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Changed line(s) 142 (click to see context) from:
*** As a final kick in the head towards Frieza, he was killed off by the future son of Vegeta in the main timeline, who was also a Super Saiyan. In the end, Frieza himself is the reason why the Super Saiyan exist, the very thing he was trying to prevent.
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*** As a final kick in the head towards Frieza, he was killed off by the future son of Vegeta in the main timeline, who was also a Super Saiyan. In the end, Frieza himself is the reason why the Super Saiyan Saiyans exist, the very thing he was trying to prevent.
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Changed line(s) 421,423 (click to see context) from:
* PoorCommunicationKills: Goku is more often the victim of theses:
** Failure of anyone not telling Goku about the Great Ape transformation. See LockedOutOfTheLoop.
** When fighting Android 19, Yamcha suspects that the androids can absorbs energy through their hands given what happened to him. He warns everyone, except Goku who was fighting.
** Failure of anyone not telling Goku about the Great Ape transformation. See LockedOutOfTheLoop.
** When fighting Android 19, Yamcha suspects that the androids can absorbs energy through their hands given what happened to him. He warns everyone, except Goku who was fighting.
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* PoorCommunicationKills: Goku PoorCommunicationKills:
**Goku is more often the victim of theses:
** Failure of anyone not *** No one telling Goku about the Great Ape transformation.transformations. See LockedOutOfTheLoop.
** *** When fighting Android 19, Yamcha suspects suspected that the androids can could absorbs energy through their hands given what happened to him when Android 20 grabbed him. He warns everyone, except Goku. No one found the need to tell Goku who until 19 absorbed his Kamehameha and recovered from all the damaged done to him. Worse, Goku was fighting.already falling sick and wasted a bunch of his energy on what he thought was the finishing blow.
***In the battle against Cell, Goku blew half of Cell's body away with a Warp Kamehameha. He is then left baffled for several minutes about why did Cell's remains still have so much energy. It wasn't until Cell was about to recover that Krillin warned Goku that Cell could regenerate. Goku could have used the time before Cell regrew to try and finish him.
**Despite Krillin saying that they came to Namek to revive several of his friends that were killed by the Saiyans, no one bothered to tell him that the Dragon Balls of Namek could only revive one person at a time.
**When Piccolo was wished to Namek after being revived, they never told the Namekian Dragon where to teleport him. So, he was on the other side of the planet when Frieza found them.
**When the Grand Elder was about to die for the final time, he told all the Nameks to gather only to find an entire village missing. Turns out it was because the wish stated to revive those killed by Frieza and his men. Vegeta killed that village and he wasn't working for Frieza.
**Gotenk not telling Piccolo that he could transform into a Super Saiyan 3. Gotenk wanted to play up the dramatics and pretended to be low on power to surprise everyone when he made his sudden comeback. Piccolo took Gotenk's at his word and destroyed the door to the time chamber, trapping them all inside.
**Goku is more often the victim of theses:
***In the battle against Cell, Goku blew half of Cell's body away with a Warp Kamehameha. He is then left baffled for several minutes about why did Cell's remains still have so much energy. It wasn't until Cell was about to recover that Krillin warned Goku that Cell could regenerate. Goku could have used the time before Cell regrew to try and finish him.
**Despite Krillin saying that they came to Namek to revive several of his friends that were killed by the Saiyans, no one bothered to tell him that the Dragon Balls of Namek could only revive one person at a time.
**When Piccolo was wished to Namek after being revived, they never told the Namekian Dragon where to teleport him. So, he was on the other side of the planet when Frieza found them.
**When the Grand Elder was about to die for the final time, he told all the Nameks to gather only to find an entire village missing. Turns out it was because the wish stated to revive those killed by Frieza and his men. Vegeta killed that village and he wasn't working for Frieza.
**Gotenk not telling Piccolo that he could transform into a Super Saiyan 3. Gotenk wanted to play up the dramatics and pretended to be low on power to surprise everyone when he made his sudden comeback. Piccolo took Gotenk's at his word and destroyed the door to the time chamber, trapping them all inside.
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*LockedOutOfTheLoop: Goku's transformation into a Great Ape when the moon is full is a secret known by most of the main cast. Goku doesn't knows this since he has a memory blank-out when he transform and his friends never tells him to save his feelings (he accidentally killed his own grandfather when he transformed). This comes to bite Goku in the butt when he was caught flat-footed when Vegeta transforms and doesn't know he could have changed his back by cutting his tail.
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*PoorCommunicationKills: Goku is more often the victim of theses:
**Failure of anyone not telling Goku about the Great Ape transformation. See LockedOutOfTheLoop.
**When fighting Android 19, Yamcha suspects that the androids can absorbs energy through their hands given what happened to him. He warns everyone, except Goku who was fighting.
**Failure of anyone not telling Goku about the Great Ape transformation. See LockedOutOfTheLoop.
**When fighting Android 19, Yamcha suspects that the androids can absorbs energy through their hands given what happened to him. He warns everyone, except Goku who was fighting.
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Changed line(s) 178 (click to see context) from:
** Vegeta IS this trope in the Namek Sage with his fight against Zarbon being among the best moments. Until about an arc and a half later when he makes a more genuine HeelFaceTurn, Vegeta is basically an evil guy killing even eviler guys.
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** Vegeta IS this trope in the Namek Sage Saga with his fight against Zarbon being among the best moments. Until about an arc and a half later when he makes a more genuine HeelFaceTurn, Vegeta is basically an evil guy killing even eviler guys.
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** Even if 17 and 18 did turned out to be as evil as their future counterparts, most still would cheer when 17 stepped on Gero's decapitated head.
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** Even if 17 and 18 did had turned out to be as evil as their future counterparts, most still would cheer when 17 stepped on Gero's decapitated head.
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Changed line(s) 156,157 (click to see context) from:
** Piccolo, cold and aloof, but do care for his friends, especially Gohan.
** Vegeta slowly evolved into this and finally becomes this trope near the end of the Buu Sage.
** Vegeta slowly evolved into this and finally becomes this trope near the end of the Buu Sage.
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** Piccolo, cold Piccolo. Cold and aloof, but do he does care for his friends, especially Gohan.
** Vegeta slowly evolved into this and finally becomes this trope near the end of the BuuSage.Saga.
** Vegeta slowly evolved into this and finally becomes this trope near the end of the Buu
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Changed line(s) 146 (click to see context) from:
** Likewise, few of the good guys on the series ever [[KilledOffForReal stay]] [[[DeathIsCheap dead]]. The two biggest exceptions are Guru and Android 16, each of whom could be listed as being among the most benevolent characters of the series. Each also had an incredible passion for the preservation of life in general, with Guru at one point literally passing away because the destruction of his people was too much to take, and 16 becoming entranced with the natural beauty that he felt around him on Earth.
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** Likewise, few of the good guys on the series ever [[KilledOffForReal stay]] [[[DeathIsCheap [[DeathIsCheap dead]]. The two biggest exceptions are Guru and Android 16, each of whom could be listed as being among the most benevolent characters of the series. Each also had an incredible passion for the preservation of life in general, with Guru at one point literally passing away because the destruction of his people was too much to take, and 16 becoming entranced with the natural beauty that he felt around him on Earth.
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** Likewise, few of the good guys on the series ever [[KilledOffForReal stay]] [[[DeathIsCheap dead]]. The two biggest exceptions are Guru and Android 16, each of whom could be listed as being among the most benevolent characters of the series. Each also had an incredible passion for the preservation of life in general, with Guru at one point literally passing away because the destruction of his people was too much to take, and 16 becoming entranced with the natural beauty that he felt around him on Earth.
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Changed line(s) 61 (click to see context) from:
** Vegeta attacking [[spoiler:Android 18 even after she breaks his left arm at the elbow.]] In fact, no matter what anyone throws at him, he just won't stay down! Heck, he and Frieza are the only canon characters that have ever stood up after being hit by the Spirit Bomb. [[spoiler: The first time he died, it took a blast ''straight'' through the heart to finally get the job done, and even then, it took a few minutes for him to actually die.]] There's also his epic beatdown by Kid Buu. No matter what Buu did to him, he wouldn't stay down, which actually ''scared' Kid Buu.
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** Vegeta attacking [[spoiler:Android 18 even after she breaks his left arm at the elbow.]] In fact, no matter what anyone throws at him, he just won't stay down! Heck, he and Frieza are the only canon characters that have ever stood up after being hit by the Spirit Bomb. [[spoiler: The first time he died, it took a blast ''straight'' through the heart to finally get the job done, and even then, it took a few minutes for him to actually die.]] There's also his epic beatdown by Kid Buu. No matter what Buu did to him, he wouldn't stay down, which actually ''scared' ''scared'' Kid Buu.
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Quite a few spelling errors on the page. A little bit of repetitiveness or redundancy in some categories. May need more checking.
Changed line(s) 74,75 (click to see context) from:
** On one hand, humans would have gone extinct without the Saiyans and Namakians protecting them and wishing them back with the dragon balls.
** At the same time, the majority of the show's conflicts would have never happened if Goku and Vegeta never came to Earth and Kami never made the dragon balls, which most of the sages revolve around. Not to say that humans would be completely better off since the Red Ribbon Army would still exist, King Piccolo would be older, but still terrorizing humans, and not to mention Babidi coming for Buu.
** At the same time, the majority of the show's conflicts would have never happened if Goku and Vegeta never came to Earth and Kami never made the dragon balls, which most of the sages revolve around. Not to say that humans would be completely better off since the Red Ribbon Army would still exist, King Piccolo would be older, but still terrorizing humans, and not to mention Babidi coming for Buu.
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** On one hand, humans would have gone extinct without the Saiyans and Namakians Namekians protecting them and wishing them back with the dragon balls.
** At the same time, the majority of the show's conflicts would have never happened if Goku and Vegeta never came to Earth and Kami never made the dragon balls, which most of thesages sagas revolve around. Not to say that humans would be completely better off since the Red Ribbon Army would still exist, King Piccolo would be older, but still terrorizing humans, and not to mention Babidi coming for Buu.
** At the same time, the majority of the show's conflicts would have never happened if Goku and Vegeta never came to Earth and Kami never made the dragon balls, which most of the
Changed line(s) 77,78 (click to see context) from:
** Goku was a savage toddler who may of went on to kill people if it wasn't for the kindness of Gohan Sr who taught him love. His head injury may of helped too.
** Piccolo, wanted to conquer the world and didn't care who got in his way, came to know love from Gohan, who is half-human, and renounced his evil past.
** Piccolo, wanted to conquer the world and didn't care who got in his way, came to know love from Gohan, who is half-human, and renounced his evil past.
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** Goku was a savage toddler who may of have went on to kill people if it wasn't for the kindness of Gohan Sr who taught him love. His head injury may of could have helped too.
** Piccolo, who wanted to conquer the world and didn't care who got in his way, came to know love from Gohan, who is half-human, and renounced his evil past.
** Piccolo, who wanted to conquer the world and didn't care who got in his way, came to know love from Gohan, who is half-human, and renounced his evil past.
Changed line(s) 80 (click to see context) from:
** Fat Buu, much like Vegeta was a mass-murderer, until he was shown the error of his ways by Mr. Satan and now lives a peaceful life.
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** Fat Buu, much like Vegeta Vegeta, was a mass-murderer, mass-murderer until he was shown the error of his ways by Mr. Satan Satan, and now lives a peaceful life.
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** In a negative example, the Nameless Namek was effected by all the negative aspects of humanity corrupting his good nature. To purified himself he split himself into Kami and the original Piccolo.
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** In a negative example, the Nameless Namek was effected affected by all the negative aspects of humanity corrupting his good nature. To purified purify himself he split himself into Kami and the original Piccolo.
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* IdenticalGrandson: Goku's family. Goku looks exactly like his father and Goten looks exactly like Goku (until Toriyama changes his hairstyle as Goten ages). Gohan, despite having different hair to Goku, has the same facial features. One notable aversion is Raditz, who looks nothing like Goku or their father, instead looking more like Vegeta.
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* IdenticalGrandson: Goku's family. Goku looks exactly like his father and Goten looks exactly like Goku (until Toriyama changes his hairstyle as Goten ages). Gohan, despite having different hair to Goku, has the same facial features. In the Japanese version, they all sound alike as well. One notable aversion is Raditz, who looks nothing like Goku or their father, instead looking more like Vegeta.
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** Played almost completely straight with the male members of the Son family. With the exceptions of Son Gohan, Sr. (who wasn't biologically related to Goku) and Raditz (Goku's brother), Goku's biological father and his sons bear an incredible resemblance to him (Goten much more so than Gohan). In the Japanese version, they all sound alike as well.
** Played straight with Vegeta, his father and his brother (Tarble). Averted with Vegeta's children (although they both look a lot like their mother).
** Played straight with Vegeta, his father and his brother (Tarble). Averted with Vegeta's children (although they both look a lot like their mother).
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** Played almost completely And Vegeta himself still plays this straight with the male members of the Son family. With the exceptions of Son Gohan, Sr. (who wasn't biologically related to Goku) and Raditz (Goku's brother), Goku's biological father and his sons bear an incredible resemblance to him (Goten much more so than Gohan). In the Japanese version, they all sound alike as well.
** Played straight with Vegeta,his father and his brother (Tarble). Averted with Vegeta's children (although they both look a lot like their mother). (Tarble).
** Played straight with Vegeta,
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Changed line(s) 39,40 (click to see context) from:
** Gohan also beat Cell with one of his arms disable, much like Goku did against King Piccolo.
** Also, Gohan defeats Cell after reaching Super Saiyan 2, right after Cell provoked him into doing so by killing Android 16. Similarly, Goku won the fight with Frieza by attaining the original Super Saiyan form, which was due to Frieza killing Krillin.
** Also, Gohan defeats Cell after reaching Super Saiyan 2, right after Cell provoked him into doing so by killing Android 16. Similarly, Goku won the fight with Frieza by attaining the original Super Saiyan form, which was due to Frieza killing Krillin.
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** Gohan also beat Cell with one of his arms disable, disabled, much like Goku did against King Piccolo.
** Also, Gohan defeats Cell after reaching Super Saiyan 2, right after Cell provoked him into doing so by killing Android 16. Similarly, Goku won the fight withFrieza Freeza by attaining the original Super Saiyan form, which was due to Frieza Freeza killing Krillin.
** Also, Gohan defeats Cell after reaching Super Saiyan 2, right after Cell provoked him into doing so by killing Android 16. Similarly, Goku won the fight with
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** Also, Gohan defeats Cell after reaching Super Saiyan 2, right after Cell provoked him into doing so by killing Android 16. Similarly, Goku won the fight with Frieza by attaining the original Super Saiyan form, which was due to Frieza killing Krillin.
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*NotSoInvincibleAfterAll: Despite surviving many close calls, having every bone broken in his body at one point, and defeating the strongest being in the universe, Goku is laid flat on his back by a virus. In Trunks' timeline, it actually kills him. Future Gohan even lampshades this when musing about how he thought his father was invincible.
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**Piccolo and Gohan's relationship. Piccolo kidnaps Gohan to train to leave something of his legacy behind on Earth since he feels he may die to the Saiyans. He also wants to corrupt Gohan into his image and even muses about turning him against his own father. Instead Gohan corrupts him, turning the former Demon King into a good person who died protecting Gohan. This goes even further in the anime were Piccolo takes a shot meant for Goku saving his life.
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Changed line(s) 138 (click to see context) from:
** Frieza's attempts to wipe out the Saiyans so a Super Saiyan couldn't raise among them and challenge him as the strongest in the universe backfired for several reasons.
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** Frieza's attempts to wipe out the Saiyans so a Super Saiyan couldn't raise among them and challenge him as the strongest in the universe backfired for several reasons.reasons:
Changed line(s) 142 (click to see context) from:
*** As a final kick in the head towards Frieza, he was killed off by the future son of Vegeta in the main timeline. In the end, Frieza himself is the reason why the Super Saiyan exist, the very thing he was trying to prevent.
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*** As a final kick in the head towards Frieza, he was killed off by the future son of Vegeta in the main timeline. timeline, who was also a Super Saiyan. In the end, Frieza himself is the reason why the Super Saiyan exist, the very thing he was trying to prevent. prevent.
**The irony of Dr. Gero creating Cell. He wanted to make a bio-android so strong that it would kill Goku, the man he hated for destroying the Red Ribbon Army. Cell is made from cells of Goku, which means even if he did kill Goku part of him will still exist within Cell.
**Few characters in the series have never been killed. The one who was never killed that was featured the most prominently was Hercule, who also happened to be the weakest of all the characters to never be killed.
**The irony of Dr. Gero creating Cell. He wanted to make a bio-android so strong that it would kill Goku, the man he hated for destroying the Red Ribbon Army. Cell is made from cells of Goku, which means even if he did kill Goku part of him will still exist within Cell.
**Few characters in the series have never been killed. The one who was never killed that was featured the most prominently was Hercule, who also happened to be the weakest of all the characters to never be killed.
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*{{Irony}}
**Frieza's attempts to wipe out the Saiyans so a Super Saiyan couldn't raise among them and challenge him as the strongest in the universe backfired for several reasons.
***Because Frieza recalled all the Saiyans to their home planet so he could kill them all in one-shot it alerted Bardock that something was wrong. In response, Bardock and Gina sent their toddler son to Earth for his own protection. That child would grow up and challenge Frieza years later on Namek.
***Frieza's habit for SparingTheAces came back to haunt him since he didn't kill Vegeta because of how talented of a fighter he was. Although Vegeta couldn't directly challenge him and was killed by Frieza's hand, he set in motion events that led to his downfall, like making the Earthlings go to Namek to wish back their fallen friends, wounding Goku to make him stronger, and keeping Goku's friends alive (directly and indirectly).
***Finally, his terrible habit of toying with his opponents which kept Goku alive long enough to drop a Spirit Bomb on his head, which led to him picking off Goku's friends right in front of him, causing him to transform into a Super Saiyan.
***As a final kick in the head towards Frieza, he was killed off by the future son of Vegeta in the main timeline. In the end, Frieza himself is the reason why the Super Saiyan exist, the very thing he was trying to prevent.
**Frieza's attempts to wipe out the Saiyans so a Super Saiyan couldn't raise among them and challenge him as the strongest in the universe backfired for several reasons.
***Because Frieza recalled all the Saiyans to their home planet so he could kill them all in one-shot it alerted Bardock that something was wrong. In response, Bardock and Gina sent their toddler son to Earth for his own protection. That child would grow up and challenge Frieza years later on Namek.
***Frieza's habit for SparingTheAces came back to haunt him since he didn't kill Vegeta because of how talented of a fighter he was. Although Vegeta couldn't directly challenge him and was killed by Frieza's hand, he set in motion events that led to his downfall, like making the Earthlings go to Namek to wish back their fallen friends, wounding Goku to make him stronger, and keeping Goku's friends alive (directly and indirectly).
***Finally, his terrible habit of toying with his opponents which kept Goku alive long enough to drop a Spirit Bomb on his head, which led to him picking off Goku's friends right in front of him, causing him to transform into a Super Saiyan.
***As a final kick in the head towards Frieza, he was killed off by the future son of Vegeta in the main timeline. In the end, Frieza himself is the reason why the Super Saiyan exist, the very thing he was trying to prevent.
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Changed line(s) 174 (click to see context) from:
** During the Buu saga, Van Zant, an AxCrazy TriggerHappy lunatic who had gone on a killing spree for fun with the justification that [[ScrewTheRulesItsTheApocalypse Buu would be destroying the Earth soon anyway]], decides to drop that excuse and try to kill Majin Buu so he can go on killing people. Instead, he causes Buu to spawn the Evil Buu, and the very first thing Evil Buu does is [[DisintegratorRay completely vaporize]] Van Zant. With the fact that he had been shooting innocent people ForTheEvulz, and had previously [[KickTheDog shot Buu's puppy Bee]] for fun, it's hard ''not'' to cheer when Evil Buu kills him.
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** Van Zant, an AxCrazy TriggerHappy lunatic who had gone on a killing spree for fun with the justification that [[ScrewTheRulesItsTheApocalypse Buu would be destroying the Earth soon anyway]], decides to drop that excuse and try to kill Majin Buu so he can go on killing people. Instead, he causes Buu to spawn
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Changed line(s) 166 (click to see context) from:
* KickTheSonOfABitch: In an universe filled with SmugSuper and SmugSnake this trope comes up more than once:
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* KickTheSonOfABitch: In an universe filled with SmugSuper {{Jerk Ass}}es, {{Smug Snake}}s, and SmugSnake {{Smug Super}}s this trope comes up more than once:
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* {{Mukokuseki}}: Power up, [[EveryoneLovesBlondes become]] [[OccultBlueEyes white]].
Deleted line(s) 296 (click to see context) :
* {{Mukokuseki}}: Power up, [[EveryoneLovesBlondes become]] [[OccultBlueEyes white]].
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*MundaneUtility
**Yamcha used his super powers to become a major league baseball player. [[CantCatchUp Not that they were really useful for anything else by that point of the series anyway.]]
**Ki, not only good for blasting enemies into dust, but also good for lighting fires, warming food, and being a replacement flashlight.
**A minor example is seen in the 7th Dragon Ball Z Movie, "Super Android 13". Goku and Gohan are seen shopping with Chi chi and Goku is seen carrying enough boxes of merchandise and clothes that would crush a man.
**Yamcha used his super powers to become a major league baseball player. [[CantCatchUp Not that they were really useful for anything else by that point of the series anyway.]]
**Ki, not only good for blasting enemies into dust, but also good for lighting fires, warming food, and being a replacement flashlight.
**A minor example is seen in the 7th Dragon Ball Z Movie, "Super Android 13". Goku and Gohan are seen shopping with Chi chi and Goku is seen carrying enough boxes of merchandise and clothes that would crush a man.
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**This was actually subverted in the fight between Perfect Cell and Vegeta: Vegeta dared Cell to take his Final Flash full-on. Confident that Vegeta couldn't hurt him, Cell accepted the challenge. Cell ultimately changed his mind at the last second and decided to dodge the blast, since it was far more powerful than he expected, but he still got part of his torso blown off. Had Vegeta not aimed the blast upward, it would've destroyed Cell completely. Along with the Earth.
