Son Goku (孫 悟空)
(Saiyan birthname: Kakarot (カカロット; Kakarotto))

Main hero of Dragon Ball. Started off as a rather extraordinary child with super strength, a tail and naivety of the outside world. Later, though, it is revealed that he's a Saiyan, an alien race of warriors who hire themselves out as mercenaries to tyrants who destroy worlds. However, he is amongst the last four (well, eight) of his kind. Although originally sent to devastate Earth, he instead becomes the saviour of the world multiple times over.

• Absurdly Youthful Father: Goku looks young to be the father of his professor son Gohan because Saiyans remain in their prime longer than humans. Neither Bulma nor Chi-Chi are thrilled, and you can guess how the latter reacts to her husband's further de-aging in GT.
• The Ace: Made abundantly clear since the early parts of Dragon Ball. Learned a technique with a glance, which took 50 years to develop, Within a few years, his martial arts skill surpassed his master, and of course winning a World Martial Arts Tournament before he turned 20. Then he found out why he's able to do all those things when it's revealed he's a Saiyan. Even that doesn't fully make it a Justified Trope, when he defeats members of his race considered to be elites, defeats and/or kills seemingly invincible aliens and monsters and achieves virtually all the available Super Saiyan transformations. Not bad for someone considered a "low-class soldier".
• Achievements in Ignorance: In Dragon Ball when training for the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament.
• Achilles Heel: His tail is so sensitive to touch that grabbing it saps him of all his strength. He eventually manages to train himself out of that weakness, though. Eventually he loses it forever, unless you count the events of GT.
• Action Dad
• Adorably Precocious Child: As a kid.
• Adorkable: Friendly, affectionate and habitually refers to his elders as "grampa/grandma" as opposed to their formal titles like a little kid would. Passes this trait down onto his children.
• Afraid of Needles: To the bewilderment of everyone around him.
• Always Someone Better: This is Goku's dynamic with Vegeta over the course of Dragon Ball Z.
  • He's this to everyone by the end of the series
    • The 14th movie which is canon, deconstructs this by reversing this role by having him being the one who Can't Catch Up to the Big Bad
• Amazon Chaser: It should be noted that Chi-Chi and Goku got engaged soon after their match in the 23rd Tenka'ichi Budokai, where she reached the last 8 finalists.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: At the end of DBGT, he fuses with the dragon Shenron and the seven Dragon Balls to permanently leave Earth, only to make a visit return every 100 years.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Super Saiyan 3 form, while giving him immense amount of power unmatched by any other forms, gives him a very strict time limit on how long he can stretch out a fight before he's drained of all his strength. The strain the form has on his body is so heavy it's not even really meant to be used outside of the afterlife.
  • Also the Spirit Bomb. It takes too long to power up and Goku seems to be a bad judge of just how much power he needs to take out an opponent.
    • It's more of a mix of terrible luck and not taking into account his opponent's reserves. Vegeta barely survived what was a small portion of the energy collected for the Spirit Bomb thanks to Vegeta's own interference, and Frieza had 50% usage of his full power, when Goku smacked him with the energy collected from a largely dead planet and its neighbors. It still packed enough of a punch to nearly kill and/or maim them. In the movies he seems to have much better luck, managing to kill four of the villains with it.
• Back from the Dead: Twice! Not that that's at all unusual...
• Badass: Biggest one in the series. A series already chock full of badasses. Seriously, take into account everything he's done since age 11 and say he's not a badass, because it would crowd up the wiki if we were to list them all.
  • Offscreen and offpanel, it is known that Goku is the direct base and inspiration of Naruto Uzumaki, Monkey D. Luffy, Zatch Bell!, and Toriko. This means, that every badass thing, no, every single thing, these guys do; it's because of Goku.
  • Badass Adorable: An endearingly innocent and kind-hearted boy in the body of a grandfather by the end of it.
  • Badass Baritone: Every time he goes Super Saiyan 3 and beyond.
  • Badass Boast: In response to Jeice and Burter claiming to be Goku's worst nightmare his simple but blunt reply is, "I'm not scared of dreams."
  • Badass Grandpa: Now that you mention it...
• Balloon Belly
• Berserk Button: In the original series, Tambourine, and eventually, King Piccolo. You don't want to mess with his best friend, EVER. Tambourine learned it's mistake badly. In Dragon Ball Z, Frieza. The only villain that really, legitimately managed to make Goku fly off into a terrible rage. The results weren't pretty (for Frieza).
• Beware the Nice Ones: Very much so. Goku is a very easygoing and kind person, but you do not want to piss him off.
• Beware the Silly Ones
• Big Eater: Goku's big eating is one of his longer lasting and defining character traits.
