye mounted energy scouter has the range of a planet then its perfectly reasonable to assume they also have a far larger version situated on one of the Frieza occupied worlds that has a vastly superior reach. It should also be noted the the portable energy scouter has an interstellar communicator (Vegeta could listen in on Raditz a whole year away by space pod.) In the real world we can track mobile phones and radio signals so why can't the far more advanced WTO track the Scouters using a similar method?
 * A few misconceptions here: The Saiyans weren't advanced enough for that; it was someone else's tech that was either given to them or they took (I don't recall at the moment which). Sending babies out was described as common practice, but wasn't a sure thing. It was like the Spartans dumping weak infants off a cliff, only in this case the infants have a small chance of survival and (in the eyes of the warrior race that spawned them) redemption.
 * It still staggers belief that only four (eight if you count the movies) Saiyans managed to survive. We didn't see all of their planet but it's safe to assume there should have been millions of them not hundreds or thousands and based on how they were used there should have been more that escaped. Kinda like how nuking America and I mean every inch of it, wouldn't kill Americans. We've got enough bases in other places and people on vacation etc, etc that wouldn't be enough. It's at least implied that the Saiyans were basically the bad asses of Friezas army sparing charachters with names. Most of them don't seem to be able to fly and they have laser cannons because they can't shoot. Hunting down the last Saiyans when only your elites can safely approach a Saiyan doesn't seem like the sort of thing Frieza would bother with. It's true that they could be hunted based on their pods but two things. One they knew exactly where Goku was and apparently didn't care until Vegeta casually sent Raditz out so he could have a four man wrecking crew so clearly they weren't hunting very hard. (Either that or Earth is so far out from civilization that it wasn't worth it) And Scouters are ALWAYS ON. Once on wayward Saiyan started shouting holy crap Frieza's soldiers are attacking every other Saiyan should have gone into hiding. Personally my theory is there are a lot of Saiyans out on a lot of planets who don't know Frieza's dead and have no way of contacting each other without the Scouters they're afraid to use because it would give away their location.
 * The Saiyans didn't settle the planets they conquered. They blew up the inhabitants then sold it to Freeza. It's pretty likely that any Saiyan not on a mission or otherwise exiled was, in fact, on Planet Vegeta. And it wouldn't make any sense for all the scouters anywhere to be always on broadcasting everything the wearer heard and said. If they worked like that, nobody would wear them because there would be constant noise coming out of the earpiece.


 * Why aren't superhumans more abundant in this universe? We saw Gohan teach Videl how to fly and use Ki Attacks, and it's relatively simple to learn. Why don't more people do it?
 * Because they're aren't a whole lot of teachers? I mean, basically the only people that can fly are the main cast and relatives of the main cast and it's not like they're out there, searching for above average humans and teaching them to fight/fly. After a certain point in the series, most of them seem pretty content to just chill when there isn't some planet-threatening crisis, so training a bunch of humans to fly and then teach other people doesn't really seem like something they'd do.