Deleted line(s) 358 (click to see context) :
* NoSell: Sometimes, when the difference in powers is too great, some characters can completely ignore the attacks of their enemies. Once Cell became Perfect Cell, he completely ignored Krillin's flurry of blows as well as a Kienzan to the neck. Broly managed to take the combined strength of all the Super Saiyans in the cast as well as Piccolo without as much as budging from their attacks. This was actually subverted on a fight between Perfect Cell and Vegeta: Vegeta dared Cell to take his Final Flash full-on. Confident that Vegeta couldn't hurt him, Cell accepted the challenge. Cell ultimately changed his mind at the last second and decided to dodge the blast, since it was far more powerful than he expected, but he still got part of his torso blown off. (Had Vegeta not aimed the blast upward, it would've destroyed Cell completely. Along with the Earth). It tends to get deconstructed such as in the fight with Nappa or Cell's and Buu's fights with Gohan when the loosing side gets so desperate they try some very desperate tactics to win, which always leave the heroes in a worse situation. While Nappa tanked Chiaotsu's suicide attack Cell tried to [[EarthShatteringKaboom blow up the whole planet]] (resulting in Goku's death) and Buu decided that he needed to absorb Gotenks to regain his advantage [[NiceJobBreakingItHero (both as a result of Gohan demonstrating how outclassed his opponent was to break them)]]
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Changed line(s) 232 (click to see context) from:
* LookWhatICanDoNow
to:
* LookWhatICanDoNowLookWhatICanDoNow:
**Goku is the king of this trope:
***After coming back from the dead the first time, he shows off his Kaioken by breaking Nappa's back. He then shows further mastery of the Kaioken when he made fools of the Ginyu Force. After recovering from his last fight, he was able to hold his own against Frieza until the latter started using half his power. Then he became a Super Saiyan, the first in thousands of years.
***When he returned to Earth after being gone for a year, he shows off his Instant Transmission and his ability to become a Super Saiyan at will.
***When he was back from the dead for a day and he was on Babibi's ship, he showed briefly during his battle with Yakon that he could become a Super Saiyan 2. Afterwards, he showed Buu Super Saiyan 3, something no one knew even existed.
**Vegeta is no slosh either:
***When he arrived no Namek he showed Frieza's men exactly what he learned on Earth. Namely, the ability to hide his power and to read ki.
***In the Android Sage he became a Super Saiyan, taken everyone by surprise, and then surpassed it in the same arc.
**Goten and Trunks showing that they could become Super Saiyans. They were only 7 and 8 respectively.
**For Mr. Satan, seeing his daughter fly.
**Gotenks showing Piccolo that he could become a Super Saiyan 3.
**Gohan returning, after everyone thinking he was dead, and showing off the power he gained from Old Kai, easily wiping the floor with Super Buu.
**Super Buu also gets one after he absorbs Piccolo and Gotenks. He shows Gohan all his new powers and techniques he gained from his friends. Even earlier, he revealed that he could now sense energy after eating Fat Buu.
**Goku is the king of this trope:
***After coming back from the dead the first time, he shows off his Kaioken by breaking Nappa's back. He then shows further mastery of the Kaioken when he made fools of the Ginyu Force. After recovering from his last fight, he was able to hold his own against Frieza until the latter started using half his power. Then he became a Super Saiyan, the first in thousands of years.
***When he returned to Earth after being gone for a year, he shows off his Instant Transmission and his ability to become a Super Saiyan at will.
***When he was back from the dead for a day and he was on Babibi's ship, he showed briefly during his battle with Yakon that he could become a Super Saiyan 2. Afterwards, he showed Buu Super Saiyan 3, something no one knew even existed.
**Vegeta is no slosh either:
***When he arrived no Namek he showed Frieza's men exactly what he learned on Earth. Namely, the ability to hide his power and to read ki.
***In the Android Sage he became a Super Saiyan, taken everyone by surprise, and then surpassed it in the same arc.
**Goten and Trunks showing that they could become Super Saiyans. They were only 7 and 8 respectively.
**For Mr. Satan, seeing his daughter fly.
**Gotenks showing Piccolo that he could become a Super Saiyan 3.
**Gohan returning, after everyone thinking he was dead, and showing off the power he gained from Old Kai, easily wiping the floor with Super Buu.
**Super Buu also gets one after he absorbs Piccolo and Gotenks. He shows Gohan all his new powers and techniques he gained from his friends. Even earlier, he revealed that he could now sense energy after eating Fat Buu.
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** Frieza himself tried this when Goku turned his back on him after he was defeated. It didn't end well for him.
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** Frieza himself tried this when Goku turned his back on him after he was defeated. It didn't end well for him. him.
*InTheNameOfTheMoon
**The Great Saiyaman made of this trope. Which is fitting given that he is a parody of this archetype.
**Goku's "I am" speech, both versions!
-->'''Z''': "I am the hope of the Universe! I am the answer to all living things that cry out for Peace! I am the protector of the innocent! I am the light in the darkness! I am truth... Ally to good! Nightmare to you!"
--> '''Kai''': "I am the Saiyan who came all the way from Earth with the sole purpose of defeating you. I am the one you've heard of in legends! Pure of heart and awakened by fury, that's who I am... I AM THE SUPER SAIYAN, SON GOKU!!"
*InTheNameOfTheMoon
**The Great Saiyaman made of this trope. Which is fitting given that he is a parody of this archetype.
**Goku's "I am" speech, both versions!
-->'''Z''': "I am the hope of the Universe! I am the answer to all living things that cry out for Peace! I am the protector of the innocent! I am the light in the darkness! I am truth... Ally to good! Nightmare to you!"
--> '''Kai''': "I am the Saiyan who came all the way from Earth with the sole purpose of defeating you. I am the one you've heard of in legends! Pure of heart and awakened by fury, that's who I am... I AM THE SUPER SAIYAN, SON GOKU!!"
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*OnlyAFleshWound
**In Goku's fight with Piccolo, he was shot by a ki blast that punched clean through his shoulder. He got back up, much to Piccolo's shock, saying that he missed his vital organs. He was also shot in his other limbs, and suffering from heavy blood loss. One senzu bean later and Goku is perfectly healed. He takes a similar beating from Vegeta, and until he gets another senzu, he's stuck in the hospital.
**Vegeta, get his arm broken by Android 18 and the other one dislocated. Doesn't stop him from trying to fight.
**Frieza has it as an ability: he is able to survive and function in the most horrible conditions: He got his tail chopped off twice, got vivisected and lost his left arm, then was caught in the explosion of the planet he was in, resulting in the loss of half his head. When he was found floating among the debris, he was (semi-)conscious. And as if that weren't enough he survives for at least a few seconds after being vivisected AGAIN, vertically this time.
**It gets really nasty when the next major villain combines that power with regeneration, and the ability to get stronger from being near death: Cell survives getting half of his torso and his full upper body blown up, and HIS OWN SELF-DESTRUCTION as well.
**Buu is just as bad since his regeneration ability far outstrips Cell. He can survive being reduce to ''vapors'' without ill effect. Thankfully, he doesn't get stronger from being close to death.
**In Goku's fight with Piccolo, he was shot by a ki blast that punched clean through his shoulder. He got back up, much to Piccolo's shock, saying that he missed his vital organs. He was also shot in his other limbs, and suffering from heavy blood loss. One senzu bean later and Goku is perfectly healed. He takes a similar beating from Vegeta, and until he gets another senzu, he's stuck in the hospital.
**Vegeta, get his arm broken by Android 18 and the other one dislocated. Doesn't stop him from trying to fight.
**Frieza has it as an ability: he is able to survive and function in the most horrible conditions: He got his tail chopped off twice, got vivisected and lost his left arm, then was caught in the explosion of the planet he was in, resulting in the loss of half his head. When he was found floating among the debris, he was (semi-)conscious. And as if that weren't enough he survives for at least a few seconds after being vivisected AGAIN, vertically this time.
**It gets really nasty when the next major villain combines that power with regeneration, and the ability to get stronger from being near death: Cell survives getting half of his torso and his full upper body blown up, and HIS OWN SELF-DESTRUCTION as well.
**Buu is just as bad since his regeneration ability far outstrips Cell. He can survive being reduce to ''vapors'' without ill effect. Thankfully, he doesn't get stronger from being close to death.
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* MythologyGag: When powering up for his fight against Cell, Goku mimics part of the original intro to the series.
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* MythologyGag: When MythologyGag:
**When powering up for his fight against Cell, Goku mimics part of the original intro to the series.
**When powering up for his fight against Cell, Goku mimics part of the original intro to the series.
*NeckSnap
**Dodoria snaps the neck of the Namekian Elder after Frieza kills one of the escaping children with a smile on his face.
**Recoome breaks Gohan's neck at the end of their fight.
**In Piccolo's second fight with Imperfect Cell, Cell breaks his neck before firing a blast into his chest and then throwing him into the water. Yes, Piccolo actually survived this.
**This is subverted in the Tournament Saga: Videl apparently snaps Spopovich's neck in self defense when it was becoming apparent that he is trying to kill her, and nearly gets herself disqualified as a result, but then he not only revives himself, but even spins his neck back into place in the most disturbing way possible.
**Dodoria snaps the neck of the Namekian Elder after Frieza kills one of the escaping children with a smile on his face.
**Recoome breaks Gohan's neck at the end of their fight.
**In Piccolo's second fight with Imperfect Cell, Cell breaks his neck before firing a blast into his chest and then throwing him into the water. Yes, Piccolo actually survived this.
**This is subverted in the Tournament Saga: Videl apparently snaps Spopovich's neck in self defense when it was becoming apparent that he is trying to kill her, and nearly gets herself disqualified as a result, but then he not only revives himself, but even spins his neck back into place in the most disturbing way possible.
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* NoSocialSkills: Goku and Chi-Chi had both lived pretty sheltered lives before they turned 12, the latter's was only so because her dad was needlessly violent and overprotective of his wealth and daughter, not to mention living on top of Frypan Mountain. Goku, on the other hand turned into an Oozaru in a full moon, and accidentally killed his grandfather, and he only taught him how to fight, fish, and be nice to girls, and that's it. No important social skills were taught to Goku, unfortunately, and he had to learn some of them himself (such as, humorously, the difference between boys and girls). Even to this day, he still struggles, but at least [[BadassInANiceSuit he looks good in a tuxedo]].
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*NoSell: Happens too many times to count, but they are some memorable examples:
**Piccolo attacked Raditz with an energy blast when they first met and the former didn't even blink. The normally stoic Piccolo is left shaking in fear.
**Goku takes a dead hit from one of Frieza's energy attacks after going Super Saiyan. At that point, that same attack put holes in everyone else.
**Cell no selling Krillin's Destructo Disk after achieving his perfect body. Keep in mind, the same attack cut Frieza who was many times stronger than Krillin.
**After going to his max power Cell decks Gohan across the face. The attack did nothing.
*NoSocialSkills: Goku NoSocialSkills:
**Goku and Chi-Chi had both lived pretty sheltered lives before they turned 12, the latter's was only so because her dad was needlessly violent and overprotective of his wealth and daughter, not to mention living on top of Frypan Mountain. Goku, on the other hand turned into an Oozaru in a full moon, and accidentally killed his grandfather, and he only taught him how to fight, fish, and be nice to girls, and that's it. No important social skills were taught to Goku, unfortunately, and he had to learn some of them himself (such as, humorously, the difference between boys and girls). Even to this day, he still struggles, but at least [[BadassInANiceSuit he looks good in a tuxedo]].
**Piccolo attacked Raditz with an energy blast when they first met and the former didn't even blink. The normally stoic Piccolo is left shaking in fear.
**Goku takes a dead hit from one of Frieza's energy attacks after going Super Saiyan. At that point, that same attack put holes in everyone else.
**Cell no selling Krillin's Destructo Disk after achieving his perfect body. Keep in mind, the same attack cut Frieza who was many times stronger than Krillin.
**After going to his max power Cell decks Gohan across the face. The attack did nothing.
*
**Goku and Chi-Chi had both lived pretty sheltered lives before they turned 12, the latter's was only so because her dad was needlessly violent and overprotective of his wealth and daughter, not to mention living on top of Frypan Mountain. Goku, on the other hand turned into an Oozaru in a full moon, and accidentally killed his grandfather, and he only taught him how to fight, fish, and be nice to girls, and that's it. No important social skills were taught to Goku, unfortunately, and he had to learn some of them himself (such as, humorously, the difference between boys and girls). Even to this day, he still struggles, but at least [[BadassInANiceSuit he looks good in a tuxedo]].
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*MookHorrorShow
**Vegeta gets a scene when he stalks a completely outmatched Jeice throughout Frieza's ship horror movie style, including many instances of OffscreenTeleportation, before finally killing him as he vainly attempts to fly away. Neither of them are good guys at this point - Vegeta's in the middle of an EnemyMine with the heroes, but doesn't let this stop him from being as sadistic as possible. He is also like this to many of Frieza's other Mooks. In particular Cui, Dodoria, and Appule, who was watching him heal in Frieza's ship.
**Trunks invokes this when he returns to the future on the evil Androids and Cell, intentionally [[OhCrap making them know just how screwed and helpless they are against him]], because [[LaserGuidedKarma this was exactly what they'd done to their victims]].
**Goku's arrival on Namek sees him mowing down the members of the Ginyu Force, leaving both Recoome and Burter down and Jeice visibly freaking out and forced to retreat.
**Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, especially in an anime, where he certainly takes his time to kills Cell Jrs. while they're shaking in fear. To drive the point home, the screen turns creepy blue whenever a mook dies.
**Vegeta gets a scene when he stalks a completely outmatched Jeice throughout Frieza's ship horror movie style, including many instances of OffscreenTeleportation, before finally killing him as he vainly attempts to fly away. Neither of them are good guys at this point - Vegeta's in the middle of an EnemyMine with the heroes, but doesn't let this stop him from being as sadistic as possible. He is also like this to many of Frieza's other Mooks. In particular Cui, Dodoria, and Appule, who was watching him heal in Frieza's ship.
**Trunks invokes this when he returns to the future on the evil Androids and Cell, intentionally [[OhCrap making them know just how screwed and helpless they are against him]], because [[LaserGuidedKarma this was exactly what they'd done to their victims]].
**Goku's arrival on Namek sees him mowing down the members of the Ginyu Force, leaving both Recoome and Burter down and Jeice visibly freaking out and forced to retreat.
**Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, especially in an anime, where he certainly takes his time to kills Cell Jrs. while they're shaking in fear. To drive the point home, the screen turns creepy blue whenever a mook dies.
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*MyDefenseNeedNotProtectMeForever:
**Goku has tried everything else to no effect against [[BigBad Frieza]], and has to resort to his trump card, the Spirit Bomb. The problem is, it'll take him several minutes to create a big enough Spirit Bomb, and [[AwesomeButImpractical he has to stand motionless and let Frieza pummel him while doing it]]. This means the much weaker Piccolo is forced to step in and fight a losing battle to keep Frieza distracted long enough. {{Subverted}}, as while the Spirit Bomb causes a lot of damage to Frieza, it fails to defeat him.
**Happens again during the last leg of the battle against Kid Buu. Goku is charging his Spirit Bomb and is helpless to help Fat Buu who was getting the tub beating out of him by his EvilCounterpart and then Vegeta who didn't fare much better. Even earlier, Goku was left open as he attempted to charge to full-power of Super Saiyan 3, while Vegeta played decoy. Unlike with Frieza, the Spirit Bomb does kill Buu.
**Goku has tried everything else to no effect against [[BigBad Frieza]], and has to resort to his trump card, the Spirit Bomb. The problem is, it'll take him several minutes to create a big enough Spirit Bomb, and [[AwesomeButImpractical he has to stand motionless and let Frieza pummel him while doing it]]. This means the much weaker Piccolo is forced to step in and fight a losing battle to keep Frieza distracted long enough. {{Subverted}}, as while the Spirit Bomb causes a lot of damage to Frieza, it fails to defeat him.
**Happens again during the last leg of the battle against Kid Buu. Goku is charging his Spirit Bomb and is helpless to help Fat Buu who was getting the tub beating out of him by his EvilCounterpart and then Vegeta who didn't fare much better. Even earlier, Goku was left open as he attempted to charge to full-power of Super Saiyan 3, while Vegeta played decoy. Unlike with Frieza, the Spirit Bomb does kill Buu.
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*JustToyingWithThem: Standard practice for most villains (and some heroes) when their power significantly eclipses that of their opponent. This often leads to their undoing, but not always:
**Nappa versus the Earth's defenders. When he did used a little of his full power he OneHitKill Piccolo who was the strongest of the group.
**Vegeta tried to do this with Goku during their first fight. It didn't go well after Goku used Kaioken X3 on him.
**The Ginyu Force's preferred fighting style. Until Goku came along, they made sport of Vegeta, Krillin, and Gohan.
**Frieza pretty much lived this trope. After going through many fights against the heroes and reaching his final form, he reveals to Goku he's only been using a fraction of his total power (''1%'' in the dub) and proceeds to start using one third. This is more than enough to beat Goku silly, and at one point he briefly decides to give Goku a fighting chance [[WithMyHandsTied by not using his hands.]] Once Goku goes [[SuperMode Super Saiyan,]] however, Frieza stops playing around and convinces Goku to allow him to fight at full power. Unfortunately for him, his chance at victory has already flown out the window. Goku even [[LampshadeHanging points out to Frieza why he's going to end up losing]]: having done nothing but toy with weaker opponents for nearly his entire life, when he actually goes all-out to fight Super Saiyan Goku, he's got little-to-no practice fighting an equal or superior opponent, and has such terrible endurance (especially by this point) that after only a short time at full power, he starts getting rapidly weaker.
**Goku himself starts to do this towards the end of his fight with Frieza. He was so weak that he couldn't even keep up with Goku anymore and Goku spent his remaining time playing mind games before declaring Frieza was boring him.
**Vegeta toying with Semi-Perfect Cell. This wouldn't have been a problem had he not [[NiceJobBreakingItHero allowed Cell to reach his perfect form]] so he'd be ''more challenging'', though.
**Gohan slowly toys with Perfect Cell after becoming a Super Saiyan 2, which cost his father his life after Cell decided to self-destruct and take the Earth with him.
**Gotenks not taking his fight with Super Buu seriously. This is an example of someone ''without'' a power advantage playing the trope.
**Buu, or more specially Super Buu, toys with Gotenks, not taking the younger boy seriously at all. It wasn't until Gotenks became a Super Saiyan 3 and starts kicking his butt that Buu became serious.
**Super Buu, after absorbing Gotenks and Piccolo, slowly takes his time with Gohan, using him as a testing ground for his new techniques and power.
**Vegetto toying with Super Fusion Buu. This was actually [[BatmanGambit part of his strategy]] rather than an act of arrogance, though. Doesn't make it any less fun to watch.
**Nappa versus the Earth's defenders. When he did used a little of his full power he OneHitKill Piccolo who was the strongest of the group.
**Vegeta tried to do this with Goku during their first fight. It didn't go well after Goku used Kaioken X3 on him.
**The Ginyu Force's preferred fighting style. Until Goku came along, they made sport of Vegeta, Krillin, and Gohan.
**Frieza pretty much lived this trope. After going through many fights against the heroes and reaching his final form, he reveals to Goku he's only been using a fraction of his total power (''1%'' in the dub) and proceeds to start using one third. This is more than enough to beat Goku silly, and at one point he briefly decides to give Goku a fighting chance [[WithMyHandsTied by not using his hands.]] Once Goku goes [[SuperMode Super Saiyan,]] however, Frieza stops playing around and convinces Goku to allow him to fight at full power. Unfortunately for him, his chance at victory has already flown out the window. Goku even [[LampshadeHanging points out to Frieza why he's going to end up losing]]: having done nothing but toy with weaker opponents for nearly his entire life, when he actually goes all-out to fight Super Saiyan Goku, he's got little-to-no practice fighting an equal or superior opponent, and has such terrible endurance (especially by this point) that after only a short time at full power, he starts getting rapidly weaker.
**Goku himself starts to do this towards the end of his fight with Frieza. He was so weak that he couldn't even keep up with Goku anymore and Goku spent his remaining time playing mind games before declaring Frieza was boring him.
**Vegeta toying with Semi-Perfect Cell. This wouldn't have been a problem had he not [[NiceJobBreakingItHero allowed Cell to reach his perfect form]] so he'd be ''more challenging'', though.
**Gohan slowly toys with Perfect Cell after becoming a Super Saiyan 2, which cost his father his life after Cell decided to self-destruct and take the Earth with him.
**Gotenks not taking his fight with Super Buu seriously. This is an example of someone ''without'' a power advantage playing the trope.
**Buu, or more specially Super Buu, toys with Gotenks, not taking the younger boy seriously at all. It wasn't until Gotenks became a Super Saiyan 3 and starts kicking his butt that Buu became serious.
**Super Buu, after absorbing Gotenks and Piccolo, slowly takes his time with Gohan, using him as a testing ground for his new techniques and power.
**Vegetto toying with Super Fusion Buu. This was actually [[BatmanGambit part of his strategy]] rather than an act of arrogance, though. Doesn't make it any less fun to watch.
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* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: Most of the aliens and gods have this view of Earth. It was more or less said in ''Dragon Ball Minus'' that Frieza would have no interest in Earth and King Cold is famous for calling it (in the Funimation dub) an insignificant mudball. Even the Galactic Patrolman could careless about what happens to Earth.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Gohan and Krillin, particularly in the Freezer saga.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Gohan and Krillin, particularly in the Freezer saga.
to:
* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: Most of the aliens and gods have this view of Earth. It was more or less said in ''Dragon Ball Minus'' that Frieza would have no interest in Earth and King Cold is famous for calling it (in the Funimation dub) an insignificant mudball. Even the Galactic Patrolman could careless about what happens to Earth.
Earth.
*ISurrenderSuckers
**Raditz pulls this off when Goku grabs his tail and Piccolo readies to kill him with his Special Beam Cannon. Raditz convinces Goku to let go by saying that if he does, he would leave Earth without causing any damage to it. Despite Piccolo's warning, Goku believes him... and just as soon as he lets Raditz go, he is struck in the stomach.
**Frieza does the same after being cut in half by his own energy disc. After pleading for his life, Goku gives him enough energy to escape the soon-to-be-exploding planet (since he can survive in space). Instead of escaping Frieza uses the energy to attack as soon as Goku's back is turned. Subverted as this time Goku just turns around and blows Frieza away.
**Even the Z-Fighters, or at least Piccolo, aren't innocent of this. When Cell managed to drain Piccolo's arm, Piccolo apparently seemed resigned to his fate of being absorbed by Cell and instead asks that Cell at least explain to him what he is, what his plans are, and how he came to be. Turns out, this was a gambit thought up by Piccolo (or rather, [[FusionDance the Kami half of him]]) to not only get Cell to [[JustBetweenYouAndMe tell him everything]], but also buy enough time to recharge his Ki energy so he could remove his arm and regenerate without weakening himself even further.
*InTheBack
**Krillin attempted to do this with his Destructo Disk against Vegeta when he was transformed into a Great Ape (it failed) and Frieza (after his first transformation), where he only managed to lob off some of the latter's tail. Though if the villains hadn't reacted RIGHT when they did, Krillin could've easily killed them both, despite them being vastly stronger than him.
**Yajirobe actually pulled a successful back attack to cut off Vegeta's tail.
**Frieza himself tried this when Goku turned his back on him after he was defeated. It didn't end well for him.
*IntergenerationalFriendship: Gohan IntergenerationalFriendship:
**Gohan and Krillin, particularly in the Freezer saga.
*ISurrenderSuckers
**Raditz pulls this off when Goku grabs his tail and Piccolo readies to kill him with his Special Beam Cannon. Raditz convinces Goku to let go by saying that if he does, he would leave Earth without causing any damage to it. Despite Piccolo's warning, Goku believes him... and just as soon as he lets Raditz go, he is struck in the stomach.