• Blood Knight: An extremely rare unambiguously heroic version. He loves finding new opponents to fight, and even when is on the brink of death from a ruthless and monstrous opponent, he goes out of his way to say "I'm having fun with this." He also only fights people who are willing (most of the villains), and rarely ever kills anyone unless its a last resort.
  • He's so much of a blood knight that he expresses a wish (later granted by Yemma) to see Majin Buu (the strongest Big Bad in Z) reincarnated as a good guy... just so he can fight him again.
  • Contrary to what the first dub states, this was also his primary motive in sparing Vegeta's life at the end of the Saiyan saga, both in the manga and original anime.
  • During Goku and Chi-Chi's first "date", when Chi-Chi explains that the "boy is supposed to think of the most pleasurable thing to do and then try to coax the girl into doing it with him", naturally Goku's response was to start fighting with her.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Oh yeah.
• Bumbling Dad
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He is childish and goofy but he is very strong and a master at fighting.
  Pikkon: He is either a fighting genius, or a total fool...
• The Can Kicked Him: If he hadn't been Made of Iron, or Immune to Bullets then, anyhow.
• Characterization Marches On: As a kid, Goku had no qualms with killing his enemies. As the series progressed and he got older, he started to mellow out more.
  • There's the fact that Goku, as a child, had no concept of the morality of taking lives when he was blowing up Red Ribbon Army vehicles. He'd lived most of his life alone in the woods. He barely understood death, thinking that when he accidentally killed his grandfather, his grandfather just became the 4-star ball. There are sometimes he killed purposely though such as killing a fleeing Tambourine to avenge Krillin, not that Tambourine didn't deserve it.
  • Part of his no kill policy came later when many of his worst enemies became his loyal friends, realizing that if they could change, anyone could.
• Cheated Angle: Goku's hair always maintains that same shape no matter which angle you view him from.
• Childhood Brain Damage: It's stated that the reason why Goku doesn't share the violent nature of Saiyans is that he received a blow to the head while he was a baby.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Victorious with Chi-Chi.
• Childhood Marriage Promise: Goku promised Chi-Chi to marry her when they were kids, thinking marriage was a kind of food. When they meet again at the Tenkaichi Budokai and he is finally explained what marriage is, Goku keeps his promise anyway and marries her.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Cannot bring himself to pass by someone in need. This is a trait he later passes down to his eldest son.
• Combat Pragmatist: Only in Dragon Ball. The "scissor" move of his Rock Scissors 'n' Paper technique was eye-gouging and sometimes he'd use this technique by pretending to use one move and instead using another one (shouting "paper" and using "rock" instead, for example). He also resisted Tien's Solar Flare technique by wearing Master Roshi's sunglasses.
  • He escapes from being strangled by Frieza by biting the latter's tail. He also bites Kid Buu when he was fighting him as a Super Saiyan 3, but this time it was mostly played for comedy (Kid Buu bites him back).
  • Possibly his first act of playing this trope in DBZ was when he shot an energy blast at Oozaru Vegeta's eye.
• Combined Energy Attack: The Spirit Bomb.
• Daddy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You: See Parental Abandonment below.
• Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally, it's usually to show that he's not as dumb as people think.
• Death by Irony: At the beginning of Dragon Ball Z, he was killed by the son of the last villain he killed in Dragon Ball, Demon King Piccolo, in a similar way—an attack to the stomach that hit so hard it came out the other side. It was used as the only way to kill Raditz, but still.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Against both Frieza and Buu
  • Role swapped with him and Bills, with the latter defeating him
• Defeat Means Friendship: Most of Goku's friends started out as anti-heroes or villains, then they met him in battle.
• Determinator: Going up against impossible odds is all part of the fun for this guy.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: On a regular basis.
• Do Not Call Me Kakarot: He (initially) feels an intense shame for belonging to a race of genocidal pirates, and vehemently refuses to identify himself as a Saiyan until he comes to feel pride for his heritage as a warrior.
  • He doesn't seem to mind Vegeta calling him by his Saiyan name, but that's probably because it would be futile to get him to stop.
• Dork Knight
• Doting Parent: He tries his best. When he is actually around, that is.
• Dumb Is Good/Good Is Dumb: And nice too.
• Easily Forgiven: He does not hold grudges period; once the fight is over, anyone, even last season's enemies, are affectionately embraced as friends if they can stop trying to kill him and his crew or take over the world long enough.
• Eleventh Hour Superpower: Gains the Super Saiyan God transformation in "Battle of Gods`.
• Expy: Of Sun Wukong The Monkey King from Journey to the West, with light dashes of Superman.
• Extreme Doormat: To his wife, Chi-Chi, to a lesser extent.