**Frieza does the same after being cut in half by his own energy disc. After pleading for his life, Goku gives him enough energy to escape the soon-to-be-exploding planet (since he can survive in space). Instead of escaping Frieza uses the energy to attack as soon as Goku's back is turned. Subverted as this time Goku just turns around and blows Frieza away.
**Even the Z-Fighters, or at least Piccolo, aren't innocent of this. When Cell managed to drain Piccolo's arm, Piccolo apparently seemed resigned to his fate of being absorbed by Cell and instead asks that Cell at least explain to him what he is, what his plans are, and how he came to be. Turns out, this was a gambit thought up by Piccolo (or rather, [[FusionDance the Kami half of him]]) to not only get Cell to [[JustBetweenYouAndMe tell him everything]], but also buy enough time to recharge his Ki energy so he could remove his arm and regenerate without weakening himself even further.
*InTheBack
**Krillin attempted to do this with his Destructo Disk against Vegeta when he was transformed into a Great Ape (it failed) and Frieza (after his first transformation), where he only managed to lob off some of the latter's tail. Though if the villains hadn't reacted RIGHT when they did, Krillin could've easily killed them both, despite them being vastly stronger than him.
**Yajirobe actually pulled a successful back attack to cut off Vegeta's tail.
**Frieza himself tried this when Goku turned his back on him after he was defeated. It didn't end well for him.
*
**Gohan and Krillin, particularly in the Freezer saga.
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*IntimidationDemonstration: Mr. Satan loves to do this. His favorite method of showing off is to take a stack of bricks and break them in front of his opponent.
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*ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice
**Goku and Raditz were impaled by Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon, killing both of them.
**Frieza runs Krillin through on one of his horns after his first transformation. He then proceeded to shake Krillin until he lost consciousness.
**How Vegeta met his end the first time. He took a energy blast to the chest that pierced his heart.
**Poor Yamcha got impaled by Dr. Gero's hand after he had his energy absorbed. He retired from fighting shortly after this incident.
**Dabura impaled Fat Buu with a spear after realizing how dangerous the majin was. Naturally, thanks to Buu's healing factor, it did no lasting damage.
**Goku and Raditz were impaled by Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon, killing both of them.
**Frieza runs Krillin through on one of his horns after his first transformation. He then proceeded to shake Krillin until he lost consciousness.
**How Vegeta met his end the first time. He took a energy blast to the chest that pierced his heart.
**Poor Yamcha got impaled by Dr. Gero's hand after he had his energy absorbed. He retired from fighting shortly after this incident.
**Dabura impaled Fat Buu with a spear after realizing how dangerous the majin was. Naturally, thanks to Buu's healing factor, it did no lasting damage.
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*HalfTheManHeUsedToBe
**Frieza gets sliced in half ''twice'' during the series proper. The first was near the end of the Namek Saga when he was sliced in half with his own energy disc. He survived this (as well as the explosion of Namek) and came back as a cyborg, only to be finally finished off by [[FutureBadass Future Trunks]] when he came to Earth to seek revenge. And how does Trunks finish him off? He uses his sword to split Frieza in half lengthwise before [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill proceeding to slice him up into itty bitty pieces and then blow him away with a powerful Ki blast.]]
**Piccolo slices Babidi in half while Babidi desperately tries to plead for his life by stating that ''he'' is the only one that can kill Buu by sealing him back up. [[TemptingFate Piccolo doesn't believe him]] and promptly cuts him in half. He gets better however.
**Frieza gets sliced in half ''twice'' during the series proper. The first was near the end of the Namek Saga when he was sliced in half with his own energy disc. He survived this (as well as the explosion of Namek) and came back as a cyborg, only to be finally finished off by [[FutureBadass Future Trunks]] when he came to Earth to seek revenge. And how does Trunks finish him off? He uses his sword to split Frieza in half lengthwise before [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill proceeding to slice him up into itty bitty pieces and then blow him away with a powerful Ki blast.]]
**Piccolo slices Babidi in half while Babidi desperately tries to plead for his life by stating that ''he'' is the only one that can kill Buu by sealing him back up. [[TemptingFate Piccolo doesn't believe him]] and promptly cuts him in half. He gets better however.
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* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold:
** Android 18 when she turns good. Also, her daughter, Marron.
** Goku and Gohan, once they master the Super Saiyan transformation and curb the BloodKnight tendencies it induces.
* HalfHumanHybrid: It helps that Saiyans are incredibly similar to humans, but genetic mixes often prove to be stronger than purebloods. Gohan, Goten and Trunks are all half-Saiyan, and Pan is quarter-Saiyan and, thus far, the only female to use a Kamehameha (and only in ''DBGT'', at that).
* HandBlast: Androids 16, 17, and 18 had this.
* HappyFunBall: [[TemptingFate Do not taunt an angry young Saiyan]]. Made especially clear in DB Movie 4 "The Path to Power", a combo re-telling of the Pilaf and Red Ribbon Army sagas, when Goku killed Officer Black with his Kamehameha after the latter killed Android Eight.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: It only works if you're a Saiyan and not a normal Earthling.
* HeelFaceTurn: Many, many characters starting with Yamcha and Oolong. Vegeta is but one example.
** Vegeta is an example of a HeelFaceRevolvingDoor.
* [[SheIsAllGrownUp He Is All Grown Up]]:
** Hot damn, 16-year-old Gohan is one fine piece of man.
** Goten and Trunks at the end of the series grew up to be some handsome young men. Although in the case of Trunks, we already knew that.
* HeroicBSOD:
** (Well, more like anti-heroic) Vegeta suffers one for about half of the first Broly movie after TheReveal that Broly is the "Legendary Super Saiyan" and therefore unbeatable. Even a peptalk from Piccolo is unable to clear it up, Vegeta only joins the fight when his royal pride gives him a kick in the pants.
** Before then, Vegeta suffered a major one once he realized that even after coming back from near death, he was still no match against Frieza. He actually cried in frustration and didn't fight back as Frieza plummeted him.
** Gohan completely gave-up after he was badly injured protecting Vegeta against Cell after the latter returned stronger than ever. It took Goku talking from the grave for Gohan to muster the resolve to face Cell one more time.
* HeroicRROD:
** Especially Goku's Kaiou-ken power-up technique. It strained his body so hard that Yajirobe's congratulatory slap on the shoulder was agonizingly painful to him. If Goku used becomes a Super Saiyan and uses the Kaiou-ken at the same time the energy limitations make it so if he tried using both for more than a few seconds, he would completely used up his energy reserves and disappeared. Something even the Dragon Balls can't fix.
** The Super Saiyan 3 transformation. It was attained by Goku by harnessing the unlimited energy supplied by his dead body, and he had trouble controlling it in his more limited living body after being revived. This was a major factor in his fight against Kid Buu, where he could match Buu's power but didn't have the endurance for a long fight - eventually being rendered unable to power up due to the strain, losing all his remaining energy, and downgrading into a heavily weakened normal state.
** As a Super Saiyan 2 in Vegeta's fight against Fat Buu, he spends all of his life energy on an attack and dies, disintegrating Fat Buu... for all of thirty seconds before the [[FromASingleCell latter regenerates]].
* HeroicSacrifice: Done quite a bit with various levels of success:
** At the beginning of the series, Goku sacrificed himself to kill Raditz by holding him down while Piccolo fired his Special Beam Cannon at them. Raditz died and stayed dead throughout the series and Goku was revived by the Dragon Balls, which he knew would happen at the event of his death.
** Chaozu blew up on Nappa knowing that he was too underpowered to really help and to keep Tien from being killed. He also knew that he couldn't be revived with the Dragon Balls, since he was brought back to life before, so he knew if he died then he would be KilledOffForReal. His sacrifice didn't work and Tien died shortly later, but they were both revived with the Namek Dragon Balls.
** Piccolo shielded Gohan from an energy blast that would had killed him. He knew that if he died Kami would also die and the Dragon Balls would be rendered inert. Thankfully, Vegeta revealed there was another set of Dragon Balls elsewhere before Piccolo was killed.
** In the anime, Piccolo knocked Goku out of the way of Frieza's attack after Goku's Spirit Bomb failed. In this case, his death would have not only killed Kami (again), preventing the use of Earth's Dragon Balls, but also prevented the revival of the Namekians and their currently-inert Dragon Balls. Had he actually died, every death would have been permanent. It was sheer luck that he lived long enough for the necessary wishes to be made to save everyone, himself included.
** Android 16 attempted to blow up Cell using the bomb that was built into him. Unfortunately for him, Bulma removed the bomb without telling him and got blasted into pieces by Cell for his trouble. Reduced to just a head, he convinces Mr. Satan to throw him towards Gohan, who was watching his friends and family be beating by Cell Jrs. He gives Gohan words of encouragement so he could released his full power and is stepped on by Cell, killing him. Since he was an artificial life and never really alive to begin with once he died [[KilledOffForReal he stayed dead]]. 16's death was the trigger Gohan needed to become Super Saiyan 2.
** Goku sacrificed himself to stop Cell from blowing up the Earth after Cell turned himself into a bomb by teleporting him off the planet to King Kai's world. Unlike the first time, Goku knew he couldn't be revived since he was already brought back by the Earth's Dragon Balls. It did save the Earth, but Cell [[FromASingleCell regenerated]] not long after and nearly blew it up again along with the solar system.
** Vegeta blew himself up to try and take out Buu, who regenerated. Krillin also tried to fight Buu knowing he was hopelessly outclassed so 18 could lead everyone else to safety. Krillin was turned into candy within seconds, followed by 18 and their own child Maron. Everyone else save Dende met the same fate. In both of these cases, neither could be brought back with the Dragon Balls since they were already revived once.
** Dende was saved because Mr. Popo threw him off the Lookout before Buu could turn him into chocolate.
* HeroicSecondWind: In reality, Heroic ''Fourth'' and even '''Fifth''' Winds are not uncommon in any major fight. The most notorious of these was in Frieza saga where Goku got enough winds to keep coming back stronger and stronger till he went Super Saiyan and still had a couple more afterwards. Vegeta and Gohan in particular get the worst trashing of all characters and keep coming back a record number of times.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Goten and Trunks. Also, Tienshinhan and Chaozu.
** It's less severe since they both do get married (not to each other![[note]]not that there's anything wrong with that![[/note]]) and have families, but Goku and Krillin were this from almost the very beginning to the very end.
* HighSchoolSweethearts: Gohan and Videl.
* HistoryRepeats:
** Videl finding out that Gohan killed Cell in a similar fashion to Chi-Chi finding out Goku killed Demon King Piccolo.
** Gohan also beat Cell with one of his arms disable, much like Goku did against King Piccolo.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Typical cause of villain mastermind death.
** Freeza was killed by his own Kienzan-like energy attack. (He got better.)
** Dr. Gero got his head blown off and crushed by #17. And it happened to him again in the afterlife, which by their rules means he's KilledOffForReal.
** Babidi was killed by Buu.
** In the films and anime filler, Garlic Jr. ended up in his own Dead Zone twice. [[ImmortalityHurts Unfortunately for him, he's immortal.]]
** In Movie 8 (''Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan''), Paragus was crushed in his space pod by his son [[AxCrazy Broly]], and then thrown into Comet Kamori, the comet he'd planned on destroying the planet and everybody on it, including Broly. Lampshaded by Paragus himself, whose dying words question his ironic fate.
* HolyHalo: Worn by dead characters.
* HoldTheLine: DBZ might as well be the trope codifier. Every saga involves the current fighters holding off the BigBad until Goku either arrives, heals, or finishes powering up.
** {{Averted}} in the Cell saga. Perfect Cell waited until everyone had time to get in extra training before the Cell Games.
** {{Subverted}} with Super Buu. When they had to hold him off so Gotenks could learn Fusion in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he responded to a request for patience by ''[[ApocalypseHow killing every person on Earth in a single attack]]''.
*** Of course, it was Piccolo who suggested that Buu kill time by killing some more humans, knowing they could always wish them back later.
* {{Homage}}: ''Dragon Ball'' is a homage to the classic ''{{Journey to the West}}'', particularly the first arc, with Bulma in a gender-flipped Xuanzang role, Son Goku is Sun Wukong (in turn a homage to Hanuman from ''{{Ramayana}}''), Oolong is Zhu Bajie, and Yamcha is Sha Wujing. ''Dragon Ball Z'', at least the first few parts of it, appears to be a homage to SuperHero fiction (including ''GoldenBat'', ''[[http://www.animevice.com/prince-of-gamma/18-31482/ Prince of Gamma]]'', and ''{{Superman}}'') and other SciFi themes.
* HomeFieldAdvantage: Babidi's base can simulate various environments and his henchmen use it to their advantage. The one time his henchman tried to exploit this, however, he chose to fight Vegeta on a planet with 10x gravity, the same as the Saiyan homeworld and a 1/50th of the level Vegeta had long since mastered. What was already a hilariously one-sided beatdown remained so.
* HomeworldEvacuation: When the Namekian homeworld is set to explode by one of Frieza's attacks, a wish is made on the Dragon Balls to save their lives by evacuating all the Namekians to Earth. Then they promptly had the dragon make them a new one and had themselves beamed there.
* HonorBeforeReason: Son Goku's unfailing and unconditional love for all life has turned practically every villain he met, with the exception of Freeza and Cell, into paragons of heroism.
** Even Buu, who is pretty much evil incarnate, was transformed into an incredibly nice yet timid person after being '''killed''' simply on Goku's wish, and '''NOT''' to a dragon.
** During the Cell Saga, Cell provides Goku a moment to eat a Senzu Bean before continuing the fight. Vegeta comments that Goku's Saiyan honor wouldn't allow him to use such a dishonorable "crutch". In fact, Goku gives Cell the Senzu bean before letting Gohan fight Cell.
* HopelessSuitor: Sharpner toward Videl. She finds him completely obnoxious.
* HostileTerraforming: Lord Slug wanted to freeze the Earth because of this in the fourth movie. "DeTerraforming" was discussed in the ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' movie version.
* HowMuchMoreCanHeTake:
** Vegeta attacking [[spoiler:Android 18 even after she breaks his left arm at the elbow.]] In fact, no matter what anyone throws at him, he just won't stay down! Heck, he and Frieza are the only canon characters that have ever stood up after being hit by the Spirit Bomb. [[spoiler: The first time he died, it took a blast ''straight'' through the heart to finally get the job done, and even then, it took a few minutes for him to actually die.]] There's also his epic beatdown by Kid Buu. No matter what Buu did to him, he wouldn't stay down, which actually ''scared' Kid Buu.
** Saiyans in general seem to have very durable bodies. Goku had all his limbs broken or disabled and was still able to beat King Piccolo and Piccolo. He also got beaten so badly by King Piccolo that his heart stopped and restarted on its own. He got hit multiple times in pressure points and got up after a few seconds with only minor pain. When Goku and Raditz were hit by Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon it took Goku several minutes to die despite having a giant hole in his chest. Piccolo had to crush Raditz's head in to kill him quickly since hole or no hole he was still able to talk and brag. Goku got plummet to a pulp by Frieza for several episodes and still had the endurance to become Super Saiyan without fainting, something that is supposed to be highly exhausting the first time. Not to mention, Gohan got his freaking neck broken and was still alive.
** The fight at the end of the Saiyan saga actually showed what Goku and Vegeta's limits were; getting stepped or landed on by a 50 tall ape is apperently too much.
** Piccolo had his own share of beatdowns. The most famous being when Cell broke his neck, shot him point-blank with an energy blast to the chest, and threw him into the water to drown. He not only survived, but his healed his own broken neck and got to shore.
** Spopovich vs. Videl turns into this, to the point that Gohan turns into a super saiyan and threatens to intervene.
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Gohan and Videl. ''GT''[='=]s art style skewered it, but in most manga images, her shoulders are level with his waist. Also [[TinyGuyHugeGirl inverted]] with Krillin and 18: she's normal size, but he's short.
* HulkingOut: Goku and Gohan's Oozaru transformation.
** And, to and extent, their initial Super Saiyan and [=SS2=] transformations (respectively), both being shown to increase their muscle size noticeably (Gohan actually appears to get taller).
** The "Ascended Saiyan" (AKA "Super Saiyan 1.5") as shown in the Cell Saga by [[spoiler:Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks (who actually took it so far he hulked out to the point of losing speed and mistook that for surpassing Vegeta).]]
** Broly. Unstoppable, giant force of extreme power unleashed by pure rage.
* HumanAliens: Saiyans in particular. Aside from having tails they look exactly like humans, in fact they can even [[HalfHumanHybrid breed with them with no trouble at all]]. Some of Frieza's helmeted mooks also seem to qualify.
* HumansAreMorons: It turns out that humans are selfish, childish, misguided idiots who only worry when something bad happens to them, can't put ''anything'' in perspective, and will only do anything as simple as, say, raise up your hands to fuel the Spirit Bomb when a voice encompassing the Earth asks (Vegeta ''actually'' said "please" the ''first'' time, although he didn't even tell them why they had to put their hands up).
* HumansNeedAliens: Dragon Ball both play this straight and subvert it.
** On one hand, humans would have gone extinct without the Saiyans and Namakians protecting them and wishing them back with the dragon balls.
** At the same time, the majority of the show's conflicts would have never happened if Goku and Vegeta never came to Earth and Kami never made the dragon balls, which most of the sages revolve around. Not to say that humans would be completely better off since the Red Ribbon Army would still exist, King Piccolo would be older, but still terrorizing humans, and not to mention Babidi coming for Buu.
* HumanityIsInfectious: Probably the biggest reason why Earth haven't been destroyed (permanently at least). To recap:
** Goku was a savage toddler who may of went on to kill people if it wasn't for the kindness of Gohan Sr who taught him love. His head injury may of helped too.
** Piccolo, wanted to conquer the world and didn't care who got in his way, came to know love from Gohan, who is half-human, and renounced his evil past.
** Vegeta, who was a ruthless murderer and BloodKnight, softened up and started a family once he began to live on Earth.
** Fat Buu, much like Vegeta was a mass-murderer, until he was shown the error of his ways by Mr. Satan and now lives a peaceful life.
*** In short, although humans are the weakest fighters in the series, their very humanity has turned some of the most powerful beings in the universe into their allies.
** In a negative example, the Nameless Namek was effected by all the negative aspects of humanity corrupting his good nature. To purified himself he split himself into Kami and the original Piccolo.
* HybridPower: Saiyan-human hybrids have far more inherent power than pure members of either race. The effect seems to get stronger with successive generations. At age five, Gohan could flatten mountains and stagger Freeza if he got angry enough. Goten and Trunks could go Super Saiyan without even thinking about it.
* ICannotSelfTerminate: Kami invokes this at the beginning of the Piccolo Jr. saga, when talking with Mr. Popo about how to deal with King Piccolo's offspring, since killing him means ''he'' would die as well.
* IdenticalGrandson: Goku's family. Goku looks exactly like his father and Goten looks exactly like Goku (until Toriyama changes his hairstyle as Goten ages). Gohan, despite having different hair to Goku, has the same facial features. One notable aversion is Raditz, who looks nothing like Goku or their father, instead looking more like Vegeta.
** Bulma's family. Both her son and daughter, her daughter especially, look most like their mother, although Trunks has some of Vegeta's facial features.
** Played almost completely straight with the male members of the Son family. With the exceptions of Son Gohan, Sr. (who wasn't biologically related to Goku) and Raditz (Goku's brother), Goku's biological father and his sons bear an incredible resemblance to him (Goten much more so than Gohan). In the Japanese version, they all sound alike as well.
** Played straight with Vegeta, his father and his brother (Tarble). Averted with Vegeta's children (although they both look a lot like their mother).
* IdiotBall: Every character seems to get this at some points, but no more so than the Androids during the beginning of the Cell saga. Sure, you could forgive them for not believing Cell was a threat initially (since up until that point, they'd curbstomped every opponent). But once learning that said monster wanted to absorb them, and watching him kick the crap out of Android 17 ''and'' Piccolo (who had shown himself to be at least as powerful as 17), 16 and 18 decide that instead of escaping, they'd prefer to just watch.
** And then Tien jumps in and immobilizes Cell with his [[CastFromHitPoints Tri-Beam]] (and could equally be accused of carrying the idiot ball himself whilst watching the previous fight; if the Tri-Beam had enough power to pin Semi-Perfect Cell, he probably could have taken down Imperfect Cell), 16 and 18 take about 10 minutes to actually bother escaping, waiting until Tien had almost killed himself from overexertion.
** And then ''again'', when Vegeta fights Cell, 16 and 18 decide that escaping is decidedly less important than watching Vegeta kick Cell around.
** Raditz, Goku's evil brother who kidnaps Gohan and ransoms his life for the lives of 100 humans that he wants Goku to kill, promises to leave Earth in peace if Goku will spare him. [[WhatTheHellHero It works.]]
** Vegeta prompting Freeza to transform, for no reason whatsoever. Had he not, Piccolo would have been able to defeat Freeza before Goku even finished healing.
** ''Everyone'' except Bulma (and possibly Krillin) during the Android Saga. Her plan? Gather the Dragon Balls and have Shenron tell them where Dr. Gero's lab is, so they don't have to lift a finger later to train or bring back the people that will inevitably die because of them. It's not like this wouldn't have worked, either; Shenron can't directly affect those stronger than him, but giving out a location would be within his power. The reason why this ''didn't'' happen? The "heroes" want to test their strength against the Androids, despite Trunks explicitly saying that they would be ''[[CurbStompBattle massacred]]''. Keep in mind that Goku is the only one capable of dealing with this new threat at this point, despite the fact that [[CurbStompBattle Future Trunks is just as strong as he is, and gets his ass handed to him by the Androids on a regular basis.]]
** For much of the Android and Cell Saga, Trunks appears to be tremendously disoriented by the notorious changes of events from his own storyline. Everything that happened in the main timeline appeared to be completely different.
* IdiotHero: Goku, although he lived a sheltered life until he turned 12. And technically, [[FakeUltimateHero Mr. Satan]].
** Goku's hick tendencies are considerably downplayed as the series progresses and becomes more actionized (although he did do some dumb things, such as giving Cell a Senzu Bean and not killing Majin Buu while he had the chance).
* ImpendingClashShot: At least one per fighting antagonist arc, an episode will have a PastelChalkedFreezeFrame (usually based on a panel from the manga) of either the characters charging into the fray or one if not both at ready fighting stances. Like Freeza charging (flying) with his energy aura at Goku's super Saiyan Kamehameha in one episode.
* ImpossibleTaskInstantlyAccomplished:
** Tenshinhan, who studied with Master Roshi's arch rival, slams Yamcha with a Kamehameha right after his very first one. Yamcha is a ButtMonkey.
** Kid Buu takes it UpToEleven, mastering both the Kamehameha and Instant Transmission ''on sight''.
** Mr. Satan tells Videl she's only allowed to date a boy who can beat him in a fight. So she does.
* ImpoverishedPatrician: Remember Chi Chi being a princess? Well, raising two [[BigEater half-saiyan boys]] ain't cheap when their father isn't around to hunt and fish. She manages to blow through her father's entire fortune raising Gohan and Goten, to the point that she makes the [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness uncharacteristic move]] of letting Gohan take a leave of absence from school in order to prepare for the World Martial Arts Tournament because they need the prize money. When she meets Videl, she accuses her of being a hussy trying to corrupt her son, but [[ShipperOnDeck she changes her tune real fast]] [[NobilityMarriesMoney when she finds out Videl's family is rich.]]
* InactionSequence: Very common of the fanbase is the immense amount of talking, taking several episodes to gather enough energy, or just flat out delaying fights for a later time.
* IncompletelyTrained
** This is a large part of why Gohan struggles in some of the later arcs. Due to Chi-Chi's over-protectiveness and Goku's absence, he's never fully trained himself in the use of his natural abilities.
** Goku himself is able to get by despite leaving in the middle of his training more than once because he manages to learn everything on his own anyway.
** This is suggested to be the primary reason that the Supreme Kai is not as competent as one would hope for his rank. He was actually a ''junior'' Kai back before Buu slaughtered all of his superiors, so all the authority fell to him before he was fully ready for it.
* InfantImmortality: Strongly played with, when it's not being outright averted. Notable aversions include:
** The Namekian children being slaughtered either by Vegeta or Frieza and his goons. Dende himself is taken out by Frieza who [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy realizes it might be wise to]] ShootTheMedicFirst.
** Trunks and Goten die when Kid Buu blows up the Earth--[[NiceJobBreakingItHero thanks a lot]] [[IdiotBall Kakarot!]]
** And then there's all the times the villains of a particular saga decide blow up an entire city...or [[AnyoneCanDie wipe out all of the sentient inhabitants]] of a city or ''an entire planet'' just to show off.
* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: Most of the aliens and gods have this view of Earth. It was more or less said in ''Dragon Ball Minus'' that Frieza would have no interest in Earth and King Cold is famous for calling it (in the Funimation dub) an insignificant mudball. Even the Galactic Patrolman could careless about what happens to Earth.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Gohan and Krillin, particularly in the Freezer saga.
** Gohan and Piccolo too [[note]]though Piccolo is technically only 7 years older than Gohan despite being nearly an adult at the age of 3 [[/note]]
* IWasBeatenByAGirl: Vegeta by Android 18.
** A mechanical and physically augmented girl nonetheless.
** Krillin and Zangya.
* {{Jerkass}}: Almost all the main villains, especially Frieza and Cell. Both are incredibly arrogant, cruel, and self-centered. Frieza, [[FauxAffablyEvil although occasionally sophisticated]], he is racist and despotic. And Cell has this from Vegeta's cells.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** Vegeta killing Burter and Recoome in cold blood after Goku defeated them. Goku states that Vegeta was being cruel, but Vegeta then retorts that their deaths were deserved, especially since Gohan and Krillin were on the verge of death, and that they had killed countless people under Frieza's orders. While Goku states that having a little compassion isn't a disadvantage, sparing the Ginyu Force would have caused far more harm than good. This is further emphasized later on when Goku spares their even more sadistic leader Frieza's life at least twice -- which only prompts Frieza to try to stab Goku in the back both times.
** Although Vegeta was too harsh with Gohan about him getting weaker in the Buu saga and how his fight with Dabura was a "disgrace," he made a good point.
** In the Saiyan Saga, Yajirobe invokes this after the fight against Vegeta, calling out Chi-Chi for focusing entirely on Gohan, who was merely unconscious, while ignoring Goku, who didn't have a single unbroken bone in his body.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Piccolo, cold and aloof, but do care for his friends, especially Gohan.
** Vegeta slowly evolved into this and finally becomes this trope near the end of the Buu Sage.
* JustAKid: Gohan and to lesser extent Trunks and Goten are called this.
* {{Kiai}}: Even if you never watch the show, Dragon Ball is known for this.
** The {{Funimation}} dub seems to take this [[UpToEleven even further]]... just check out Goku's Super Saiyan 3 transformation and then wonder how Sean Schemmel is still voice acting today.
*** The editing of the clip suggests some reuse of the best voice take-- but I still hope he got a few days off to recuperate.
** Kiai is stated in [[AllThereInTheManual Daizenshuu 7]] a KiAttack used to knock away opponents or deflect attacks.
* KickTheDog: During the Saiyan Saga, Vegeta and Nappa crash land on an alien planet ruled over by a cruel tyrant. They kill the usurper simply because he got in their way, and a courageous prince is reunited with the woman whom the tyrant forcibly took as his bride. Nappa is almost amused, but as they leave the planet Vegeta decides to blow it up just to dash the aliens' hopes at their newfound freedom.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: In an universe filled with SmugSuper and SmugSnake this trope comes up more than once:
** After [[TheBrute Nappa]] fails to defeat Goku and can only nearly equal his strength (without Kaio-Ken) and got his back broken, [[WarriorPrince Vegeta]] [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness throws him up the air and obliterates him.]] Although the action itself is pretty surprising (Nappa was his partner), Nappa had spent most of his screentime slaughtering thousands of innocents and most of the Z-Fighters and nearly killed Gohan while laughing about it. Still, many fans do see this as Vegeta's lowest moment.
** Vegeta IS this trope in the Namek Sage with his fight against Zarbon being among the best moments. Until about an arc and a half later when he makes a more genuine HeelFaceTurn, Vegeta is basically an evil guy killing even eviler guys.
** However, contrast this with [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown final form Frieza's fight against Vegeta]]-- whilst Vegeta's actions up until now have hardly been worthy of any sympathy, the fight plays out to evoke as much sympathy for Vegeta as possible. The fact that he is finally facing up to the cruel tyrant who has held him in bondage his entire life, and getting smacked around and humiliated because of it, resulting in Vegeta breaking down and crying, is fairly emotional despite his villainy. Helps that King Kai lampshades that Vegeta's traitory was about to be paid back.
** When one thinks about it, Frieza's genocide of the Saiyans. Yes, killing the people he's been working with for years just because he's scared of their ever growing strength was cruel and unnecessary, but one must keep in mind that the Saiyans were not gentle and kind beings like Goku. As a matter of fact, they were selfish, arrogant, and ruthless, they had no remorse over sending children into space nor killing BILLIONS if not TRILLIONS of people, even Vegeta killed his partner Nappa just for being crippled by Goku.
** Frieza who gets his well deserved beatdown from Goku, despite the fear that Goku was losing himself to rage and was becoming a threat to himself and others. If Goku had ignored Frieza's pleas for mercy as he lied dying on the ground, no one would had thought badly of him.
** Even if 17 and 18 did turned out to be as evil as their future counterparts, most still would cheer when 17 stepped on Gero's decapitated head.
** It was frightening to see sweet-hearted Gohan torture Cell after the latter went Super Saiyan 2. Although, it was frightening for Gohan's sanity and not Cell who deserved everything he got.
** During the Buu saga, Van Zant, an AxCrazy TriggerHappy lunatic who had gone on a killing spree for fun with the justification that [[ScrewTheRulesItsTheApocalypse Buu would be destroying the Earth soon anyway]], decides to drop that excuse and try to kill Majin Buu so he can go on killing people. Instead, he causes Buu to spawn the Evil Buu, and the very first thing Evil Buu does is [[DisintegratorRay completely vaporize]] Van Zant. With the fact that he had been shooting innocent people ForTheEvulz, and had previously [[KickTheDog shot Buu's puppy Bee]] for fun, it's hard ''not'' to cheer when Evil Buu kills him.
* KidHero:
** Subverted with 9-year-old (physically 10) Gohan during the Cell Games. Gohan's hybrid human-Saiyan heritage make him potentially the most powerful being on Earth. Too bad his gentle personality rendered him unable to use that power and potentially kill Cell, even when the villain threatened not only his life but the lives of his friends.
** Played straight with Goku in the original ''Dragon Ball''. A caring, gentle boy who unlike Gohan was perfectly capable of using his status as one of the strongest guys on the planet.
* KidHeroAllGrownUp: Goku, as well as most of the other kid characters from the original ''Manga/DragonBall''
* KillEmAll: What Majin Buu eventually did to natives of Earth. You can do that when you have an attack called "Human ''Extinction''."
** The only characters who don't die in the entire series are Mr. Satan, Fat/Good Buu, Lord Enma, Fortune Teller Baba and the minor characters born post-Buu arc do not die either.
* KilledOffForReal:
** Goku in Future Trunks' timeline. He died of a heart virus, which meant that he couldn't be wished back with the Dragon Balls (neither Earth's set nor Namek's allow a person to be brought back if they died of natural causes, which is what a virus would technically count as).
** All the heroes from Trunks' timeline since Piccolo was killed, making the Earth's Dragon Balls turn to stone forever and they had no means of reaching new Namek.
** Trunks, from the timeline Cell came from, is KilledOffForReal for the same reason as the above.
** Android #16. The Dragon Balls couldn't bring him back (presumably) because, as a completely artificial being (unlike #17 and #18 who were, to an extent, human), he was never "alive" in the first place. Therefore when Cell killed him, he killed him for good.
* KillerSpaceMonkey: The Saiyans. They used their power to transform into giant "apes"[[note]] they're referred to as apes, but, having tails, are technically monkeys[[/note]] during the full moon to conquer planets for Frieza. And calling the Saiyans 'monkeys' was a bit of a [[FantasticSlur racial slur]] used by Frieza and his underlings.
* KirkSummation: At the end of Anime/DragonBallZ, before annihilating Buu with the Spirit Bomb, Goku briefly reminisces about the events of the arc, and how Buu went from an mostly-innocent manchild to a ruthless killer after losing the battle against his inner evil, and says how Buu will now learn what it's like to have his own life taken away against his will. He also makes a wish that Buu will come back as a better person, so he can fight him again.
* KnightOfCerebus: Raditz, being the first villain in the series.
** Frieza in his saga. Mainly considering he was quite an evil villain in his time.
** Cell. He is a man-eating bio-android whose hunt of the androids is played very dark and compared to the other androids, he is lethally more competent.
** [[AxCrazy Super Buu/Kid Buu]]. He murdered or caused the deaths of nearly the entire cast, the entire human population, and blew up the Earth, the being something no villain had ever succeeded at prior. Not to mention numerous planets after that. A sharp contrast to Fat Buu, who was child-like and mostly played for laughs, even while destroying things.
** ''Broly'', though appearing in the non-canon movies, manages to be the darkest villain of the franchise. While Frieza and Buu have some comedic traits, and Cell, who while taken very seriously before his demise, was repeatedly ridiculed in Hell afterwards, Broly is an disturbingly straight example, as he has no comedic or cartoonish traits. His ax crazy behavior makes him even more frightening.
* KnottyTentacles: Goku faced a giant snake called Princess Snake. He defeats the snake by flying around it until it ties itself into a knot trying to eat him.
* KnuckleCracking: Especially Buu, [[FridgeLogic despite]] having ''[[BlobMonster no bones]]''.
* KungFuSonicBoom: Every time from the Freeza Saga onwards.
* LargeHam: Mr. Satan. Honorable mentions to Vegeta and Frieza
** The Ginyu Force. Those guys are about as hammy as they come.
** Cell always had a certain bravado, but the ''[[Anime/DragonBallKai Kai]]'' incarnation of Cell is even hammier than his predecessors.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Frieza's HumiliationConga. After his defeat by Goku, he keeps getting resurrected and suffering a humiliating death.
* TheLastDance: ''Dragon Ball Online'' reveals that Goku, upon sensing that he will [[spoiler:soon die of old age]], invites Vegeta to join him in the depths of space for a final battle to settle their rivalry. [[spoiler:Neither are seen again, but years later astronomers discover supernovas that are believed to be the remnants of their battle.]]
* LastRequest: [[spoiler:After Vegeta is shot through the chest by Frieza, his last request to Son Goku is to avenge the genocide of the Saiyans at Frieza's hands and for turning Vegeta into the monster he became. Goku [[AlasPoorVillain buries Vegeta afterwards and promises to honor his last request]].]]
* LastVillainStand: Frieza's last shot at Goku. Frieza had lost all his minions, failed to obtain immortality, had been demonstrated as not being the strongest in the universe, had even been cut in half, and was only alive because Goku decided to give him enough energy to survive his injuries. Instead of using that energy to try to escape Namek before it exploded, Frieza tries to kill Goku one last time.
-->'''Goku''': [[VillainBall You]] [[StupidEvil FOOL]]!!!
* LaughablyEvil: Frieza is pretty evil, but he has some hilarious lines.
** The Ginyu Force.
** All incarnations of Buu, especially Fat Buu. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF04xS3ihnU Even Super Buu has some hilarious lines.]]
* LawfulStupidChaoticStupid: Goku offers to spare Raditz' life and ends up spending his own to make up for that blunder. He doesn't get smarter later on, but his power level ''usually'' made up for it.
** Albeit, some of his IdiotBall moments are as much due to naivete as stupidity. He wises up a little as the series goes on. Goku appeals to the better nature of his enemies, but if they prove irredeemable, he has no problem doing what he must.
* LawOfChromaticSuperiority: [[spoiler:The strongest Super Saiyan form, the Super Saiyan God, grants the user red hair, red eyes, a flaming orange aura, and a red tint to their skin.]]
* TheLawOfPowerProportionateToEffort: Many, ''many'' examples.
** [[SuperMode Super Saiyan]]:
*** When first introduced, ''nobody'' knew how to turn it on. However, once done for the first time, it became easier subsequently but with heavy concentration. It still required emotional stress and physical fatigue when activated on subsequent occasions. We're also told that it wastes a ton of energy, but this was mostly an InformedFlaw.
*** Before the Cell Games, Goku and Gohan intentionally {{Invoked|Trope}} this trope. Through training, they modified Super Saiyan form so that it barely took a thought to activate, and used almost no energy. In other words, it had become their new "normal" state, meaning that when great emotional stress hit this time, Gohan ascended to [[NextTierPowerUp Super Saiyan 2]].
*** Unlike the others, Super Saiyan 3 (the most powerful form, excluding ''Anime/DragonballGT'' and the movies) could be activated deliberately. Even so, it took Goku several ''minutes'' to charge up with a living body (he developed it while having an immortal, dead one). Both he and Gotenks were also under a lot of strain the whole time it was activated, limiting the time they could remain in that form.
** Kaioken: When Goku is first taught the Kaio-ken (an ability that multiplies his base power), he's hardly able to use more the fourth level before the stress on his body is too much to bear. Through training, he's eventually able to use twenty times with barely any effort, but by that point the technique had become SoLastSeason.
** Kamehameha: {{Downplayed| Trope}} for this technique; when someone uses a Kamehameha, the longer it takes them to [[CallingYourAttacks say its name]], the more power they're building up.
** Spirit Bomb: The Spirit Bomb is, by ''far'' Goku's strongest technique, but it needs both charging time ''and'' mental concentration. Meaning that unless he has someone to cover him for the several (or even ''dozens'') of minutes it takes to complete it, he won't survive long enough to get it off.
* LegoGenetics: The logic of Cell's creation: He's created from Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Freeza, and King Cold's. He's born knowing all their techniques, and those of the rest of the Z-Fighters, and possesses all their strengths.
** It's even implied that many of Cell's personality traits derive from some of his "parents". He inherited Goku's love and desire for a challenge, while at the same time getting Frieza's tendency to lose it when he realizes he's outmatched. His politeness comes from Freeza, his cunning from Vegeta, and his arrogance from both of them.
* LethallyStupid:
** Vegeta's Saiyan pride always brought him and others trouble. Especially when he let Cell absorb Android 18.
** Goku also qualifies.
** Justified with Buu, as he was created to be evil, but does it more out of stupidity and moral ignorance than actual malice.
* LetteredSequel: ''Dragon Ball Z'' is one of the earliest sequel naming practices of adding a letter ''Z'' after a title of the original work in the anime industry. What Z means also is pretty much unexplained within the show and have no mention in the original canon at all.
* LickedByTheDog: Gohan's got an entire musical number dedicated to how much he loves Piccolo, ''the self-proclaimed embodiment of evil''. Also happens to Buu later on.
* LighterAndSofter: The Cell Games, at least compared with the rest of the Cell Saga. For example, [[PluckyComicRelief Mr. Satan]], his students, manager and two newscasters are present. Occasionally, the show cuts to them to give a break from the battle for some comedy.
* LightningBruiser:
** Broly. He's a walking mountain of muscle, with the power and brute force to match, but still possesses speed enough to completely avoid the attacks of Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Future Trunks and Piccolo (he simply chooses not to for most of the fight). This trait also nullified whatever advantage Future Trunks may have had when he temporarily became a similar [[MightyGlacier Mass of Muscles]] to fight Perfect Cell.
** It's {{Lampshaded}} in the second Broly movie, where several characters comment that he is slow relative to his strength, but he's so bloody powerful it doesn't matter.
** At 100% power, Freeza's final form is almost three times bigger than it is at base level power. Unlike the other examples, the additional bulk does not slow him down, and in fact he is at his fastest while in this state. For the record, the drawback is that this power is ''uncontrollable''.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Toriyama admitted to having forgotten some of them entirely.
* LookWhatICanDoNow
* LosingIsWorseThanDeath: Goku is guilty of this at least twice, once when fighting Piccolo and again during the Cell Games.
** Vegeta explains that ''all'' (full-blooded) Saiyans are like this. It's part of their race's BloodKnight heritage. It's also pretty much the main reason why Vegeta was so hell-bent on surpassing and/or having a re-match with Goku. Goku sparing Vegeta instead of finishing him off was an insult to their race's way of life.
* LotsOfLuggage: This wasn't intentional on his part, but Gohan is often forced by Chichi (being the DotingParent she is) to carry a some massive luggage, usually bigger than he is, as is seen in ''The Tree of Might'' and on his trip to Namek with Krillin and Bulma.
* LovecraftLite: The Buu Saga.
* LudicrousGibs: When the Cell Jrs. are killed in the manga, they get gibbed. Also, the result of [[spoiler:Frieza getting hit by his own destructo discs.]]
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Goku accidentally injured his wife [[{{Tsundere}} Chi-Chi]] by attempting to give her a reassuring pat on the back, only to send her flying through a wall, a tree, and half a boulder. Chi-Chi doesn't even scream in pain or go to the hospital. However, in the next scene, she's seen with a few bandages and her arm in her sling.
* MakeRoomForTheNewPlot: At the end of the Frieza arc, "Frieza comes back to Earth with his dad for revenge" would be a major plot conflict. But then Future Trunks arrives, beats the snot out of both of them single-handedly, and warns the heroes that they need to prepare to fight an enemy far stronger than Frieza.
** Not that there would be a plot if Future Trunks wasn't there anyway. Supplementary material claim that Goku would have defeated Frieza and King Cold almost immediately if Future Trunks didn't.
* ManiacMonkeys: The Saiyans.
* TheMasquerade: Downplayed and possibly zigzagged. The Z Fighters and their special ki powers only became a big secret because a certain Mark surged in popularity after winning a Tenkaichi Budokai that they couldn't attend due to being out in space, then started claiming all the stuff from before was all "light shows and tricks." Even then, their reaction to his hogging up all the fame has fluctuated from slamming his antics as ridiculous to finding it useful depending on the context. If ''[[VideoGame/DragonBallOnline Online]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse Xenoverse]]'' are any indication, this is eventually done away with altogether.
* MasterApprenticeChain:
** Mutaito > Mutenroshi > Son Gohan, Sr. > Son Goku > Uub
** Also: Mutaito > Tsurusennin > Tenshinhan & Chaozu
** Mutaito > Mutenroshi > Ox-King > Chi-Chi > Son Goten
* MasterOfAll: Every fighter either is this or aspires to this. The one attempt to specialize (by Trunks, during the Cell Saga) results in CripplingOverspecialization. Other than that, speed, strength, invulnerability, and ki control all seem to increase proportionally with power level. Some less-powerful characters are said to be greater strategists, but this is inconsistent and tends to be a bit of an InformedAbility in any case.
* ManChild: Goku and Android 17 (the latter much more subtly, and in the BadFuture's case, much more [[PsychopathicManchild darkly]] than the former).
* MayflyDecemberRomance:
** Implied. Saiyans appear to age more slowly than humans. This becomes quite noticable later in the series, where pure-humans Chi-Chi and Bulma have gradually aged while pure-Saiyans Goku and Vegeta have barely aged at all. Even Pan, who is one quarter Saiyan, is confirmed to live to at least 110.
** This also appears to be the case with Krillin and #18's relationship. In ''GT'' Krillin is almost an old man while 18 hasn't changed at all; likely due to her cybernetic enhancements slowing down her aging considerably.
* MeaningfulFuneral: In ''Dragon Ball Z'', when Vegeta dies at Frieza's hand on Namek, Son Goku buries him on the spot with a few understanding words. In the English dub, the eulogy is a bit more long-winded.
* MeaninglessVillainVictory: Freeza's immortality wish is stopped by a language barrier.
* TheMedic:
** Anyone holding the bag of senzu fills this roll, who is usually Goku or Krillin.
** More traditionally Dende is this since he has the power of heal all wounds. It was the primary reason he was killed first by Frieza.
* MeditationPowerup
** This is the primary way Piccolo trains by himself.
** Demon King Dabura spends some time meditating in order to prepare himself for a fight. When in an actual fight though, he's quite HotBlooded.
* MergerOfSouls: By putting his hand on Nail and later Kami, Piccolo absorbed them, gaining not only extra power but also their memories. This process was permanent; Piccolo's personality also seemed to underway slight changes after each absorption. A similar case was when Goku and Vegeta used the Potara earrings to fuse; however, in this case, they split when they entered Buu's body, although it's the only way to split, and that fusion is otherwise permanent. The personality of the fused being seemed to be a mix of both Goku and Vegeta's personalities.
* MightyGlacier: Trunks when he reaches Ultra Super Saiyan (a level that sits between Super Saiyan 1 and 2), which sacrifices speed for power. In this state he possessed enough power to kill Perfect Cell, but lacked the speed necessary to make it useful. Perfect Cell, Goku and Vegeta also reached this level, but were savvy enough to figure out its critical weakness and elected not to use it (Vegeta choosing to stop at Ascended Super Saiyan, and Perfect Cell and Goku going onward to the [[LightningBruiser Full Power]] stage). In fact, Trunks doesn't figure out this form's weakness until Cell explicitly tells him why he can't win with it.
* MistakenForQuake: During the Namek Saga, Bulma tries to rationalize the ruckus being created by Vegeta and Frieza as "only an earthquake."
* MoodWhiplash: When [[spoiler:Old Kaioshin]] sacrifices himself to revive Goku. Sad music plays and Goku says he won't let his death be in vain. Right after that, he gets up (now sporting a halo) and shouts at Goku to hurry up and go.
* MostAnnoyingSound: InUniverse in several of the {{Non Serial Movie}}s:
** Whistling causes physical pain to Namekians because of their superior hearing. ([[spoiler:Lord Slug]], being a Namekian, is defeated this way.)