• Fight Magnet: To the point he didn't want to be resurrected by the Dragon Balls to keep the world safe.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Krillin, though Goku's side of it is more of a subversion. He generally got along just fine when they first met. It was Krillin that was initially hostile.
• Flying On A Cloud: The Flying Nimbus.
• Fountain of Youth: During pretty much THE ENTIRE series of GT, where the Black Star Dragon Balls regress Goku into a child on a messed up wish from the Big Bad.
• Friend to All Living Things: Even as an adult he loves playing with animals like a big kid, and regards them as friends as if they are also human.
• Gambit Roulette: Surprising but true. His infamous fight with Cell? He never intended to defeat him in the first place, and went knowing full well he'd likely lose. In fact, it's the reason why he wanted to go first. He only fought him so that his son Gohan would have a good idea of how strong Cell is. The problem was no one not even Gohan himself, could really tell if it would work, seeing as Gohan was the kind-hearted reluctant warrior of the group up against a mass-murdering cyborg. Even Goku himself had some doubts. Then Android #16, decided to push things a little with his last speech, Gohan turned Super Saiyan 2, and the rest is history...
• Genius Ditz / Genius Bruiser: He may not be the brightest knife in the crayon box, but he mastered and created an improved version of the Kamehameha simply by watching his master use it! Furthermore, his combat prowess is second-to-none. In this way he's a bit of an Idiot Savant. He's fantastically dumb in all ways but fighting—and not just in a physically strong kind of way, but the tactics and strategies of it as well.
• A God I Am Not: During his time as a Super Saiyan God, Goku admits to Bills that he is dissatisfied with godhood. However, this may be more his disappointment at being unable to reach godhood by himself rather than disliking the prospect of it.
• God Job: Was given the opportunity to become a Kami after defeating Piccolo, but he turned it down. Goku refused yet again when Whis offered him the job of a God of Destruction after Bills perishes. He really does not like being a deity.
• Growing Muscles Sequence: Right before he dismissed the Ultra Super Saiyan as powerful but slow.
• Hairstyle Inertia: As seen in the picture above.
• Happily Adopted: By the elderly master Son Gohan. Though unfortunately, Gohan died in an accident some time before the first chapter.
• Happily Married: To Chi-Chi.
• Heel Face Turn: Before the series began, technically, but he began as an Enfant Terrible bent on destroying all life on earth as a newborn, until he lost his memory.
• He Is All Grown Up: Bulma had this reaction to Goku after a Time Skip. She had previously seen him just as a kid.
• Henpecked Husband: To the point where Master Roshi outright shouts out that CHI-CHI is the most powerful person in the universe, NOT Goku.
• Hereditary Hairstyle: Apparently it's a trait of Saiyan purebreds.
• The Hero
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With Krillin.
• Honor Before Reason: Son Goku defines this trope.
• Hot Dad: Goku was already a Badass hottie at the start of Z but his heartwarming father/son moments with Gohan and Goten melt the hearts of fangirls (and guys) the world over.
• Human Aliens
• Idiot Hero: While he's not necessarily unintelligent, he's poorly educated, not well aware of social norms, and completely lacks in common sense.
• I Got Bigger
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: With Tullece/Turles.
• Innocent Fanservice Guy: Very much so as a little kid. Then again, he pretty much grew up completely by himself.
• Innocently Insensitive: In the Buu saga, mostly.
• Inter Species Romance: With Chi-Chi.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: Turns into his Great Ape form whenever he has his tail and looks directly at a full moon. Removing the tail (or the moon) turns him back immediately.
• Jerkass Façade: He pretends to be a jerk to Uub so he would be motivated to fight.
• Kamehame Hadoken
• Kindhearted Simpleton
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Lost his memory as a child, facilitating his Heel Face Turn.
• Lethally Stupid: Or rather, Lethally Too Nice. His habit of sparing his enemies when he can (and REALLY should) just kill them can and has caused much unneeded trouble.
• Look What I Can Do Now: One of the biggest examples of the trope.
• Lunacy: The Oozaru transformation.
• Magnetic Hero: Goku sure collected quite a bit of unlikely friends by the end of the series.
• Made of Iron: Pretty much par for the course, really.
• Man Child: Yes, and quite a positive example at that.
• The Messiah
• Messianic Archetype
• Missing Mom:
  • To Goten, subverted as he shows up with little angst on his sudden appearance.
  • Goku's mother is never shown.
• Mr. Fanservice: Lots of shirtless and nude scenes. The fangirls thank you, Adult Goku!
• Moses in the Bullrushes: Goku's origin is based on Superman's origin and so, of course, involves this.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He invokes this after he gives Chi-Chi a reassuring pat on the back, only to send her flying through a wall, a tree, and half of a boulder. He does it again in the Cell arc after Piccolo calls him out on throwing his son into battle with Cell.