** As an infant, Goku's constant crying made Broly unable to sleep, and this gave Broly a lifelong obsession with killing him. (In the sequel, Goten's crying sounds so similar it wakes Broly from his coma and starts an almost unstoppable rampage.)
* TheMovie
** ''A lot'' of movies.
* MrFanservice: Future Trunks. To lesser degrees, Goku and Vegeta, Piccolo (for some), Gohan too.
* MuggingTheMonster:
** When Raditz first arrives on Earth he is accosted by a farmer wielding a gun. The farmer shoots him only to have Raditz catch the bullet and half-heartedly toss it back hard enough to kill him.
** During the Saiyan Saga, Vegeta and Nappa crashland on an alien planet inhabited by InsectoidAliens during their journey to Earth. The planet is ruled over by an EvilOverlord who usurped the throne and oppresses his people, and the two Saiyan warriors are promptly thrown in jail. After they get bored they decide to overthrow the tyrant and kill everyone in their path.
** The androids 17 and 18 are attacked by a group of gangsters. Those are thrown into the sky.
** Majin Buu, now a nice guy, is shot during a hold-up in a jewelry. Being [[BlobMonster a blob]], he absorbs the bullet, spits it out, then playfully ''throws it back'' with enough strength to put a crater in the wall behind the crooks. Said crooks promptly gave up and surrender to the police. Gohan and Videl show up and strike a pose reminiscent of the Ginyu Force only to be completely confused about why the bad guys are surrendering before they beat anybody up.
* {{Mukokuseki}}: Power up, [[EveryoneLovesBlondes become]] [[OccultBlueEyes white]].
* MyDadCanBeatUpYourDad: Between Goten and Trunks. (Vegeta also gloats after Trunks wins, boasting of the superiority of his offspring.)
* MyGrandmaCanDoBetterThanYou: In the ''Toonami'' version, a virtual Saiyan warrior (conjured by Mr Popo's training room) uses this line to ridicule the secondary characters' power levels.
* MythologyGag: When powering up for his fight against Cell, Goku mimics part of the original intro to the series.
** In the English dub, when Goku is introducing Majin Buu to the various phases of Super Saiyan ability, a confused Buu replies with "Super... Saiya-jin?". Saiya-Jin refers to the original Japanese pronunciation.
* TheNapoleon: Vegeta.
* TheNeedless: The Namekians don't need food, only water. Frieza (and presumably the rest of his family) doesn't need to breathe.
* NemeanSkinning: As Goku said to Bulma and the others when appearing in an attire based on the skin of a tiger: "It was either him or me, I swear!"
* NerdsAreSexy: Gohan.
* {{Nerf}}: Gohan, between the Cell and Buu sagas. It's commonly speculated that Gohan could've finished fat Buu off if he kept up with his training instead of studying.
* NeverForgottenSkill: At one point, Goku learns a technique called the Spirit Bomb. He stops using it after the fight with Frieza. Years later, he is reminded to use this technique on Kid Buu by Vegeta, and Goku is still able to use it like a pro.
* NeverSayDie: Taken to the extreme in the first 53 episodes of Creator/TheOceanGroup dub. Getting blasted into ashes was called "being sent into another dimension". After the Ocean dub resumed in UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom, and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}, as well as other English-speaking countries, the show went from that to merely saying "destroy", "hurt", and "gone" as well as other words that essentially meant to kill or be dead. Late into the Buu saga, however, the dub suddenly stopped this, and "kill" and "die" were used as often as in the Creator/{{FUNimation}} dub, which was completely exempt from this. The "another dimension" thing is sort of [[JustifiedTrope justified]] as death is a [[TheMultiverse multiverse]] of many heavens for different planets that even a few living people can freely travel to. Note that this only took effect from the fifth episode of the original broadcast. Some lines were re-recorded for subsequent airings of the first two episodes but episodes three and four kept references to death even (or especially) on the DVD release. Episode 66 of DaizenshuuEX featured some sound clips.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: A lot of the bad that occurs is often due to more of the heroes rather than the villains; especially the Cell and Buu sagas, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero/DragonBall and is so infamous that it now has its own page.]]
* NiceJobFixingItVillain:
** Majin Buu turns Vegetto into a Coffee flavored Jawbreaker and believes he's won. Except...that it turns out that Vegetto has not only retained ''all his power'', but now is much faster than ever and impossible to hit with his small size (not that Buu could touch him before anyway). HilarityEnsues as Buu gets his most embarassing, worst ever beating of all, [[HumiliationConga with his ass handed back to him in humiliating fashion]]. To add insult to injury, it's accompanied by a YouFightLikeACow dialogue from the "strongest piece of candy there is".
** Frieza, who ended up doing all he could to send Goku [[UnstoppableRage over the edge]] and becoming a Super Saiyan - the very thing [[AxCrazy he was hell bent on preventing from happening]].
** It started even earlier than that for Frieza. If he hadn't recalled all the Saiyans back to their home planet in a bid to destroy them all at once, Bardock and Gina wouldn't have felt the need to send Goku to Earth.
** Gero creating android #16, who very nearly put a stop to Cell before he could absorb #17 or #18 (though this is more a result of him failing to create a [[AiIsACrapShoot homicidal machine]] and really didn't want #16 to be woken up)
* NoAccountingForTaste: Vegeta and Bulma, Goku and Chi-Chi. Also, Krillin and Android #18.
* NobilityMarriesMoney: Gohan and Videl, though they fall in love quite on their own. Amid the focus on his saiyan heritage, it's easy to forget that Gohan is a prince, but after Goku's death, his grandfather the Ox King spent nearly all of his treasure supporting Gohan and Goten.
* NobodyPoops: Subverted in a Funny Moment by Super Buu (and Majin Buu, although it's somewhat easy to miss it).
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown:
** Raditz's fight with Goku, which ended with him ''stomping on Goku's chest'' breaking several ribs.
** Frieza delivers one of these to Krillin and Vegeta [[spoiler:and even Goku before he goes Super Saiyan.]]
** Goku returns the favor to Frieza once the latter's stamina started to dissipate.
** Kid Buu to Vegeta, in the final battle. Also Buu to Vegeta in their first battle...
** Buu to anyone bar Goku, Gotenks, Gohan (at first) and Vegito. [[EnemyWithin Even Buu himself is not safe from having his ass handed to him by Buu]]
** Gohan, once he got powered-up by Old Kai, came back and put the beatdown on Super Buu. Nearly killing him with brute force alone.
** Vegeta, Gohan, & Videl took some of the worst beatings in the series history. Vegeta and specially Gohan also got to pummel others into submission.
** Krillin is almost always a victim of one of these.
** Goku faced the worst beatdown of them all, having all his bones crushed by Great Ape Vegeta, and then getting further tortured afterwards. Of course, the man's a PhysicalGod, so of course he laughs it off.
** Before the heart virus fully took effect, Goku was handing Android 19 his pale butt. Once Goku became really sick, however, 19 beat him up.
** Cell constantly switches which side of the beat down he's on, at first fleeing whenever Piccolo shows up (being massively out classed) to beating on both Piccolo and #17, until 16 hands his ass to him until he absorbs #17 and stomps #16. All in the same fight. [[UpToEleven And this is before Vegeta shows up and the table continues to turn...]]
** What Gohan lays on Cell once he becomes a Super Saiyan 2. Even Cell calls him a monster.
** Videl in the tournament is subject to a stomache-churning one by Spopovich. It's in many ways much more visceral than any other in the series, because Videl is ''not'' MadeOfIron -- she's a young girl screaming and weeping in pain as she is brutalized by a man three times her size, who ''will not stop''.
* NormalFishInATinyPond:
** Any Saiyan upon hitting Earth.
** Every hero inside Babidi's Spaceship. Pui Pui suffered the worst of this.
* NoSocialSkills: Goku and Chi-Chi had both lived pretty sheltered lives before they turned 12, the latter's was only so because her dad was needlessly violent and overprotective of his wealth and daughter, not to mention living on top of Frypan Mountain. Goku, on the other hand turned into an Oozaru in a full moon, and accidentally killed his grandfather, and he only taught him how to fight, fish, and be nice to girls, and that's it. No important social skills were taught to Goku, unfortunately, and he had to learn some of them himself (such as, humorously, the difference between boys and girls). Even to this day, he still struggles, but at least [[BadassInANiceSuit he looks good in a tuxedo]].
** Then there's Majin Buu, the LaughablyEvil BigBad who isn't actually all that evil, just misguided. Ironically, when Goku fought him and the relationship between Babidi and Buu was now breaking down, he asked him as to why he listens to Babidi as Buu is too gifted a fighter to do so. This ironically played a part in Buu getting rid of Babidi. When Mr. Satan asked why he kills, he answered that his creator Bibidi said "kill", while Babidi said "destroy". Mr. Satan pointed out that those two are gone, and he could do something better and kinder with his time. When Buu asked if killing is bad, Mr. Satan said it is. Afterwards, Buu simply said "Okie-dokie! Buu no kill no more." For that short time, Mr. Satan actually saved the world by ''asking'' the BigBad to stop.
** There was also the Saiyans, notably Vegeta, who were raised for fighting, not really manners or socially acceptable actions.
---> '''Vegeta''': Service woman! Bring me a drying cloth at once!
* NotQuiteDead: Some villains were quite notorious for this, more so in the movies.
* NotSoDifferent: This exchange between Goku and Frieza:
-->'''Frieza''': Why do you loathe what I've done so much? Saiyans are just as ruthless as I am! They were killers, all of them! And you have the gall to condemn what I've done. You and your bloodthirsty race!
-->'''Goku''': They paid for their mistakes!
-->'''Frieza''': Heh heh heh heh. Is that why they died? I thought it was because I killed them!
-->'''Goku''': You're just a beast, with no conscience!
-->'''Frieza''': Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! So I'm a beast, huh? Oh, and what about you, Mr. Super Saiyan! Aren't you just like me?
-->'''Goku''': Hmph.
-->'''Frieza''': So the jury's still out on that one. Let's just give it a little more time.
* NoSell: Sometimes, when the difference in powers is too great, some characters can completely ignore the attacks of their enemies. Once Cell became Perfect Cell, he completely ignored Krillin's flurry of blows as well as a Kienzan to the neck. Broly managed to take the combined strength of all the Super Saiyans in the cast as well as Piccolo without as much as budging from their attacks. This was actually subverted on a fight between Perfect Cell and Vegeta: Vegeta dared Cell to take his Final Flash full-on. Confident that Vegeta couldn't hurt him, Cell accepted the challenge. Cell ultimately changed his mind at the last second and decided to dodge the blast, since it was far more powerful than he expected, but he still got part of his torso blown off. (Had Vegeta not aimed the blast upward, it would've destroyed Cell completely. Along with the Earth). It tends to get deconstructed such as in the fight with Nappa or Cell's and Buu's fights with Gohan when the loosing side gets so desperate they try some very desperate tactics to win, which always leave the heroes in a worse situation. While Nappa tanked Chiaotsu's suicide attack Cell tried to [[EarthShatteringKaboom blow up the whole planet]] (resulting in Goku's death) and Buu decided that he needed to absorb Gotenks to regain his advantage [[NiceJobBreakingItHero (both as a result of Gohan demonstrating how outclassed his opponent was to break them)]]
* NowILayMeDownToSleep: In the Ocean dub of one DBZ episode, Krillin mutters out this prayer when he and Dende are confronted by Vegeta on Namek, until a whale shows up and distracts him.
* OcularGushers: In one episode of the Cell Games Saga, when Chi-Chi sees Gohan's blonde hair (at this time, she doesn't know what a Super Saiyan is), she acts shocked and cries because she felt that Gohan became a "punker."
* OddlyCommonRarity: Later on in the series, almost every surviving Saiyan and their offspring, with the sole exception of Pan, ends up a Super Saiyan. It's even lampshaded:
-->'''Vegeta''': [after hearing from Trunks that Goten can also go Super Saiyan] "What is this?! Some kind of Super Saiyan Bargain Sale? When was it that the transformation to the legendary warrior of the Saiyan race was reduced to a child's play thing?"
* OffModel: Due to this being a LongRunner, it's bound to happen often.
* OffTheRails: Dragon Ball Z's TournamentArc, in which Goku shows up despite being dead, thugs under control of the BigBad interupt a match to steal Gohan's energy, Trunks and Goten knock out a masked fighter and steal his costume so they can compete, two thirds of the contestants fly away during the first round, and Mr. Satan tries to salvage the tournament by turning it into a battle royale. Then Vegeta blows up a chunk of the stadium.
* OhCrap: A fair amount. Notable ones include Frieza seeing Goku become a Super Saiyan and Android 17 seeing that Piccolo wasn't firing randomly and was instead setting up an unavoidable attack, though these are by no means all of them.
** In one dub, Cell litterally says "Oh, shit!" when he realizes that taking Vegeta's Final Flash head-on just to show off was a terrible idea.
** The Supreme Kai freaks out when Goku and Vegeta seperate Majin Buu from Super Buu causing him to turn back into Kid Buu. Goku and Vegeta also freak out when they notice he's getting stronger and stronger as he goes along the BishonenLine.
** Goku has this reaction, [[MassOhCrap then everyone else does]], while fighting Kid Buu, when he realizes he's all out of energy (and thus can't push the Spirit Bomb towards Buu). Then, when Goku's energy is restored and starts pushing the Spirit Bomb back, Kid Buu has this reaction.
* OlderThanTheyLook:
** Saiyans, in general, age very slowly so they can fight longer.
** Old Pan in the DistantFinale does show her age, but she looks about 80, not her real age of over 110.
** Mrs Brief does not appear to age throughout all her appearances.
* OminousPipeOrgan: Heard sometimes in more dramatic moments during Namek and Android arcs, at least in the original Japanese version.
* OminousWalk: Cell does this regularly knowing that his enemies' own fear will make them easier to defeat.
* OmnicidalManiac: Nearly every BigBad, with Kid Buu being the ultimate distillation of the trope. Subverted with the prime timeline's #16, #17, and #18.
* OneGenderRace: The Namekians [[WordofGod as described by]] [[Creator/AkiraToriyama Akira Toriyama]], Namekians are designed after slugs, and in-show they reproduce asexually. That said, their secondary sexual characteristics are distinctly male.
* OnlyThePureOfHeart: The condition for riding the Nimbus or controlling the Spirit Bomb. For the record, the number of people in the show who can do either can be counted on one hand. Baby has his own version of the Spirit Bomb; created by pure ''hatred''.
* OptOut: Goku's giving the right to fight Cell to Gohan and also his initial refusal to be resurrected by the Dragon Balls.
* OutOfGenreExperience: During the Saiyaman Arc, the series briefly turns into a teenage superhero story. All of the tropes are there, with Gohan leading a double life as a super hero while simultaneously having to survive high school, discovering romance and dealing with a bully all while trying to keep his powers secret.
** In the manga, this genre shift lasts for about a week, at which point Gohan blurts out his secret identity during his first in-costume encounter with Videl.
* OutOfTheInferno: A lot of {{Big Bad}}s, but Cell is the worst offender...particularly after he achieved perfection.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: Krillin is THE poster boy for this, but it applies to just about anyone who isn't a Saiyan.
* OvertookTheManga: The Garlic Jr. saga and Otherworld Tournament were created as a stopgap before the Trunks and Saiyaman sagas began.
* ParabolicPowerCurve: The end of the Cell Saga provides a non-videogame example. Goku decides that torturing their bodies in the Time Chamber will only help until a certain point, so he and Gohan practice maintaining the Super Saiyan form until it feels natural. Sure enough, this accomplishes more in one visit than Vegeta or Trunks manage in two, although there were [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength some domestic issues.]]
* ParentWithNewParamour: Type 2 is Videl's opinion of her father's fangirls, and this is before she found out he was a total fraud.
* PastelChalkedFreezeFrame: For particularly tense or dramatic cliffhangers.
* ThePatientHasLeftTheBuilding: After being beaten up by Vegeta and sent to the hospital, Goku repeatedly tries to escape the hospital to train (he actually succeeds once, but he's sent back to the hospital).
* PedestrianCrushesCar: Majin Buu had some fun [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwKgNrsW3ek playing with cars]] during an early appearance. They weren't matchbox vehicles, but may have been [[EveryCarIsAPinto Pintos]].
* PercussivePrevention: Future Gohan does it to Future Trunks before going off to fight the Androids (which ends in Future Gohan's death). Then in the main timeline Majin Vegeta does it to Kid Trunks before going off to fight Majin Buu (which ends in Vegeta's death).
* PerpetualMotionMonster: Androids 16, 17, and 18.
* PerpetualStorm: During the infamous Fake Namek {{Filler}} arc, one of the areas on the imitation planet was buffeted by a permanent sandstorm. Unfortunately for the heroes, one of the (fake) Dragon Balls was inside of a cyclone right in the middle of it.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: ''Everyone''. ...except Mr. Satan.
* PetTheDog: Piccolo took Gohan to train him to fight the Saiyans, but ended up caring about the kid. Fat Buu literally did this with a puppy he found, learning that being nice can be more fun than hurting people.
* PhosphorEssence: Every character who goes Super Saiyan glows. While other characters can summon a BattleAura, Super Saiyans are constantly glowing, as indicated by their clothes and skin tone being lighter even when the Battle Aura is off, and the hyper saturation of their hair in a special.
* PlotHole: [[SpacePirate Bojack]], an evil space pirate assumed to be on the same level as Cell was sealed away by the four Kaio centuries ago. Now take into consideration that Goku surpassed each of them in strength before the first saga of DBZ was over.
** After Goku and Vegeta save Gohan, Goten, Piccolo, Trunks, and Fat Buu from Evil Buu's body, he technically should have reverted to his original gray self. Instead, he becomes ''another'' Kid Buu, as the original turned into Fat Buu after absorbing one of the Kais.
** A major plot point in the series is the characters using multiplied gravity for massive strength boosts in a short time. Goku Trains at 100x Earth's Gravity on his way to face Frieza, and Vegeta later trains at 300x. However, if an average human's power level is 5, then 300x gravity would be felt the same as normal gravity to someone with a power level of 1500, which was roughly the same as Raditz. Considering that Goku's original Super Saiyan transformation was 150 million, he'd need to train at over 3 million times Earth's gravity to feel any difference. Goku reached King Kai's planet which has 10x gravity, and he was initially barely able to stand. By then, he must've been barely stronger than Raditz. The effects are largely the same across the the board.
* PowerDyesYourHair: The Super Saiyans.
** With the exception of Super Saiyan 4, which instead covers the Saiyans' body in a coat of red fur reminiscent to that of an ape.
* PowerEchoes
* PowerFloats: When characters raise their PowerLevel. Combines with - in order of ascending power - DramaticWind, SwirlingDust, ChunkyUpdraft and finally PsychoElectro.
* PowerHigh: Piccolo's [[{{Narm}} infamous]] "Yes! Yes! I feel great! I can do this!" moment when he fuses with Nail. Nail even teases him about it in in TheAbridgedSeries.
* PowerLevels: DBZ, Saiyan Saga to Frieza Saga, after which it was abandoned as the numbers became more noteworthy. Toyed with in Buu Saga. Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta, who is the strongest, (albeit non-canon) character in the series, has a power level that is easily calculated at ''above 80 billion!''[[note]]To clarify, Frieza's second form is stated to have a power level of over 1,000,000 and is weaker than Goku's base. Super Saiyan 4 is a combination of [=SSJ3=] (x400) and the Oozaru(x10). The fusion dance is stated to increase your power to ten times the fighters' power combined. Even if Vegeta had only barely managed to match Goku's base power from Namek, this puts it at 2 million times ten (fusion, 20 million), times ten (Oozaru, 200 million), times four hundred ([=SSJ3=], 80 billion). And of course, this is disregarding any increases in power levels between the Namek and the Buu sagas (when fusion was first introduced).[[/note]]
** Lampshaded in the 2008 special by none other than Vegeta. In the 2008 special, his younger brother Tarble is introduced, saying that a couple of remnants of Frieza's army followed him back to earth, and that he needs help fighting them. Naturally, Goku immediately obliges, but Tarble uses his scouter on him and reads a hilariously low power level, so the young Saiyan prince politely refuses Goku's help on the grounds of him being "too weak". Cue Vegeta saying that scouters are not reliable measurement for the real power level of a warrior, and Goku demonstrating this by turning Super Saiyan in front of him and making Tarble's scouter literally explode on his face due to overloading.
** Another point is that towards Buu Saga, the real increase comes from finding new levels and fusion - the lower levels have pretty much ceased growing exponentially. Goku's Super Saiyan form is only marginally stronger than what it was in Cell Saga, and so it isn't of much use compared to Super Saiyan 2 and 3.
* PowerMakesYourHairGrow: Super Saiyan 3. Super Saiyan 4, to a lesser extent.
* ThePowerOfFriendship: Despite being an OmnicidalManiac, Super Buu remembers Mr. Satan befriending him as Fat Buu, and won't harm him. Even as the wild, primitive Kid Buu he can't bring himself to harm him... until he spits out Fat Buu.
* ThePowerOfLove: Goku and (even more so) Gohan are always able to find a hidden reserve of power to protect the ones they love.
* PreviouslyOn: Every episode has an opening narration to let you know what happened in previous episodes. In order to draw out epic action in later episodes, they sometimes had a PreviouslyOn segment to let you know what happened ''earlier in that episode''.
* ProdigalHero: Piccolo may count, as he (or rather, his father) had been apart from Namek for years and only comes back when it's targeted by Frieza.
* ProperlyParanoid: Gohan may be a Half-Saiyan, but [[EducationMama Chi]]-[[{{Tsundere}} Chi]] was not okay with Gohan leaving to go to Namek for two months. While Chi-Chi may be unreasonable sometimes, she was rightfully paranoid with Gohan going to a potentially dangerous planet and leaving her alone for two months [[AdultFear (she had not seen him for a whole year)]] to revive Piccolo, the same guy who blasted a hole through Goku and killed her husband in the Saiyan arc. She displays this trope throughout the series when Gohan goes up against the Androids and Cell, fearing for Gohan's health and well-being when he's fighting bad guys.
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy
** The Saiyans, their instinct to fight in addition to their incredible natural strength, ability to transform into giant apes under a full moon, and, later in the series, their power to become Super Saiyans, makes them hugely dangerous and feudal; though Vegeta, the Prince of all Saiyans (as he is very quick to point out), seems under the impression that he's the last of a race of noble, honorable warriors that lived by their strength alone. Goku and half-Saiyans like Goten and Trunks have less of an idea of honor but retain the Saiyan fighting instinct. In the former's case, Vegeta hints the Saiyan sense of honor is inherent in pure-blooded Saiyans since Goku knows nothing of Saiyan culture, and still would've rather died (or gave up the fight) than achieve victory over an opponent by eating a senzu to win.
** Averted by Gohan, who is half-Saiyan (and very powerful) but doesn't really enjoy fighting as much as other Saiyans. He doesn't much bother with training unless he anticipates having to fight a villain.
** Future Trunks is much the same as Gohan. He doesn't seem to enjoy fighting, but have to since he is the only one who can fight the androids in his time. He doesn't care about Saiyan pride and only wants victory no matter the means, which is why he couldn't understand why Goku didn't take a senzu when offered by Cell or why they didn't attack Cell all at once when he was weakened from fighting Goku.
* PsychopathicManchild:
** All incarnations of Buu.
** Frieza as well. Usually behaves in a similar way to that of a spoiled child.
** Deep down, Broly is still that baby boy who was annoyed by Goku's crying.
* PsychoticSmirk: Vegeta.
** Super Buu gets an honorable mention for having a particularly perverted psycho smirk.
** Trunks, after being possessed by Baby in ''Dragon Ball GT''.
** Frieza got into these time to time.
* PunchPunchPunchUhOh: Vegeta and Goku have been on both sides of the punching. Mr. Satan is frequently the puncher when he's around.
* PunyEarthlings
** The humans (and inexplicable {{Funny Animal}}s) of ''Franchise/DragonBall'' and its offspring are completely, pitifully underpowered. Case in point: the term "power level" was used liberally in the first season of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''; the higher someone's "power level," the stronger they were. An average human's power level is 5. The ''first'' villain we encounter in the series has a power level of ''1,200.'' Add the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil into the mix and you've got yourself a race that has apparently survived its entire existence on little more than a wing and a prayer.
** However, for [[SoLastSeason some]] reason [[HalfHumanHybrid human/Saiyan hybrids]] have the potential to be far more powerful than both races...
** Ironically, it was by all appearances the exact opposite for a long time: the Earth of ''Dragon Ball'' was portrayed as a DeathWorld [[WorldOfBadass of Badass]] where you couldn't take two steps without running into monsters, magic, demons, dinosaurs, or humans that could match any of the above with CharlesAtlasSuperpower, SupernaturalMartialArts, or super-science like mecha and robots.\\
It was only with [[GenreShift the change from fantasy-adventure to sci-fi]] that several of the most powerful beings on Earth turn out to not be native, it's shown a single {{Mook|s}} from the galaxy's major power could enslave the entire planet (if not destroy it entirely), and Earth in general [[ContinuityDrift changes from]] a SchizoTech WorldOfWeirdness to a place much more like real life in the modern-day.
----
** Android 18 when she turns good. Also, her daughter, Marron.
** Goku and Gohan, once they master the Super Saiyan transformation and curb the BloodKnight tendencies it induces.
* HalfHumanHybrid: It helps that Saiyans are incredibly similar to humans, but genetic mixes often prove to be stronger than purebloods. Gohan, Goten and Trunks are all half-Saiyan, and Pan is quarter-Saiyan and, thus far, the only female to use a Kamehameha (and only in ''DBGT'', at that).
* HandBlast: Androids 16, 17, and 18 had this.
* HappyFunBall: [[TemptingFate Do not taunt an angry young Saiyan]]. Made especially clear in DB Movie 4 "The Path to Power", a combo re-telling of the Pilaf and Red Ribbon Army sagas, when Goku killed Officer Black with his Kamehameha after the latter killed Android Eight.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: It only works if you're a Saiyan and not a normal Earthling.
* HeelFaceTurn: Many, many characters starting with Yamcha and Oolong. Vegeta is but one example.
** Vegeta is an example of a HeelFaceRevolvingDoor.
* [[SheIsAllGrownUp He Is All Grown Up]]:
** Hot damn, 16-year-old Gohan is one fine piece of man.
** Goten and Trunks at the end of the series grew up to be some handsome young men. Although in the case of Trunks, we already knew that.
* HeroicBSOD:
** (Well, more like anti-heroic) Vegeta suffers one for about half of the first Broly movie after TheReveal that Broly is the "Legendary Super Saiyan" and therefore unbeatable. Even a peptalk from Piccolo is unable to clear it up, Vegeta only joins the fight when his royal pride gives him a kick in the pants.
** Before then, Vegeta suffered a major one once he realized that even after coming back from near death, he was still no match against Frieza. He actually cried in frustration and didn't fight back as Frieza plummeted him.
** Gohan completely gave-up after he was badly injured protecting Vegeta against Cell after the latter returned stronger than ever. It took Goku talking from the grave for Gohan to muster the resolve to face Cell one more time.
* HeroicRROD:
** Especially Goku's Kaiou-ken power-up technique. It strained his body so hard that Yajirobe's congratulatory slap on the shoulder was agonizingly painful to him. If Goku used becomes a Super Saiyan and uses the Kaiou-ken at the same time the energy limitations make it so if he tried using both for more than a few seconds, he would completely used up his energy reserves and disappeared. Something even the Dragon Balls can't fix.
** The Super Saiyan 3 transformation. It was attained by Goku by harnessing the unlimited energy supplied by his dead body, and he had trouble controlling it in his more limited living body after being revived. This was a major factor in his fight against Kid Buu, where he could match Buu's power but didn't have the endurance for a long fight - eventually being rendered unable to power up due to the strain, losing all his remaining energy, and downgrading into a heavily weakened normal state.
** As a Super Saiyan 2 in Vegeta's fight against Fat Buu, he spends all of his life energy on an attack and dies, disintegrating Fat Buu... for all of thirty seconds before the [[FromASingleCell latter regenerates]].
* HeroicSacrifice: Done quite a bit with various levels of success:
** At the beginning of the series, Goku sacrificed himself to kill Raditz by holding him down while Piccolo fired his Special Beam Cannon at them. Raditz died and stayed dead throughout the series and Goku was revived by the Dragon Balls, which he knew would happen at the event of his death.
** Chaozu blew up on Nappa knowing that he was too underpowered to really help and to keep Tien from being killed. He also knew that he couldn't be revived with the Dragon Balls, since he was brought back to life before, so he knew if he died then he would be KilledOffForReal. His sacrifice didn't work and Tien died shortly later, but they were both revived with the Namek Dragon Balls.
** Piccolo shielded Gohan from an energy blast that would had killed him. He knew that if he died Kami would also die and the Dragon Balls would be rendered inert. Thankfully, Vegeta revealed there was another set of Dragon Balls elsewhere before Piccolo was killed.
** In the anime, Piccolo knocked Goku out of the way of Frieza's attack after Goku's Spirit Bomb failed. In this case, his death would have not only killed Kami (again), preventing the use of Earth's Dragon Balls, but also prevented the revival of the Namekians and their currently-inert Dragon Balls. Had he actually died, every death would have been permanent. It was sheer luck that he lived long enough for the necessary wishes to be made to save everyone, himself included.
** Android 16 attempted to blow up Cell using the bomb that was built into him. Unfortunately for him, Bulma removed the bomb without telling him and got blasted into pieces by Cell for his trouble. Reduced to just a head, he convinces Mr. Satan to throw him towards Gohan, who was watching his friends and family be beating by Cell Jrs. He gives Gohan words of encouragement so he could released his full power and is stepped on by Cell, killing him. Since he was an artificial life and never really alive to begin with once he died [[KilledOffForReal he stayed dead]]. 16's death was the trigger Gohan needed to become Super Saiyan 2.
** Goku sacrificed himself to stop Cell from blowing up the Earth after Cell turned himself into a bomb by teleporting him off the planet to King Kai's world. Unlike the first time, Goku knew he couldn't be revived since he was already brought back by the Earth's Dragon Balls. It did save the Earth, but Cell [[FromASingleCell regenerated]] not long after and nearly blew it up again along with the solar system.
** Vegeta blew himself up to try and take out Buu, who regenerated. Krillin also tried to fight Buu knowing he was hopelessly outclassed so 18 could lead everyone else to safety. Krillin was turned into candy within seconds, followed by 18 and their own child Maron. Everyone else save Dende met the same fate. In both of these cases, neither could be brought back with the Dragon Balls since they were already revived once.
** Dende was saved because Mr. Popo threw him off the Lookout before Buu could turn him into chocolate.
* HeroicSecondWind: In reality, Heroic ''Fourth'' and even '''Fifth''' Winds are not uncommon in any major fight. The most notorious of these was in Frieza saga where Goku got enough winds to keep coming back stronger and stronger till he went Super Saiyan and still had a couple more afterwards. Vegeta and Gohan in particular get the worst trashing of all characters and keep coming back a record number of times.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Goten and Trunks. Also, Tienshinhan and Chaozu.
** It's less severe since they both do get married (not to each other![[note]]not that there's anything wrong with that![[/note]]) and have families, but Goku and Krillin were this from almost the very beginning to the very end.
* HighSchoolSweethearts: Gohan and Videl.
* HistoryRepeats:
** Videl finding out that Gohan killed Cell in a similar fashion to Chi-Chi finding out Goku killed Demon King Piccolo.
** Gohan also beat Cell with one of his arms disable, much like Goku did against King Piccolo.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Typical cause of villain mastermind death.
** Freeza was killed by his own Kienzan-like energy attack. (He got better.)
** Dr. Gero got his head blown off and crushed by #17. And it happened to him again in the afterlife, which by their rules means he's KilledOffForReal.
** Babidi was killed by Buu.
** In the films and anime filler, Garlic Jr. ended up in his own Dead Zone twice. [[ImmortalityHurts Unfortunately for him, he's immortal.]]
** In Movie 8 (''Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan''), Paragus was crushed in his space pod by his son [[AxCrazy Broly]], and then thrown into Comet Kamori, the comet he'd planned on destroying the planet and everybody on it, including Broly. Lampshaded by Paragus himself, whose dying words question his ironic fate.
* HolyHalo: Worn by dead characters.
* HoldTheLine: DBZ might as well be the trope codifier. Every saga involves the current fighters holding off the BigBad until Goku either arrives, heals, or finishes powering up.
** {{Averted}} in the Cell saga. Perfect Cell waited until everyone had time to get in extra training before the Cell Games.
** {{Subverted}} with Super Buu. When they had to hold him off so Gotenks could learn Fusion in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he responded to a request for patience by ''[[ApocalypseHow killing every person on Earth in a single attack]]''.
*** Of course, it was Piccolo who suggested that Buu kill time by killing some more humans, knowing they could always wish them back later.
* {{Homage}}: ''Dragon Ball'' is a homage to the classic ''{{Journey to the West}}'', particularly the first arc, with Bulma in a gender-flipped Xuanzang role, Son Goku is Sun Wukong (in turn a homage to Hanuman from ''{{Ramayana}}''), Oolong is Zhu Bajie, and Yamcha is Sha Wujing. ''Dragon Ball Z'', at least the first few parts of it, appears to be a homage to SuperHero fiction (including ''GoldenBat'', ''[[http://www.animevice.com/prince-of-gamma/18-31482/ Prince of Gamma]]'', and ''{{Superman}}'') and other SciFi themes.
* HomeFieldAdvantage: Babidi's base can simulate various environments and his henchmen use it to their advantage. The one time his henchman tried to exploit this, however, he chose to fight Vegeta on a planet with 10x gravity, the same as the Saiyan homeworld and a 1/50th of the level Vegeta had long since mastered. What was already a hilariously one-sided beatdown remained so.
* HomeworldEvacuation: When the Namekian homeworld is set to explode by one of Frieza's attacks, a wish is made on the Dragon Balls to save their lives by evacuating all the Namekians to Earth. Then they promptly had the dragon make them a new one and had themselves beamed there.
* HonorBeforeReason: Son Goku's unfailing and unconditional love for all life has turned practically every villain he met, with the exception of Freeza and Cell, into paragons of heroism.
** Even Buu, who is pretty much evil incarnate, was transformed into an incredibly nice yet timid person after being '''killed''' simply on Goku's wish, and '''NOT''' to a dragon.
** During the Cell Saga, Cell provides Goku a moment to eat a Senzu Bean before continuing the fight. Vegeta comments that Goku's Saiyan honor wouldn't allow him to use such a dishonorable "crutch". In fact, Goku gives Cell the Senzu bean before letting Gohan fight Cell.
* HopelessSuitor: Sharpner toward Videl. She finds him completely obnoxious.
* HostileTerraforming: Lord Slug wanted to freeze the Earth because of this in the fourth movie. "DeTerraforming" was discussed in the ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' movie version.
* HowMuchMoreCanHeTake:
** Vegeta attacking [[spoiler:Android 18 even after she breaks his left arm at the elbow.]] In fact, no matter what anyone throws at him, he just won't stay down! Heck, he and Frieza are the only canon characters that have ever stood up after being hit by the Spirit Bomb. [[spoiler: The first time he died, it took a blast ''straight'' through the heart to finally get the job done, and even then, it took a few minutes for him to actually die.]] There's also his epic beatdown by Kid Buu. No matter what Buu did to him, he wouldn't stay down, which actually ''scared' Kid Buu.
** Saiyans in general seem to have very durable bodies. Goku had all his limbs broken or disabled and was still able to beat King Piccolo and Piccolo. He also got beaten so badly by King Piccolo that his heart stopped and restarted on its own. He got hit multiple times in pressure points and got up after a few seconds with only minor pain. When Goku and Raditz were hit by Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon it took Goku several minutes to die despite having a giant hole in his chest. Piccolo had to crush Raditz's head in to kill him quickly since hole or no hole he was still able to talk and brag. Goku got plummet to a pulp by Frieza for several episodes and still had the endurance to become Super Saiyan without fainting, something that is supposed to be highly exhausting the first time. Not to mention, Gohan got his freaking neck broken and was still alive.
** The fight at the end of the Saiyan saga actually showed what Goku and Vegeta's limits were; getting stepped or landed on by a 50 tall ape is apperently too much.
** Piccolo had his own share of beatdowns. The most famous being when Cell broke his neck, shot him point-blank with an energy blast to the chest, and threw him into the water to drown. He not only survived, but his healed his own broken neck and got to shore.
** Spopovich vs. Videl turns into this, to the point that Gohan turns into a super saiyan and threatens to intervene.
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Gohan and Videl. ''GT''[='=]s art style skewered it, but in most manga images, her shoulders are level with his waist. Also [[TinyGuyHugeGirl inverted]] with Krillin and 18: she's normal size, but he's short.
* HulkingOut: Goku and Gohan's Oozaru transformation.
** And, to and extent, their initial Super Saiyan and [=SS2=] transformations (respectively), both being shown to increase their muscle size noticeably (Gohan actually appears to get taller).
** The "Ascended Saiyan" (AKA "Super Saiyan 1.5") as shown in the Cell Saga by [[spoiler:Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks (who actually took it so far he hulked out to the point of losing speed and mistook that for surpassing Vegeta).]]
** Broly. Unstoppable, giant force of extreme power unleashed by pure rage.
* HumanAliens: Saiyans in particular. Aside from having tails they look exactly like humans, in fact they can even [[HalfHumanHybrid breed with them with no trouble at all]]. Some of Frieza's helmeted mooks also seem to qualify.
* HumansAreMorons: It turns out that humans are selfish, childish, misguided idiots who only worry when something bad happens to them, can't put ''anything'' in perspective, and will only do anything as simple as, say, raise up your hands to fuel the Spirit Bomb when a voice encompassing the Earth asks (Vegeta ''actually'' said "please" the ''first'' time, although he didn't even tell them why they had to put their hands up).
* HumansNeedAliens: Dragon Ball both play this straight and subvert it.
** On one hand, humans would have gone extinct without the Saiyans and Namakians protecting them and wishing them back with the dragon balls.
** At the same time, the majority of the show's conflicts would have never happened if Goku and Vegeta never came to Earth and Kami never made the dragon balls, which most of the sages revolve around. Not to say that humans would be completely better off since the Red Ribbon Army would still exist, King Piccolo would be older, but still terrorizing humans, and not to mention Babidi coming for Buu.
* HumanityIsInfectious: Probably the biggest reason why Earth haven't been destroyed (permanently at least). To recap:
** Goku was a savage toddler who may of went on to kill people if it wasn't for the kindness of Gohan Sr who taught him love. His head injury may of helped too.
** Piccolo, wanted to conquer the world and didn't care who got in his way, came to know love from Gohan, who is half-human, and renounced his evil past.
** Vegeta, who was a ruthless murderer and BloodKnight, softened up and started a family once he began to live on Earth.
** Fat Buu, much like Vegeta was a mass-murderer, until he was shown the error of his ways by Mr. Satan and now lives a peaceful life.
*** In short, although humans are the weakest fighters in the series, their very humanity has turned some of the most powerful beings in the universe into their allies.
** In a negative example, the Nameless Namek was effected by all the negative aspects of humanity corrupting his good nature. To purified himself he split himself into Kami and the original Piccolo.
* HybridPower: Saiyan-human hybrids have far more inherent power than pure members of either race. The effect seems to get stronger with successive generations. At age five, Gohan could flatten mountains and stagger Freeza if he got angry enough. Goten and Trunks could go Super Saiyan without even thinking about it.
* ICannotSelfTerminate: Kami invokes this at the beginning of the Piccolo Jr. saga, when talking with Mr. Popo about how to deal with King Piccolo's offspring, since killing him means ''he'' would die as well.
* IdenticalGrandson: Goku's family. Goku looks exactly like his father and Goten looks exactly like Goku (until Toriyama changes his hairstyle as Goten ages). Gohan, despite having different hair to Goku, has the same facial features. One notable aversion is Raditz, who looks nothing like Goku or their father, instead looking more like Vegeta.
** Bulma's family. Both her son and daughter, her daughter especially, look most like their mother, although Trunks has some of Vegeta's facial features.
** Played almost completely straight with the male members of the Son family. With the exceptions of Son Gohan, Sr. (who wasn't biologically related to Goku) and Raditz (Goku's brother), Goku's biological father and his sons bear an incredible resemblance to him (Goten much more so than Gohan). In the Japanese version, they all sound alike as well.
** Played straight with Vegeta, his father and his brother (Tarble). Averted with Vegeta's children (although they both look a lot like their mother).
* IdiotBall: Every character seems to get this at some points, but no more so than the Androids during the beginning of the Cell saga. Sure, you could forgive them for not believing Cell was a threat initially (since up until that point, they'd curbstomped every opponent). But once learning that said monster wanted to absorb them, and watching him kick the crap out of Android 17 ''and'' Piccolo (who had shown himself to be at least as powerful as 17), 16 and 18 decide that instead of escaping, they'd prefer to just watch.
** And then Tien jumps in and immobilizes Cell with his [[CastFromHitPoints Tri-Beam]] (and could equally be accused of carrying the idiot ball himself whilst watching the previous fight; if the Tri-Beam had enough power to pin Semi-Perfect Cell, he probably could have taken down Imperfect Cell), 16 and 18 take about 10 minutes to actually bother escaping, waiting until Tien had almost killed himself from overexertion.
** And then ''again'', when Vegeta fights Cell, 16 and 18 decide that escaping is decidedly less important than watching Vegeta kick Cell around.
** Raditz, Goku's evil brother who kidnaps Gohan and ransoms his life for the lives of 100 humans that he wants Goku to kill, promises to leave Earth in peace if Goku will spare him. [[WhatTheHellHero It works.]]
** Vegeta prompting Freeza to transform, for no reason whatsoever. Had he not, Piccolo would have been able to defeat Freeza before Goku even finished healing.
** ''Everyone'' except Bulma (and possibly Krillin) during the Android Saga. Her plan? Gather the Dragon Balls and have Shenron tell them where Dr. Gero's lab is, so they don't have to lift a finger later to train or bring back the people that will inevitably die because of them. It's not like this wouldn't have worked, either; Shenron can't directly affect those stronger than him, but giving out a location would be within his power. The reason why this ''didn't'' happen? The "heroes" want to test their strength against the Androids, despite Trunks explicitly saying that they would be ''[[CurbStompBattle massacred]]''. Keep in mind that Goku is the only one capable of dealing with this new threat at this point, despite the fact that [[CurbStompBattle Future Trunks is just as strong as he is, and gets his ass handed to him by the Androids on a regular basis.]]
** For much of the Android and Cell Saga, Trunks appears to be tremendously disoriented by the notorious changes of events from his own storyline. Everything that happened in the main timeline appeared to be completely different.
* IdiotHero: Goku, although he lived a sheltered life until he turned 12. And technically, [[FakeUltimateHero Mr. Satan]].
** Goku's hick tendencies are considerably downplayed as the series progresses and becomes more actionized (although he did do some dumb things, such as giving Cell a Senzu Bean and not killing Majin Buu while he had the chance).
* ImpendingClashShot: At least one per fighting antagonist arc, an episode will have a PastelChalkedFreezeFrame (usually based on a panel from the manga) of either the characters charging into the fray or one if not both at ready fighting stances. Like Freeza charging (flying) with his energy aura at Goku's super Saiyan Kamehameha in one episode.
* ImpossibleTaskInstantlyAccomplished:
** Tenshinhan, who studied with Master Roshi's arch rival, slams Yamcha with a Kamehameha right after his very first one. Yamcha is a ButtMonkey.
** Kid Buu takes it UpToEleven, mastering both the Kamehameha and Instant Transmission ''on sight''.
** Mr. Satan tells Videl she's only allowed to date a boy who can beat him in a fight. So she does.
* ImpoverishedPatrician: Remember Chi Chi being a princess? Well, raising two [[BigEater half-saiyan boys]] ain't cheap when their father isn't around to hunt and fish. She manages to blow through her father's entire fortune raising Gohan and Goten, to the point that she makes the [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness uncharacteristic move]] of letting Gohan take a leave of absence from school in order to prepare for the World Martial Arts Tournament because they need the prize money. When she meets Videl, she accuses her of being a hussy trying to corrupt her son, but [[ShipperOnDeck she changes her tune real fast]] [[NobilityMarriesMoney when she finds out Videl's family is rich.]]
* InactionSequence: Very common of the fanbase is the immense amount of talking, taking several episodes to gather enough energy, or just flat out delaying fights for a later time.
* IncompletelyTrained
** This is a large part of why Gohan struggles in some of the later arcs. Due to Chi-Chi's over-protectiveness and Goku's absence, he's never fully trained himself in the use of his natural abilities.
** Goku himself is able to get by despite leaving in the middle of his training more than once because he manages to learn everything on his own anyway.
** This is suggested to be the primary reason that the Supreme Kai is not as competent as one would hope for his rank. He was actually a ''junior'' Kai back before Buu slaughtered all of his superiors, so all the authority fell to him before he was fully ready for it.
* InfantImmortality: Strongly played with, when it's not being outright averted. Notable aversions include:
** The Namekian children being slaughtered either by Vegeta or Frieza and his goons. Dende himself is taken out by Frieza who [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy realizes it might be wise to]] ShootTheMedicFirst.
** Trunks and Goten die when Kid Buu blows up the Earth--[[NiceJobBreakingItHero thanks a lot]] [[IdiotBall Kakarot!]]
** And then there's all the times the villains of a particular saga decide blow up an entire city...or [[AnyoneCanDie wipe out all of the sentient inhabitants]] of a city or ''an entire planet'' just to show off.
* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: Most of the aliens and gods have this view of Earth. It was more or less said in ''Dragon Ball Minus'' that Frieza would have no interest in Earth and King Cold is famous for calling it (in the Funimation dub) an insignificant mudball. Even the Galactic Patrolman could careless about what happens to Earth.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Gohan and Krillin, particularly in the Freezer saga.