• My Hero Zero: The short-lived Harmony Gold dub from the 80s renamed him Zero for... some reason, and even worked his new name into their version of the opening theme song.
• Naked People Are Funny: Goku is one of the only guys to appear nude, especially in the episode "The Celebrations of Buu," when he's naked with Gotenks and everybody laughs at him.
• Name's the Same: Son Gokuu is the Japanese pronunciation of Sun Wukong, The Monkey King.
• Nice Guy: One of the nicest.
• No Social Skills: Goku at the beginning of the saga as Bulma learned the hard way.
• Not With Them For The Money: For Chi-Chi.
• Now It's My Turn: Tends to do this when showing off his newly obtained skills, letting the opponent try their best, then beating them down. If he lets you beat him up, then reveals it did nothing, it's generally a sign you've really pissed him off.
• Oblivious to Love: In the original Dragon Ball. He didn't even know what marriage meant.
• Older Than He Looks: Kid Goku is supposed to be 12 in the 21st tournament and 15 on the 22nd. However, in neither instance does he looks older than 10. Then, in late DBZ, when Goku is on his early forties and beyond, he looks no older than 30! Apparently a result of pure-blooded Saiyans aging slower than humans.
  • The fact that he has spent roughly 8 years of his life dead probably doesn't hurt. Still, Vegeta looks about the same age and he started off around 8 years older than Goku to begin with and only stayed dead for a few minutes/hours before being resurrected the two times that he bit it.
• One-Man Army: Remember that this is the guy who destroyed the Red Ribbon Army at age twelve.
• Papa Wolf: Messing with Gohan is a sure way to anger the normally cheerful Goku. He beat up Nappa and Recoome after they both hurt Gohan (along with the rest of his friends). While it's remembered that Frieza killing Krillin triggered Goku's Berserk Button, what really set him off was Frieza threatening to kill Gohan too, which drove Goku over the edge and into a vengeance-filled warrior.
• Parental Abandonment: One of the more common criticisms he faces from fans. He is not exactly the best father to Gohan, or especially Goten, due to either being in constant training or dead. To be fair, he is a good father to both when he's around, which can be somewhat rare. And the times he was dead, obviously, were not his fault.
  • Also a straight example himself, as he was sent into space as a baby. Shortly afterwards, his father Bardock was killed by Frieza when their planet was destroyed or, according to his OVA, sent back in time.
• Passing the Torch: Constantly trying to do this after the Cell Saga. Realizing that he wouldn't always be around to protect the Earth, he tries to make Gohan his successor, though it doesn't pan out too well because Gohan doesn't have the same drive to become stronger like he does. In the Buu Saga, he even deliberately passes up a chance to destroy the Big Bad so that Goten and Trunks would be the saviors of Earth, but eventually he realizes as they grow up that they don't have any interest in fighting, either, which is why he seeks a new successor in Uub.
• Physical God: Not counting the fact that nearly every Saiyan is now this, Goku became the literal Saiyan God in the movie Dragon Ball Z: Battle of the Gods.
  • And he still can't beat the Big Bad, forcing him to admit defeat
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Super Saiyan 3.
• Prehensile Tail: When he had a tail, Goku could use it as such. After getting over the "paralyzed if grabbed" aspect of it, he could even use it to smack people with a decent amount of force.
• Psychic Powers / Telepathy: Demonstrates them few and far between, and mostly shown in the anime: He once asked Krillin to spare Vegeta's life through telepathy specifically because it was more painful to use his voice, and he got up to speed with everything that happened before he reached Namek by touching Krillin's head. He only shows telekinesis in Filler when he tries levitating the water in the glass with his mind, and once did this to a massive pyramid.
  • Also the Genki Dama/Spirit Bomb, where he mentally connects with everything on the planet/solar system, up to and including potentially the sun itself and politely asks them to give him some energy to smack the current villain in the face with.
• Public Domain Character: Son Goku from Journey to the West is probably the most frequently used Public Domain Character in East Asia. In the West, there's massive Adaptation Displacement as the Dragon Ball version of Goku is much better known than the original.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Upon learning that his race's legacy of genocide was forced upon them by Frieza, he lets go of the shame of being belonging to a race of murderers and instead comes to embrace the pride of being a Saiyan Warrior:
  Goku: (Burying Vegeta) "I hated you, but I respect the pride with which you defended your race's honor... Now share some of that pride with me, for I am a Saiyan who grew up on Earth!!"
• Raised by Dudes: He was raised by an old hermit in the woods, which is frequently brought up when Chi-Chi gets frustrated with him.
• Raised by Wolves: Technically out in the wilderness for an untold number of years after the old hermit died.
• The Runner Up Takes It All: Played straight during the first two World Martial Arts Tournaments. He finally won in his third try.
• Running Gag: His fear of Chi-Chi, which is Played for Laughs. Also, his fear of needles (in the anime only).
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: It wasn't intentional but Goku being raised almost totally in the wild made his natural fighting instincts stronger but left him with No Social Skills whatsoever.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Vegeta's Manly Man, but when it comes to Krillin, he's the Manly Man.
• Self-Made Orphan: Subverted; Goku honestly hadn't meant to kill Grandpa Gohan. The poor guy simply had his Superpowered Evil Side activated by the full moon and went berserk, crushing Grandpa Gohan underfoot.
• Shaping Your Attacks: His Dragon Fist, where he shapes his Super Saiyan 3 ki into a massive Shenron-esque dragon.
• Shirtless Scene: Of everyone, Goku takes the most clothing damage in the series.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With Raditz. Goku is a selfless, sweet-natured Nice Guy, while Raditz is an evil jerkass.
• Signature Move: The Kamehameha Wave and Spirit Bomb
• Simple Staff: The Power Pole/Nyoi-Bo, which can also extend to extraordinary lengths, even reaching the moon.
• Skewed Priorities: Sometimes, Goku believes that "fair fights" are more important than saving the world. Because of this, he has let his most powerful enemies transform to their strongest level of power, and even gave Cell a Sensu Bean and fed Gohan to him in order to make things "fair."
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Even when he starts wearing weighted training clothes, the sleeves never come past his triceps.
• Small Steps Hero: Goku will NOT sacrifice anyone, not even villains, unless he's sure that they can come back from the dead, unless it's their own choice, or unless he's tried everything else. Seeing as he's a classic example of an Idiot Hero, he falls back on this trope a lot.
• Spell My Name with an S: Pronounced "Son Gokū" (with a long vowel "u"), but usually its spelled "Son Goku" (without any indication of a long vowel), while Toriyama himself writes it as "Son Gokuh". Bandai actually spells it "Son Gokou" in most of their toys and games in what seems to be an attempt to anglicize his name (think of the "cou" in "cougar"), but it only makes thing more confusing since "Gokou" can be mistaken for an entirely different Japanese name ("Gokō"). (Also, in one episode Pilaf reads a sign that says "Welcome back, Goku!", but mispronounces Goku's name as "Go-cow".)
  • His Saiyan birthname is also subject to variations, with most English adaptations using "Kakarot". However, the fact that his fused form with Vegeta is called "Vegetto" (the spelling used by Bandai) and not "Vegerot" seems to suggest that "Kakarotto" is the preferred spelling. Funimation uses the spelling "Vegito", despite them using the Kakarot convention otherwise, while Viz actually changed it to "Vegerot", only to changed it back to Vegetto in later reprints (while oddly enough keeping the "Kakarot" spelling).
  • The Dragon Ball Z Deformation figurine of the infant Goku actually spells his birthname as "Kacarrot", which is inconsistent with the way Bandai spells "Vegetto".
• Spirited Competitor: He could have been an out-and-out Blood Knight if it hadn't been for that knock on the head. He still loves finding new opponents to fight, and even when is on the brink of death from a ruthless and monstrous opponent, he goes out of his way to say "I'm having fun with this." He also only fights people who are willing (most of the villains), and rarely ever kills anyone unless its a last resort.
  • He expresses a wish (later granted by Yemma) to see Majin Buu (the strongest Big Bad in Z) reincarnated as a good guy... just so he can fight him again.
  • Contrary to what the first dub states, this was also his primary motive in sparing Vegeta's life at the end of the Saiyan saga, both in the manga and original anime.
  • During Goku and Chi-Chi's first "date", when Chi-Chi explains that the "boy is supposed to think of the most pleasurable thing to do and then try to coax the girl into doing it with him", naturally Goku's response was to start fighting with her.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Resembles his dad and his second son Goten resembles him.
• Supporting Protagonist: During Dragon Ball Z. If one looks closely, Z chronicled Gohan's life, despite Goku being The Hero. Justified in that Toriyama originally intended for Gohan to succeed Goku as the main protagonist after the Cell Saga. However, Goku's character proved too popular with the fanbase, so he changed his mind and brought him back.
  • This has echoes of the relationship between the protagonist and his son in Dragon Quest V; notable because of how much they look like Goku and Gohan, for good reason.
• Surpassed The Teacher: Eventually does this to Roshi after their first tournament fight.
• Talking to Himself: Veteran voice actress Masako Nozawa, who also plays both his sons and his deceased father Bardock. Not to mention Tullece/Turles.