** Gohan and Piccolo too [[note]]though Piccolo is technically only 7 years older than Gohan despite being nearly an adult at the age of 3 [[/note]]
* IWasBeatenByAGirl: Vegeta by Android 18.
** A mechanical and physically augmented girl nonetheless.
** Krillin and Zangya.
* {{Jerkass}}: Almost all the main villains, especially Frieza and Cell. Both are incredibly arrogant, cruel, and self-centered. Frieza, [[FauxAffablyEvil although occasionally sophisticated]], he is racist and despotic. And Cell has this from Vegeta's cells.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** Vegeta killing Burter and Recoome in cold blood after Goku defeated them. Goku states that Vegeta was being cruel, but Vegeta then retorts that their deaths were deserved, especially since Gohan and Krillin were on the verge of death, and that they had killed countless people under Frieza's orders. While Goku states that having a little compassion isn't a disadvantage, sparing the Ginyu Force would have caused far more harm than good. This is further emphasized later on when Goku spares their even more sadistic leader Frieza's life at least twice -- which only prompts Frieza to try to stab Goku in the back both times.
** Although Vegeta was too harsh with Gohan about him getting weaker in the Buu saga and how his fight with Dabura was a "disgrace," he made a good point.
** In the Saiyan Saga, Yajirobe invokes this after the fight against Vegeta, calling out Chi-Chi for focusing entirely on Gohan, who was merely unconscious, while ignoring Goku, who didn't have a single unbroken bone in his body.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Piccolo, cold and aloof, but do care for his friends, especially Gohan.
** Vegeta slowly evolved into this and finally becomes this trope near the end of the Buu Sage.
* JustAKid: Gohan and to lesser extent Trunks and Goten are called this.
* {{Kiai}}: Even if you never watch the show, Dragon Ball is known for this.
** The {{Funimation}} dub seems to take this [[UpToEleven even further]]... just check out Goku's Super Saiyan 3 transformation and then wonder how Sean Schemmel is still voice acting today.
*** The editing of the clip suggests some reuse of the best voice take-- but I still hope he got a few days off to recuperate.
** Kiai is stated in [[AllThereInTheManual Daizenshuu 7]] a KiAttack used to knock away opponents or deflect attacks.
* KickTheDog: During the Saiyan Saga, Vegeta and Nappa crash land on an alien planet ruled over by a cruel tyrant. They kill the usurper simply because he got in their way, and a courageous prince is reunited with the woman whom the tyrant forcibly took as his bride. Nappa is almost amused, but as they leave the planet Vegeta decides to blow it up just to dash the aliens' hopes at their newfound freedom.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: In an universe filled with SmugSuper and SmugSnake this trope comes up more than once:
** After [[TheBrute Nappa]] fails to defeat Goku and can only nearly equal his strength (without Kaio-Ken) and got his back broken, [[WarriorPrince Vegeta]] [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness throws him up the air and obliterates him.]] Although the action itself is pretty surprising (Nappa was his partner), Nappa had spent most of his screentime slaughtering thousands of innocents and most of the Z-Fighters and nearly killed Gohan while laughing about it. Still, many fans do see this as Vegeta's lowest moment.
** Vegeta IS this trope in the Namek Sage with his fight against Zarbon being among the best moments. Until about an arc and a half later when he makes a more genuine HeelFaceTurn, Vegeta is basically an evil guy killing even eviler guys.
** However, contrast this with [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown final form Frieza's fight against Vegeta]]-- whilst Vegeta's actions up until now have hardly been worthy of any sympathy, the fight plays out to evoke as much sympathy for Vegeta as possible. The fact that he is finally facing up to the cruel tyrant who has held him in bondage his entire life, and getting smacked around and humiliated because of it, resulting in Vegeta breaking down and crying, is fairly emotional despite his villainy. Helps that King Kai lampshades that Vegeta's traitory was about to be paid back.
** When one thinks about it, Frieza's genocide of the Saiyans. Yes, killing the people he's been working with for years just because he's scared of their ever growing strength was cruel and unnecessary, but one must keep in mind that the Saiyans were not gentle and kind beings like Goku. As a matter of fact, they were selfish, arrogant, and ruthless, they had no remorse over sending children into space nor killing BILLIONS if not TRILLIONS of people, even Vegeta killed his partner Nappa just for being crippled by Goku.
** Frieza who gets his well deserved beatdown from Goku, despite the fear that Goku was losing himself to rage and was becoming a threat to himself and others. If Goku had ignored Frieza's pleas for mercy as he lied dying on the ground, no one would had thought badly of him.
** Even if 17 and 18 did turned out to be as evil as their future counterparts, most still would cheer when 17 stepped on Gero's decapitated head.
** It was frightening to see sweet-hearted Gohan torture Cell after the latter went Super Saiyan 2. Although, it was frightening for Gohan's sanity and not Cell who deserved everything he got.
** During the Buu saga, Van Zant, an AxCrazy TriggerHappy lunatic who had gone on a killing spree for fun with the justification that [[ScrewTheRulesItsTheApocalypse Buu would be destroying the Earth soon anyway]], decides to drop that excuse and try to kill Majin Buu so he can go on killing people. Instead, he causes Buu to spawn the Evil Buu, and the very first thing Evil Buu does is [[DisintegratorRay completely vaporize]] Van Zant. With the fact that he had been shooting innocent people ForTheEvulz, and had previously [[KickTheDog shot Buu's puppy Bee]] for fun, it's hard ''not'' to cheer when Evil Buu kills him.
* KidHero:
** Subverted with 9-year-old (physically 10) Gohan during the Cell Games. Gohan's hybrid human-Saiyan heritage make him potentially the most powerful being on Earth. Too bad his gentle personality rendered him unable to use that power and potentially kill Cell, even when the villain threatened not only his life but the lives of his friends.
** Played straight with Goku in the original ''Dragon Ball''. A caring, gentle boy who unlike Gohan was perfectly capable of using his status as one of the strongest guys on the planet.
* KidHeroAllGrownUp: Goku, as well as most of the other kid characters from the original ''Manga/DragonBall''
* KillEmAll: What Majin Buu eventually did to natives of Earth. You can do that when you have an attack called "Human ''Extinction''."
** The only characters who don't die in the entire series are Mr. Satan, Fat/Good Buu, Lord Enma, Fortune Teller Baba and the minor characters born post-Buu arc do not die either.
* KilledOffForReal:
** Goku in Future Trunks' timeline. He died of a heart virus, which meant that he couldn't be wished back with the Dragon Balls (neither Earth's set nor Namek's allow a person to be brought back if they died of natural causes, which is what a virus would technically count as).
** All the heroes from Trunks' timeline since Piccolo was killed, making the Earth's Dragon Balls turn to stone forever and they had no means of reaching new Namek.
** Trunks, from the timeline Cell came from, is KilledOffForReal for the same reason as the above.
** Android #16. The Dragon Balls couldn't bring him back (presumably) because, as a completely artificial being (unlike #17 and #18 who were, to an extent, human), he was never "alive" in the first place. Therefore when Cell killed him, he killed him for good.
* KillerSpaceMonkey: The Saiyans. They used their power to transform into giant "apes"[[note]] they're referred to as apes, but, having tails, are technically monkeys[[/note]] during the full moon to conquer planets for Frieza. And calling the Saiyans 'monkeys' was a bit of a [[FantasticSlur racial slur]] used by Frieza and his underlings.
* KirkSummation: At the end of Anime/DragonBallZ, before annihilating Buu with the Spirit Bomb, Goku briefly reminisces about the events of the arc, and how Buu went from an mostly-innocent manchild to a ruthless killer after losing the battle against his inner evil, and says how Buu will now learn what it's like to have his own life taken away against his will. He also makes a wish that Buu will come back as a better person, so he can fight him again.
* KnightOfCerebus: Raditz, being the first villain in the series.
** Frieza in his saga. Mainly considering he was quite an evil villain in his time.
** Cell. He is a man-eating bio-android whose hunt of the androids is played very dark and compared to the other androids, he is lethally more competent.
** [[AxCrazy Super Buu/Kid Buu]]. He murdered or caused the deaths of nearly the entire cast, the entire human population, and blew up the Earth, the being something no villain had ever succeeded at prior. Not to mention numerous planets after that. A sharp contrast to Fat Buu, who was child-like and mostly played for laughs, even while destroying things.
** ''Broly'', though appearing in the non-canon movies, manages to be the darkest villain of the franchise. While Frieza and Buu have some comedic traits, and Cell, who while taken very seriously before his demise, was repeatedly ridiculed in Hell afterwards, Broly is an disturbingly straight example, as he has no comedic or cartoonish traits. His ax crazy behavior makes him even more frightening.
* KnottyTentacles: Goku faced a giant snake called Princess Snake. He defeats the snake by flying around it until it ties itself into a knot trying to eat him.
* KnuckleCracking: Especially Buu, [[FridgeLogic despite]] having ''[[BlobMonster no bones]]''.
* KungFuSonicBoom: Every time from the Freeza Saga onwards.
* LargeHam: Mr. Satan. Honorable mentions to Vegeta and Frieza
** The Ginyu Force. Those guys are about as hammy as they come.
** Cell always had a certain bravado, but the ''[[Anime/DragonBallKai Kai]]'' incarnation of Cell is even hammier than his predecessors.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Frieza's HumiliationConga. After his defeat by Goku, he keeps getting resurrected and suffering a humiliating death.
* TheLastDance: ''Dragon Ball Online'' reveals that Goku, upon sensing that he will [[spoiler:soon die of old age]], invites Vegeta to join him in the depths of space for a final battle to settle their rivalry. [[spoiler:Neither are seen again, but years later astronomers discover supernovas that are believed to be the remnants of their battle.]]
* LastRequest: [[spoiler:After Vegeta is shot through the chest by Frieza, his last request to Son Goku is to avenge the genocide of the Saiyans at Frieza's hands and for turning Vegeta into the monster he became. Goku [[AlasPoorVillain buries Vegeta afterwards and promises to honor his last request]].]]
* LastVillainStand: Frieza's last shot at Goku. Frieza had lost all his minions, failed to obtain immortality, had been demonstrated as not being the strongest in the universe, had even been cut in half, and was only alive because Goku decided to give him enough energy to survive his injuries. Instead of using that energy to try to escape Namek before it exploded, Frieza tries to kill Goku one last time.
-->'''Goku''': [[VillainBall You]] [[StupidEvil FOOL]]!!!
* LaughablyEvil: Frieza is pretty evil, but he has some hilarious lines.
** The Ginyu Force.
** All incarnations of Buu, especially Fat Buu. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF04xS3ihnU Even Super Buu has some hilarious lines.]]
* LawfulStupidChaoticStupid: Goku offers to spare Raditz' life and ends up spending his own to make up for that blunder. He doesn't get smarter later on, but his power level ''usually'' made up for it.
** Albeit, some of his IdiotBall moments are as much due to naivete as stupidity. He wises up a little as the series goes on. Goku appeals to the better nature of his enemies, but if they prove irredeemable, he has no problem doing what he must.
* LawOfChromaticSuperiority: [[spoiler:The strongest Super Saiyan form, the Super Saiyan God, grants the user red hair, red eyes, a flaming orange aura, and a red tint to their skin.]]
* TheLawOfPowerProportionateToEffort: Many, ''many'' examples.
** [[SuperMode Super Saiyan]]:
*** When first introduced, ''nobody'' knew how to turn it on. However, once done for the first time, it became easier subsequently but with heavy concentration. It still required emotional stress and physical fatigue when activated on subsequent occasions. We're also told that it wastes a ton of energy, but this was mostly an InformedFlaw.
*** Before the Cell Games, Goku and Gohan intentionally {{Invoked|Trope}} this trope. Through training, they modified Super Saiyan form so that it barely took a thought to activate, and used almost no energy. In other words, it had become their new "normal" state, meaning that when great emotional stress hit this time, Gohan ascended to [[NextTierPowerUp Super Saiyan 2]].
*** Unlike the others, Super Saiyan 3 (the most powerful form, excluding ''Anime/DragonballGT'' and the movies) could be activated deliberately. Even so, it took Goku several ''minutes'' to charge up with a living body (he developed it while having an immortal, dead one). Both he and Gotenks were also under a lot of strain the whole time it was activated, limiting the time they could remain in that form.
** Kaioken: When Goku is first taught the Kaio-ken (an ability that multiplies his base power), he's hardly able to use more the fourth level before the stress on his body is too much to bear. Through training, he's eventually able to use twenty times with barely any effort, but by that point the technique had become SoLastSeason.
** Kamehameha: {{Downplayed| Trope}} for this technique; when someone uses a Kamehameha, the longer it takes them to [[CallingYourAttacks say its name]], the more power they're building up.
** Spirit Bomb: The Spirit Bomb is, by ''far'' Goku's strongest technique, but it needs both charging time ''and'' mental concentration. Meaning that unless he has someone to cover him for the several (or even ''dozens'') of minutes it takes to complete it, he won't survive long enough to get it off.
* LegoGenetics: The logic of Cell's creation: He's created from Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Freeza, and King Cold's. He's born knowing all their techniques, and those of the rest of the Z-Fighters, and possesses all their strengths.
** It's even implied that many of Cell's personality traits derive from some of his "parents". He inherited Goku's love and desire for a challenge, while at the same time getting Frieza's tendency to lose it when he realizes he's outmatched. His politeness comes from Freeza, his cunning from Vegeta, and his arrogance from both of them.
* LethallyStupid:
** Vegeta's Saiyan pride always brought him and others trouble. Especially when he let Cell absorb Android 18.
** Goku also qualifies.
** Justified with Buu, as he was created to be evil, but does it more out of stupidity and moral ignorance than actual malice.
* LetteredSequel: ''Dragon Ball Z'' is one of the earliest sequel naming practices of adding a letter ''Z'' after a title of the original work in the anime industry. What Z means also is pretty much unexplained within the show and have no mention in the original canon at all.
* LickedByTheDog: Gohan's got an entire musical number dedicated to how much he loves Piccolo, ''the self-proclaimed embodiment of evil''. Also happens to Buu later on.
* LighterAndSofter: The Cell Games, at least compared with the rest of the Cell Saga. For example, [[PluckyComicRelief Mr. Satan]], his students, manager and two newscasters are present. Occasionally, the show cuts to them to give a break from the battle for some comedy.
* LightningBruiser:
** Broly. He's a walking mountain of muscle, with the power and brute force to match, but still possesses speed enough to completely avoid the attacks of Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Future Trunks and Piccolo (he simply chooses not to for most of the fight). This trait also nullified whatever advantage Future Trunks may have had when he temporarily became a similar [[MightyGlacier Mass of Muscles]] to fight Perfect Cell.
** It's {{Lampshaded}} in the second Broly movie, where several characters comment that he is slow relative to his strength, but he's so bloody powerful it doesn't matter.
** At 100% power, Freeza's final form is almost three times bigger than it is at base level power. Unlike the other examples, the additional bulk does not slow him down, and in fact he is at his fastest while in this state. For the record, the drawback is that this power is ''uncontrollable''.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Toriyama admitted to having forgotten some of them entirely.
* LookWhatICanDoNow
* LosingIsWorseThanDeath: Goku is guilty of this at least twice, once when fighting Piccolo and again during the Cell Games.
** Vegeta explains that ''all'' (full-blooded) Saiyans are like this. It's part of their race's BloodKnight heritage. It's also pretty much the main reason why Vegeta was so hell-bent on surpassing and/or having a re-match with Goku. Goku sparing Vegeta instead of finishing him off was an insult to their race's way of life.
* LotsOfLuggage: This wasn't intentional on his part, but Gohan is often forced by Chichi (being the DotingParent she is) to carry a some massive luggage, usually bigger than he is, as is seen in ''The Tree of Might'' and on his trip to Namek with Krillin and Bulma.
* LovecraftLite: The Buu Saga.
* LudicrousGibs: When the Cell Jrs. are killed in the manga, they get gibbed. Also, the result of [[spoiler:Frieza getting hit by his own destructo discs.]]
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Goku accidentally injured his wife [[{{Tsundere}} Chi-Chi]] by attempting to give her a reassuring pat on the back, only to send her flying through a wall, a tree, and half a boulder. Chi-Chi doesn't even scream in pain or go to the hospital. However, in the next scene, she's seen with a few bandages and her arm in her sling.
* MakeRoomForTheNewPlot: At the end of the Frieza arc, "Frieza comes back to Earth with his dad for revenge" would be a major plot conflict. But then Future Trunks arrives, beats the snot out of both of them single-handedly, and warns the heroes that they need to prepare to fight an enemy far stronger than Frieza.
** Not that there would be a plot if Future Trunks wasn't there anyway. Supplementary material claim that Goku would have defeated Frieza and King Cold almost immediately if Future Trunks didn't.
* ManiacMonkeys: The Saiyans.
* TheMasquerade: Downplayed and possibly zigzagged. The Z Fighters and their special ki powers only became a big secret because a certain Mark surged in popularity after winning a Tenkaichi Budokai that they couldn't attend due to being out in space, then started claiming all the stuff from before was all "light shows and tricks." Even then, their reaction to his hogging up all the fame has fluctuated from slamming his antics as ridiculous to finding it useful depending on the context. If ''[[VideoGame/DragonBallOnline Online]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse Xenoverse]]'' are any indication, this is eventually done away with altogether.
* MasterApprenticeChain:
** Mutaito > Mutenroshi > Son Gohan, Sr. > Son Goku > Uub
** Also: Mutaito > Tsurusennin > Tenshinhan & Chaozu
** Mutaito > Mutenroshi > Ox-King > Chi-Chi > Son Goten
* MasterOfAll: Every fighter either is this or aspires to this. The one attempt to specialize (by Trunks, during the Cell Saga) results in CripplingOverspecialization. Other than that, speed, strength, invulnerability, and ki control all seem to increase proportionally with power level. Some less-powerful characters are said to be greater strategists, but this is inconsistent and tends to be a bit of an InformedAbility in any case.
* ManChild: Goku and Android 17 (the latter much more subtly, and in the BadFuture's case, much more [[PsychopathicManchild darkly]] than the former).
* MayflyDecemberRomance:
** Implied. Saiyans appear to age more slowly than humans. This becomes quite noticable later in the series, where pure-humans Chi-Chi and Bulma have gradually aged while pure-Saiyans Goku and Vegeta have barely aged at all. Even Pan, who is one quarter Saiyan, is confirmed to live to at least 110.
** This also appears to be the case with Krillin and #18's relationship. In ''GT'' Krillin is almost an old man while 18 hasn't changed at all; likely due to her cybernetic enhancements slowing down her aging considerably.
* MeaningfulFuneral: In ''Dragon Ball Z'', when Vegeta dies at Frieza's hand on Namek, Son Goku buries him on the spot with a few understanding words. In the English dub, the eulogy is a bit more long-winded.
* MeaninglessVillainVictory: Freeza's immortality wish is stopped by a language barrier.
* TheMedic:
** Anyone holding the bag of senzu fills this roll, who is usually Goku or Krillin.
** More traditionally Dende is this since he has the power of heal all wounds. It was the primary reason he was killed first by Frieza.
* MeditationPowerup
** This is the primary way Piccolo trains by himself.
** Demon King Dabura spends some time meditating in order to prepare himself for a fight. When in an actual fight though, he's quite HotBlooded.
* MergerOfSouls: By putting his hand on Nail and later Kami, Piccolo absorbed them, gaining not only extra power but also their memories. This process was permanent; Piccolo's personality also seemed to underway slight changes after each absorption. A similar case was when Goku and Vegeta used the Potara earrings to fuse; however, in this case, they split when they entered Buu's body, although it's the only way to split, and that fusion is otherwise permanent. The personality of the fused being seemed to be a mix of both Goku and Vegeta's personalities.
* MightyGlacier: Trunks when he reaches Ultra Super Saiyan (a level that sits between Super Saiyan 1 and 2), which sacrifices speed for power. In this state he possessed enough power to kill Perfect Cell, but lacked the speed necessary to make it useful. Perfect Cell, Goku and Vegeta also reached this level, but were savvy enough to figure out its critical weakness and elected not to use it (Vegeta choosing to stop at Ascended Super Saiyan, and Perfect Cell and Goku going onward to the [[LightningBruiser Full Power]] stage). In fact, Trunks doesn't figure out this form's weakness until Cell explicitly tells him why he can't win with it.
* MistakenForQuake: During the Namek Saga, Bulma tries to rationalize the ruckus being created by Vegeta and Frieza as "only an earthquake."
* MoodWhiplash: When [[spoiler:Old Kaioshin]] sacrifices himself to revive Goku. Sad music plays and Goku says he won't let his death be in vain. Right after that, he gets up (now sporting a halo) and shouts at Goku to hurry up and go.
* MostAnnoyingSound: InUniverse in several of the {{Non Serial Movie}}s:
** Whistling causes physical pain to Namekians because of their superior hearing. ([[spoiler:Lord Slug]], being a Namekian, is defeated this way.)
** As an infant, Goku's constant crying made Broly unable to sleep, and this gave Broly a lifelong obsession with killing him. (In the sequel, Goten's crying sounds so similar it wakes Broly from his coma and starts an almost unstoppable rampage.)
* TheMovie
** ''A lot'' of movies.
* MrFanservice: Future Trunks. To lesser degrees, Goku and Vegeta, Piccolo (for some), Gohan too.
* MuggingTheMonster:
** When Raditz first arrives on Earth he is accosted by a farmer wielding a gun. The farmer shoots him only to have Raditz catch the bullet and half-heartedly toss it back hard enough to kill him.
** During the Saiyan Saga, Vegeta and Nappa crashland on an alien planet inhabited by InsectoidAliens during their journey to Earth. The planet is ruled over by an EvilOverlord who usurped the throne and oppresses his people, and the two Saiyan warriors are promptly thrown in jail. After they get bored they decide to overthrow the tyrant and kill everyone in their path.
** The androids 17 and 18 are attacked by a group of gangsters. Those are thrown into the sky.
** Majin Buu, now a nice guy, is shot during a hold-up in a jewelry. Being [[BlobMonster a blob]], he absorbs the bullet, spits it out, then playfully ''throws it back'' with enough strength to put a crater in the wall behind the crooks. Said crooks promptly gave up and surrender to the police. Gohan and Videl show up and strike a pose reminiscent of the Ginyu Force only to be completely confused about why the bad guys are surrendering before they beat anybody up.
* {{Mukokuseki}}: Power up, [[EveryoneLovesBlondes become]] [[OccultBlueEyes white]].
* MyDadCanBeatUpYourDad: Between Goten and Trunks. (Vegeta also gloats after Trunks wins, boasting of the superiority of his offspring.)
* MyGrandmaCanDoBetterThanYou: In the ''Toonami'' version, a virtual Saiyan warrior (conjured by Mr Popo's training room) uses this line to ridicule the secondary characters' power levels.
* MythologyGag: When powering up for his fight against Cell, Goku mimics part of the original intro to the series.
** In the English dub, when Goku is introducing Majin Buu to the various phases of Super Saiyan ability, a confused Buu replies with "Super... Saiya-jin?". Saiya-Jin refers to the original Japanese pronunciation.