  • And Sean Schemmel, who later played King Kai.
  • In the Latin-American Spanish dub, Laura Torres plays both child!Goku, child!Gohan and child!Goten. Mario Castañeda, who voices teenaged and adult!Goku, voices Bardock and Tullece/Turles.
• Tareme Eyes/Tsurime Eyes: The eyes of happy-go-lucky Goku vs. serious in-a-fight Goku.
• Technical Pacifist/Thou Shalt Not Kill/Took a Level in Kindness: After training with Kami, he became a lot less kill-happy.
• Teleporters and Transporters: His Instant Transmission/Shunkan Idou technique. He can teleport to any person he can sense the ki of and take people touching him at the time with him.
• Too Dumb to Live: Sometimes. When he doesn't defeat his enemies when he really should.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: In Dragon Ball, he was still naive, but he did have some common sense when it came to making decisions regarding villains (like defeating them quickly instead of trying to give them a chance at redemption). All of that flew out of the window in the early parts of Z, after he saw how effective this proved to be with Piccolo. After his fight with Freeza, he becomes less likely to do this, unless the villain already seems conflicted or is too childish to know that they're being evil.
• True Companions
• Turn The Other Cheek: Is willing to forgive anybody and give them a second chance: Yamcha for trying to rob him blind, Krillin for starting out as a bully, Piccolo Jr. for being the son of a demon who attempted to Take Over the World, Vegeta for commanding the murder almost everyone he loved, Majin Buu for destroying the human race, Frieza for murdering his best friend Krillin. Everyone except the last case eventually became noble heroes and protectors of life.
• Use Your Head: As in a headbutt. In his younger years, Goku used this to finish Staff Officer Black and ring out Piccolo.
• Vocal Dissonance: In the Japanese version as an adult, he has the exact same voice as he did as a child.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: The Wacky Parent to Gohan's Serious Child. Although they are both kind-hearted.
• Weaksauce Weakness: As a child, he could be rendered powerless by grabbing his tail. He eventually got tired of that trick and trained himself out of it, before removing it entirely by adulthood until regrowing it to fight Baby.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Piccolo does not take well to Goku's Xanatos Gambit to beating Cell (throwing Gohan out to fight, hoping that he will attain a power beyond Super Saiyan) and calls him out on it. Goku reacts with a My God, What Have I Done? moment when it finally sinks in that Gohan is probably going to die, and now it's too late to do anything about it. Fortunately, Gohan doesn't die, but Piccolo is quite angry at the fact that Goku has basically thrown his own son into a death match against an incredibly powerful sadist.
• Wonder Child
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Zigzagged most of the time. During his fight with Chi-Chi, he only dodges her attacks and refuses to lay a hand on her, so he defeats her by using his fist to create a wave that knocks her out of the ring.
  • However, Goku has multiple times fought back and hit women that were attacking him, the most prominent example being him knocking out Lunch (in her violent "Kushami" personality).

Bulma (ブルマ; Buruma)

The very first human Goku came across (apart from his grandpa) at the start of the series. One could say she's the trigger that kicks off the series as a whole. Originally on a quest to gather the Dragon Balls for her own reason (to have a boyfriend), Bulma gets dragged into the craziness that comes along with the search. Even when the quest is finished, she still keeps close ties with Goku and his friends and helps out whenever possible. Which, considering she's a mechanical whiz, is quite often.

• Adaptation Dye Job: Her hair is lavender purple in the manga (same with Bra). And now you know where the hell Trunks's hair color came from. (Well, her dad has lavender hair too.)
  • A recursive dye job, in Path to Power Bulma has purple hair like in the manga.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Played with In Dragon Ball, Bulma was attracted to Yamcha (then a bandit) due to a combination of both his roguish nature and hidden sensitive shy side.
  • Sometime during the timeskip, she goes for Omnicidal Maniac Vegeta.
  • Some of her one-off attractions include Oolong (disguised as a handsome human), General Blue, Lucifer, Pamput, and Zarbon.
• All Women Are Lustful: Bulma frequently goes crazy over attractive males.
• Alliterative Name: Even in Japanese her full name uses the same first character.
• Almighty Mom: Is this in the Buu Saga. She and Chi Chi both provide the page's image.
• Alpha Bitch: On her very bad days.
• Anger Born of Worry: Bulma tends to express her fears and worries for the Z Fighters' safety with eruptive rage. Goku, Vegeta and especially Yamcha were most often targets. A good example can be seen here.
• Baleful Polymorph: The Ginyu Frog incident.
• Bathing Beauty: Early in the series, she is shown to have a love for taking bubble baths and often a bath is the first thing she desires when stranded in the wilderness. They call back to this in Dragon Ball Z by giving her another bubble bath scene while she is hiding out in a capsule house on Namek.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: For most of the first series.
• Butt Monkey: The anime filler made her into this during the Frieza Saga, being stuck in the body of a frog thanks to Captain Ginyu.
• The Chick
• Commuting On A Bus: Remember when she was the CO-LEAD? Yeah, me neither. Though to be fair, her role is still pretty notable in the Namek, Android, and Cell sagas.
• Cool Big Sis: To Goku and later to Gohan.
• Demoted to Extra: Z and GT.
• Deuteragonist: In the Legacy of Goku arc.
• Ditzy Genius
• Embarrassing First Name/Meaningful Name/Theme Naming/Unfortunate Name: Like all of her family, she is named after underwear*
  "Bulma" = "buruma" = "bloomers"
  . Goku lampshades this in the manga.
• Epic Fail: Tried to use a remote to summon Nappa's left-over space pod and ended up blowing it up.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: She's known for this.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: How she fell for Vegeta.
• Gadgeteer Genius/Ms. Fixit: She invented the Dragon Radar, repaired a broken scouter, repaired Android #16 and built a Time Machine in an alternate timeline just to name a few.
• Hair-Trigger Temper
• Happily Married: By all accounts, with Vegeta.
• Hot Mom: Must run in the family genes.
• Insufferable Genius: Less so in Z, though.
• Inter Species Romance: With Vegeta, though Saiyans are Human Aliens.
• Jerkass/Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Never quite matured past her selfish teenage girl phase.
• Lost in Translation: The way Bulma calls Goku in Japanese, she mostly calls him Son (Son-kun), although that's his family name, she calls him that way to show how close and familiar she is with him while the rest of the cast calls him appropriately Goku; Bulma referring to Goku as Son in English would make many children scratch their heads in confusion, so it was completely dropped in the English localization, and curiously in some other countries as well. The English manga did keep this in some instances, though.
• Magnetic Hero: She was this in the very beginning of the series that got Goku to join her quest.
• Morality Pet: To Yamcha in the Pilaf Saga and Vegeta in the Buu Saga.
• Ms. Fanservice: The Playboy Bunny suit being one of the earliest examples. To take it further, she's the only female character to appear naked in the entire series.
• Ojou: And is filthy rich to back it up.
• Only Sane Woman: Tries to be the voice of "the common people" amongst men who live by the Way of the Warrior.
• Platonic Life Partners: With Goku, at least until he grew up...
• Really Gets Around: Whether she actually succeeds in this is up to the individual viewer, but she certainly tries; even when she's dating Yamcha, she's prepared to dump him at the drop of a hat for Jackie Chun and General Blue, before they turn out to be old and evil, respectively (that Blue is also gay hinders things as well). Whether she cheated on Yamcha with Vegeta, or Yamcha cheated on her causing her to go to Vegeta, is one of the fandom's Base Breakers.
  • She also at one point fell for, you guessed it, Goku, when she saw He's All Grown Up. It's just too bad he got engaged on the same day...
• Shorttank
• Smoking Is Cool: Late into her adult life... being the wife of Vegeta would be stressful after all.
• Sole Surviving Scientist: Her future counterpart invented a time machine to send Trunks to the past and find a way to kill the androids.
• The Team Normal: Of the original five (Goku, Yamcha, Paur, Oolong, and herself), she is the only one with no powers. This remains such throughout the series.
• Token Girl
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Chi-Chi and nice!Launch.
• Tomboy With A Girly Streak
• Too Kinky to Torture: Played with. Pilaf threatens Bulma with sexual torture, but then just blows her a kiss. When she says what she thought he was planning to do, she ends up freaking him out.
• Unfazed Everyman
• Ungrateful Bitch: Acts like this in the Namek Saga sometimes when Krillin and Gohan save her, and she yells at them instead of thanking them.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: And hairstyles.
• Woman Child: Her sense of priorities can be even more skewed than Goku's when it comes to preserving her rapidly fading youth and good looks.
• Women Prefer Strong Men: Possible. Would explain her falling for Yamcha and then for Vegeta, at any rate.
• Wrench Wench
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Master Roshi (武天老師; Muten Roushi)
AKA The Turtle Hermit (亀仙人; Kame Sen'nin)

Goku's first mentor. A hermit whose home is located on a small island in the middle of the ocean. Very strong (at least at the start of the series) and with a keen eye. Also very perverted and usually hits on any pretty tail that comes his way.

• Achilles in His Tent: During the Red Ribbon Army Saga.
• Badass
  • Badass Beard
  • Badass Grandpa
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's normally a goof and a Dirty Old Man, but when he decides to get serious he is a very skilled fighter.