* TheNapoleon: Vegeta.
* TheNeedless: The Namekians don't need food, only water. Frieza (and presumably the rest of his family) doesn't need to breathe.
* NemeanSkinning: As Goku said to Bulma and the others when appearing in an attire based on the skin of a tiger: "It was either him or me, I swear!"
* NerdsAreSexy: Gohan.
* {{Nerf}}: Gohan, between the Cell and Buu sagas. It's commonly speculated that Gohan could've finished fat Buu off if he kept up with his training instead of studying.
* NeverForgottenSkill: At one point, Goku learns a technique called the Spirit Bomb. He stops using it after the fight with Frieza. Years later, he is reminded to use this technique on Kid Buu by Vegeta, and Goku is still able to use it like a pro.
* NeverSayDie: Taken to the extreme in the first 53 episodes of Creator/TheOceanGroup dub. Getting blasted into ashes was called "being sent into another dimension". After the Ocean dub resumed in UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom, and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}, as well as other English-speaking countries, the show went from that to merely saying "destroy", "hurt", and "gone" as well as other words that essentially meant to kill or be dead. Late into the Buu saga, however, the dub suddenly stopped this, and "kill" and "die" were used as often as in the Creator/{{FUNimation}} dub, which was completely exempt from this. The "another dimension" thing is sort of [[JustifiedTrope justified]] as death is a [[TheMultiverse multiverse]] of many heavens for different planets that even a few living people can freely travel to. Note that this only took effect from the fifth episode of the original broadcast. Some lines were re-recorded for subsequent airings of the first two episodes but episodes three and four kept references to death even (or especially) on the DVD release. Episode 66 of DaizenshuuEX featured some sound clips.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: A lot of the bad that occurs is often due to more of the heroes rather than the villains; especially the Cell and Buu sagas, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero/DragonBall and is so infamous that it now has its own page.]]
* NiceJobFixingItVillain:
** Majin Buu turns Vegetto into a Coffee flavored Jawbreaker and believes he's won. Except...that it turns out that Vegetto has not only retained ''all his power'', but now is much faster than ever and impossible to hit with his small size (not that Buu could touch him before anyway). HilarityEnsues as Buu gets his most embarassing, worst ever beating of all, [[HumiliationConga with his ass handed back to him in humiliating fashion]]. To add insult to injury, it's accompanied by a YouFightLikeACow dialogue from the "strongest piece of candy there is".
** Frieza, who ended up doing all he could to send Goku [[UnstoppableRage over the edge]] and becoming a Super Saiyan - the very thing [[AxCrazy he was hell bent on preventing from happening]].
** It started even earlier than that for Frieza. If he hadn't recalled all the Saiyans back to their home planet in a bid to destroy them all at once, Bardock and Gina wouldn't have felt the need to send Goku to Earth.
** Gero creating android #16, who very nearly put a stop to Cell before he could absorb #17 or #18 (though this is more a result of him failing to create a [[AiIsACrapShoot homicidal machine]] and really didn't want #16 to be woken up)
* NoAccountingForTaste: Vegeta and Bulma, Goku and Chi-Chi. Also, Krillin and Android #18.
* NobilityMarriesMoney: Gohan and Videl, though they fall in love quite on their own. Amid the focus on his saiyan heritage, it's easy to forget that Gohan is a prince, but after Goku's death, his grandfather the Ox King spent nearly all of his treasure supporting Gohan and Goten.
* NobodyPoops: Subverted in a Funny Moment by Super Buu (and Majin Buu, although it's somewhat easy to miss it).
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown:
** Raditz's fight with Goku, which ended with him ''stomping on Goku's chest'' breaking several ribs.
** Frieza delivers one of these to Krillin and Vegeta [[spoiler:and even Goku before he goes Super Saiyan.]]
** Goku returns the favor to Frieza once the latter's stamina started to dissipate.
** Kid Buu to Vegeta, in the final battle. Also Buu to Vegeta in their first battle...
** Buu to anyone bar Goku, Gotenks, Gohan (at first) and Vegito. [[EnemyWithin Even Buu himself is not safe from having his ass handed to him by Buu]]
** Gohan, once he got powered-up by Old Kai, came back and put the beatdown on Super Buu. Nearly killing him with brute force alone.
** Vegeta, Gohan, & Videl took some of the worst beatings in the series history. Vegeta and specially Gohan also got to pummel others into submission.
** Krillin is almost always a victim of one of these.
** Goku faced the worst beatdown of them all, having all his bones crushed by Great Ape Vegeta, and then getting further tortured afterwards. Of course, the man's a PhysicalGod, so of course he laughs it off.
** Before the heart virus fully took effect, Goku was handing Android 19 his pale butt. Once Goku became really sick, however, 19 beat him up.
** Cell constantly switches which side of the beat down he's on, at first fleeing whenever Piccolo shows up (being massively out classed) to beating on both Piccolo and #17, until 16 hands his ass to him until he absorbs #17 and stomps #16. All in the same fight. [[UpToEleven And this is before Vegeta shows up and the table continues to turn...]]
** What Gohan lays on Cell once he becomes a Super Saiyan 2. Even Cell calls him a monster.
** Videl in the tournament is subject to a stomache-churning one by Spopovich. It's in many ways much more visceral than any other in the series, because Videl is ''not'' MadeOfIron -- she's a young girl screaming and weeping in pain as she is brutalized by a man three times her size, who ''will not stop''.
* NormalFishInATinyPond:
** Any Saiyan upon hitting Earth.
** Every hero inside Babidi's Spaceship. Pui Pui suffered the worst of this.
* NoSocialSkills: Goku and Chi-Chi had both lived pretty sheltered lives before they turned 12, the latter's was only so because her dad was needlessly violent and overprotective of his wealth and daughter, not to mention living on top of Frypan Mountain. Goku, on the other hand turned into an Oozaru in a full moon, and accidentally killed his grandfather, and he only taught him how to fight, fish, and be nice to girls, and that's it. No important social skills were taught to Goku, unfortunately, and he had to learn some of them himself (such as, humorously, the difference between boys and girls). Even to this day, he still struggles, but at least [[BadassInANiceSuit he looks good in a tuxedo]].
** Then there's Majin Buu, the LaughablyEvil BigBad who isn't actually all that evil, just misguided. Ironically, when Goku fought him and the relationship between Babidi and Buu was now breaking down, he asked him as to why he listens to Babidi as Buu is too gifted a fighter to do so. This ironically played a part in Buu getting rid of Babidi. When Mr. Satan asked why he kills, he answered that his creator Bibidi said "kill", while Babidi said "destroy". Mr. Satan pointed out that those two are gone, and he could do something better and kinder with his time. When Buu asked if killing is bad, Mr. Satan said it is. Afterwards, Buu simply said "Okie-dokie! Buu no kill no more." For that short time, Mr. Satan actually saved the world by ''asking'' the BigBad to stop.
** There was also the Saiyans, notably Vegeta, who were raised for fighting, not really manners or socially acceptable actions.
---> '''Vegeta''': Service woman! Bring me a drying cloth at once!
* NotQuiteDead: Some villains were quite notorious for this, more so in the movies.
* NotSoDifferent: This exchange between Goku and Frieza:
-->'''Frieza''': Why do you loathe what I've done so much? Saiyans are just as ruthless as I am! They were killers, all of them! And you have the gall to condemn what I've done. You and your bloodthirsty race!
-->'''Goku''': They paid for their mistakes!
-->'''Frieza''': Heh heh heh heh. Is that why they died? I thought it was because I killed them!
-->'''Goku''': You're just a beast, with no conscience!
-->'''Frieza''': Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! So I'm a beast, huh? Oh, and what about you, Mr. Super Saiyan! Aren't you just like me?
-->'''Goku''': Hmph.
-->'''Frieza''': So the jury's still out on that one. Let's just give it a little more time.
* NoSell: Sometimes, when the difference in powers is too great, some characters can completely ignore the attacks of their enemies. Once Cell became Perfect Cell, he completely ignored Krillin's flurry of blows as well as a Kienzan to the neck. Broly managed to take the combined strength of all the Super Saiyans in the cast as well as Piccolo without as much as budging from their attacks. This was actually subverted on a fight between Perfect Cell and Vegeta: Vegeta dared Cell to take his Final Flash full-on. Confident that Vegeta couldn't hurt him, Cell accepted the challenge. Cell ultimately changed his mind at the last second and decided to dodge the blast, since it was far more powerful than he expected, but he still got part of his torso blown off. (Had Vegeta not aimed the blast upward, it would've destroyed Cell completely. Along with the Earth). It tends to get deconstructed such as in the fight with Nappa or Cell's and Buu's fights with Gohan when the loosing side gets so desperate they try some very desperate tactics to win, which always leave the heroes in a worse situation. While Nappa tanked Chiaotsu's suicide attack Cell tried to [[EarthShatteringKaboom blow up the whole planet]] (resulting in Goku's death) and Buu decided that he needed to absorb Gotenks to regain his advantage [[NiceJobBreakingItHero (both as a result of Gohan demonstrating how outclassed his opponent was to break them)]]
* NowILayMeDownToSleep: In the Ocean dub of one DBZ episode, Krillin mutters out this prayer when he and Dende are confronted by Vegeta on Namek, until a whale shows up and distracts him.
* OcularGushers: In one episode of the Cell Games Saga, when Chi-Chi sees Gohan's blonde hair (at this time, she doesn't know what a Super Saiyan is), she acts shocked and cries because she felt that Gohan became a "punker."
* OddlyCommonRarity: Later on in the series, almost every surviving Saiyan and their offspring, with the sole exception of Pan, ends up a Super Saiyan. It's even lampshaded:
-->'''Vegeta''': [after hearing from Trunks that Goten can also go Super Saiyan] "What is this?! Some kind of Super Saiyan Bargain Sale? When was it that the transformation to the legendary warrior of the Saiyan race was reduced to a child's play thing?"
* OffModel: Due to this being a LongRunner, it's bound to happen often.
* OffTheRails: Dragon Ball Z's TournamentArc, in which Goku shows up despite being dead, thugs under control of the BigBad interupt a match to steal Gohan's energy, Trunks and Goten knock out a masked fighter and steal his costume so they can compete, two thirds of the contestants fly away during the first round, and Mr. Satan tries to salvage the tournament by turning it into a battle royale. Then Vegeta blows up a chunk of the stadium.
* OhCrap: A fair amount. Notable ones include Frieza seeing Goku become a Super Saiyan and Android 17 seeing that Piccolo wasn't firing randomly and was instead setting up an unavoidable attack, though these are by no means all of them.
** In one dub, Cell litterally says "Oh, shit!" when he realizes that taking Vegeta's Final Flash head-on just to show off was a terrible idea.
** The Supreme Kai freaks out when Goku and Vegeta seperate Majin Buu from Super Buu causing him to turn back into Kid Buu. Goku and Vegeta also freak out when they notice he's getting stronger and stronger as he goes along the BishonenLine.
** Goku has this reaction, [[MassOhCrap then everyone else does]], while fighting Kid Buu, when he realizes he's all out of energy (and thus can't push the Spirit Bomb towards Buu). Then, when Goku's energy is restored and starts pushing the Spirit Bomb back, Kid Buu has this reaction.
* OlderThanTheyLook:
** Saiyans, in general, age very slowly so they can fight longer.
** Old Pan in the DistantFinale does show her age, but she looks about 80, not her real age of over 110.
** Mrs Brief does not appear to age throughout all her appearances.
* OminousPipeOrgan: Heard sometimes in more dramatic moments during Namek and Android arcs, at least in the original Japanese version.
* OminousWalk: Cell does this regularly knowing that his enemies' own fear will make them easier to defeat.
* OmnicidalManiac: Nearly every BigBad, with Kid Buu being the ultimate distillation of the trope. Subverted with the prime timeline's #16, #17, and #18.
* OneGenderRace: The Namekians [[WordofGod as described by]] [[Creator/AkiraToriyama Akira Toriyama]], Namekians are designed after slugs, and in-show they reproduce asexually. That said, their secondary sexual characteristics are distinctly male.
* OnlyThePureOfHeart: The condition for riding the Nimbus or controlling the Spirit Bomb. For the record, the number of people in the show who can do either can be counted on one hand. Baby has his own version of the Spirit Bomb; created by pure ''hatred''.
* OptOut: Goku's giving the right to fight Cell to Gohan and also his initial refusal to be resurrected by the Dragon Balls.
* OutOfGenreExperience: During the Saiyaman Arc, the series briefly turns into a teenage superhero story. All of the tropes are there, with Gohan leading a double life as a super hero while simultaneously having to survive high school, discovering romance and dealing with a bully all while trying to keep his powers secret.
** In the manga, this genre shift lasts for about a week, at which point Gohan blurts out his secret identity during his first in-costume encounter with Videl.
* OutOfTheInferno: A lot of {{Big Bad}}s, but Cell is the worst offender...particularly after he achieved perfection.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: Krillin is THE poster boy for this, but it applies to just about anyone who isn't a Saiyan.
* OvertookTheManga: The Garlic Jr. saga and Otherworld Tournament were created as a stopgap before the Trunks and Saiyaman sagas began.
* ParabolicPowerCurve: The end of the Cell Saga provides a non-videogame example. Goku decides that torturing their bodies in the Time Chamber will only help until a certain point, so he and Gohan practice maintaining the Super Saiyan form until it feels natural. Sure enough, this accomplishes more in one visit than Vegeta or Trunks manage in two, although there were [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength some domestic issues.]]
* ParentWithNewParamour: Type 2 is Videl's opinion of her father's fangirls, and this is before she found out he was a total fraud.
* PastelChalkedFreezeFrame: For particularly tense or dramatic cliffhangers.
* ThePatientHasLeftTheBuilding: After being beaten up by Vegeta and sent to the hospital, Goku repeatedly tries to escape the hospital to train (he actually succeeds once, but he's sent back to the hospital).
* PedestrianCrushesCar: Majin Buu had some fun [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwKgNrsW3ek playing with cars]] during an early appearance. They weren't matchbox vehicles, but may have been [[EveryCarIsAPinto Pintos]].
* PercussivePrevention: Future Gohan does it to Future Trunks before going off to fight the Androids (which ends in Future Gohan's death). Then in the main timeline Majin Vegeta does it to Kid Trunks before going off to fight Majin Buu (which ends in Vegeta's death).
* PerpetualMotionMonster: Androids 16, 17, and 18.
* PerpetualStorm: During the infamous Fake Namek {{Filler}} arc, one of the areas on the imitation planet was buffeted by a permanent sandstorm. Unfortunately for the heroes, one of the (fake) Dragon Balls was inside of a cyclone right in the middle of it.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: ''Everyone''. ...except Mr. Satan.
* PetTheDog: Piccolo took Gohan to train him to fight the Saiyans, but ended up caring about the kid. Fat Buu literally did this with a puppy he found, learning that being nice can be more fun than hurting people.
* PhosphorEssence: Every character who goes Super Saiyan glows. While other characters can summon a BattleAura, Super Saiyans are constantly glowing, as indicated by their clothes and skin tone being lighter even when the Battle Aura is off, and the hyper saturation of their hair in a special.
* PlotHole: [[SpacePirate Bojack]], an evil space pirate assumed to be on the same level as Cell was sealed away by the four Kaio centuries ago. Now take into consideration that Goku surpassed each of them in strength before the first saga of DBZ was over.
** After Goku and Vegeta save Gohan, Goten, Piccolo, Trunks, and Fat Buu from Evil Buu's body, he technically should have reverted to his original gray self. Instead, he becomes ''another'' Kid Buu, as the original turned into Fat Buu after absorbing one of the Kais.
** A major plot point in the series is the characters using multiplied gravity for massive strength boosts in a short time. Goku Trains at 100x Earth's Gravity on his way to face Frieza, and Vegeta later trains at 300x. However, if an average human's power level is 5, then 300x gravity would be felt the same as normal gravity to someone with a power level of 1500, which was roughly the same as Raditz. Considering that Goku's original Super Saiyan transformation was 150 million, he'd need to train at over 3 million times Earth's gravity to feel any difference. Goku reached King Kai's planet which has 10x gravity, and he was initially barely able to stand. By then, he must've been barely stronger than Raditz. The effects are largely the same across the the board.
* PowerDyesYourHair: The Super Saiyans.
** With the exception of Super Saiyan 4, which instead covers the Saiyans' body in a coat of red fur reminiscent to that of an ape.
* PowerEchoes
* PowerFloats: When characters raise their PowerLevel. Combines with - in order of ascending power - DramaticWind, SwirlingDust, ChunkyUpdraft and finally PsychoElectro.
* PowerHigh: Piccolo's [[{{Narm}} infamous]] "Yes! Yes! I feel great! I can do this!" moment when he fuses with Nail. Nail even teases him about it in in TheAbridgedSeries.
* PowerLevels: DBZ, Saiyan Saga to Frieza Saga, after which it was abandoned as the numbers became more noteworthy. Toyed with in Buu Saga. Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta, who is the strongest, (albeit non-canon) character in the series, has a power level that is easily calculated at ''above 80 billion!''[[note]]To clarify, Frieza's second form is stated to have a power level of over 1,000,000 and is weaker than Goku's base. Super Saiyan 4 is a combination of [=SSJ3=] (x400) and the Oozaru(x10). The fusion dance is stated to increase your power to ten times the fighters' power combined. Even if Vegeta had only barely managed to match Goku's base power from Namek, this puts it at 2 million times ten (fusion, 20 million), times ten (Oozaru, 200 million), times four hundred ([=SSJ3=], 80 billion). And of course, this is disregarding any increases in power levels between the Namek and the Buu sagas (when fusion was first introduced).[[/note]]
** Lampshaded in the 2008 special by none other than Vegeta. In the 2008 special, his younger brother Tarble is introduced, saying that a couple of remnants of Frieza's army followed him back to earth, and that he needs help fighting them. Naturally, Goku immediately obliges, but Tarble uses his scouter on him and reads a hilariously low power level, so the young Saiyan prince politely refuses Goku's help on the grounds of him being "too weak". Cue Vegeta saying that scouters are not reliable measurement for the real power level of a warrior, and Goku demonstrating this by turning Super Saiyan in front of him and making Tarble's scouter literally explode on his face due to overloading.
** Another point is that towards Buu Saga, the real increase comes from finding new levels and fusion - the lower levels have pretty much ceased growing exponentially. Goku's Super Saiyan form is only marginally stronger than what it was in Cell Saga, and so it isn't of much use compared to Super Saiyan 2 and 3.
* PowerMakesYourHairGrow: Super Saiyan 3. Super Saiyan 4, to a lesser extent.
* ThePowerOfFriendship: Despite being an OmnicidalManiac, Super Buu remembers Mr. Satan befriending him as Fat Buu, and won't harm him. Even as the wild, primitive Kid Buu he can't bring himself to harm him... until he spits out Fat Buu.
* ThePowerOfLove: Goku and (even more so) Gohan are always able to find a hidden reserve of power to protect the ones they love.
* PreviouslyOn: Every episode has an opening narration to let you know what happened in previous episodes. In order to draw out epic action in later episodes, they sometimes had a PreviouslyOn segment to let you know what happened ''earlier in that episode''.
* ProdigalHero: Piccolo may count, as he (or rather, his father) had been apart from Namek for years and only comes back when it's targeted by Frieza.
* ProperlyParanoid: Gohan may be a Half-Saiyan, but [[EducationMama Chi]]-[[{{Tsundere}} Chi]] was not okay with Gohan leaving to go to Namek for two months. While Chi-Chi may be unreasonable sometimes, she was rightfully paranoid with Gohan going to a potentially dangerous planet and leaving her alone for two months [[AdultFear (she had not seen him for a whole year)]] to revive Piccolo, the same guy who blasted a hole through Goku and killed her husband in the Saiyan arc. She displays this trope throughout the series when Gohan goes up against the Androids and Cell, fearing for Gohan's health and well-being when he's fighting bad guys.
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy
** The Saiyans, their instinct to fight in addition to their incredible natural strength, ability to transform into giant apes under a full moon, and, later in the series, their power to become Super Saiyans, makes them hugely dangerous and feudal; though Vegeta, the Prince of all Saiyans (as he is very quick to point out), seems under the impression that he's the last of a race of noble, honorable warriors that lived by their strength alone. Goku and half-Saiyans like Goten and Trunks have less of an idea of honor but retain the Saiyan fighting instinct. In the former's case, Vegeta hints the Saiyan sense of honor is inherent in pure-blooded Saiyans since Goku knows nothing of Saiyan culture, and still would've rather died (or gave up the fight) than achieve victory over an opponent by eating a senzu to win.
** Averted by Gohan, who is half-Saiyan (and very powerful) but doesn't really enjoy fighting as much as other Saiyans. He doesn't much bother with training unless he anticipates having to fight a villain.
** Future Trunks is much the same as Gohan. He doesn't seem to enjoy fighting, but have to since he is the only one who can fight the androids in his time. He doesn't care about Saiyan pride and only wants victory no matter the means, which is why he couldn't understand why Goku didn't take a senzu when offered by Cell or why they didn't attack Cell all at once when he was weakened from fighting Goku.
* PsychopathicManchild:
** All incarnations of Buu.
** Frieza as well. Usually behaves in a similar way to that of a spoiled child.
** Deep down, Broly is still that baby boy who was annoyed by Goku's crying.
* PsychoticSmirk: Vegeta.
** Super Buu gets an honorable mention for having a particularly perverted psycho smirk.
** Trunks, after being possessed by Baby in ''Dragon Ball GT''.
** Frieza got into these time to time.
* PunchPunchPunchUhOh: Vegeta and Goku have been on both sides of the punching. Mr. Satan is frequently the puncher when he's around.
* PunyEarthlings
** The humans (and inexplicable {{Funny Animal}}s) of ''Franchise/DragonBall'' and its offspring are completely, pitifully underpowered. Case in point: the term "power level" was used liberally in the first season of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''; the higher someone's "power level," the stronger they were. An average human's power level is 5. The ''first'' villain we encounter in the series has a power level of ''1,200.'' Add the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil into the mix and you've got yourself a race that has apparently survived its entire existence on little more than a wing and a prayer.
** However, for [[SoLastSeason some]] reason [[HalfHumanHybrid human/Saiyan hybrids]] have the potential to be far more powerful than both races...
** Ironically, it was by all appearances the exact opposite for a long time: the Earth of ''Dragon Ball'' was portrayed as a DeathWorld [[WorldOfBadass of Badass]] where you couldn't take two steps without running into monsters, magic, demons, dinosaurs, or humans that could match any of the above with CharlesAtlasSuperpower, SupernaturalMartialArts, or super-science like mecha and robots.\\
It was only with [[GenreShift the change from fantasy-adventure to sci-fi]] that several of the most powerful beings on Earth turn out to not be native, it's shown a single {{Mook|s}} from the galaxy's major power could enslave the entire planet (if not destroy it entirely), and Earth in general [[ContinuityDrift changes from]] a SchizoTech WorldOfWeirdness to a place much more like real life in the modern-day.
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