  • Retired Badass: When he was satisfied that the younger generation had surpassed him, he stopped training.
• Bald of Awesome
• Big Good: In Dragon Ball, when he was The Obi-Wan.
• Butt Monkey/The Chew Toy
• Can't Catch Up: He retires from fighting during the second tournament arc, admitting that the new generation is both stronger and no longer needs his guidance. During later story arcs he expresses frustration at not being able to help during the major fights.
• Clark Kenting: His disguise of Jackie Chun involves taking off his shades and putting on a wig. Only Yamcha saw through it until Kame tricked him.
• Cool Old Guy
• Cool Shades
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He's perfectly capable of getting women if he wanted to. As Jackie Chun, girls even asked for his autograph before his fight with Man-Wolf.
• Demoted to Extra: In Z and GT.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Roshi means "old master". Therefore, in the English dub, Master Roshi leaves us with "Master Old Master".
• Dirty Old Man / All Men Are Perverts: Probably one of the most recognizable anime examples.
• Doting Parent: Whenever Master Roshi spends quality time with young Goku and Krillin (such as eating with them, playing with them and teaching them how to read and write) and whenever he affectionately pats their heads in praise. For the both now-grown Warriors, he is the closest thing they have to a lifelong father. Especially for Krillin, as he ends up living with Roshi through the rest of the series (even when he gets married and has a kid!).
• Drunken Boxing
• Eccentric Mentor
• Expy: Based on Kami-sama from Dr. Slump (unrelated to the later Kami from Dragon Ball). His alter-ego Jackie Chun is also clearly based on Jackie Chan's persona, if not his appearance.
• Genius Bruiser
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Despite spending roughly a hundred years training, Goku is almost equal to him after a few years of training. Still Goku was an alien.
  • Not only is Goku an alien, but he was also young and full of energy, while Master Roshi was already an elderly master that was past his prime, by the time they fought.
• I Was Quite a Looker
• Kamehame Hadoken: He invented it.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Roshi is seriously perverted but he's shown to be a really nice person at several points.
• The Obi-Wan
• Obsolete Mentor: For everyone but Krillin by the start of Z. Hell, even Krillin is mentioned as explicitly being stronger than him in the very beginning when Bulma gets the Scouter working.
• Older Than They Look: Looks about in his 70s-80s right? Try 300+.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is never revealed throughout the series, only the titles Muten Roushi ("Martial Arts Heavenly Old Sage") and Kame Sen'nin ("Turtle Hermit").
• Rival/Rival Dojos: Master Shen and his Crane school.
• Secret Identity: Jackie Chun. He never does let the others know he and Chun were the same person.
• Shock and Awe: His used-only-once ultimate technique, the Thunder Shock Surprise/Bankoku Bikkuri Shou.
• Signature Move: The Original Kamehameha
• Sunglasses at Night: Rarely takes his shades off.
• Super Mode: His "Max Power" form, where he basically bulks up like The Hulk.
• Team Dad: In the original Dragon Ball.
• Telepathy: The first to use it in the series. Nam, a participant of the 21st Tenka'ichi Budokai, even suggested this ability is a sign of a great martial arts master.
• Temporary Bulk Change: See Super Mode above.
• Tritagonist: For most of Dragon Ball.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: He is habitually beaten by the majority of the female cast, and he never makes any effort to fight back. He just takes the beatings. He is a creepy old hermit, but still....

Yamcha (ヤムチャ; Yamucha)

Yamcha was a desert bandit, Bulma's first love, and Goku's first rival. Even in the original series, Yamcha was often used as the primary victim of the Worf Effect, hardly winning any important fights despite being one of the most powerful protagonists. By Z he was pretty much a target to show how tough the villains were, so much so that around the Buu Saga he gave up fighting entirely (except for fillers in which he somehow defeated enemies even Goku had trouble with a few years before).

Yamcha was the series' originator for a lot of the tropes and quirks that would later be popularized by characters like Krillin, Tien, Piccolo, and Vegeta. The Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy, rival-turned-friend, Butt Monkey, Mr. Exposition, and "bad boy" roles these characters fulfill all started with him. Even Gohan and Future Trunks draw from him: they both inherited his shy awkwardness, sword fighting, and long-haired character designs.

• Adaptational Badass: He fares either worse or better in the anime. Yamcha does more in anime only battles and situations, but sometimes he comes off better in the manga version of events(an example of this is Yamcha had no trouble holding down Great Ape Goku in the manga).
• Adorkable: Its even admitted In-Universe.
• Animal Motifs: Oftentimes his aura will give him the appearance of a wolf even when he isn't using one of his Wolf Fang techniques.
  • Animal Battle Aura
  • Big Badass Wolf
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: In his debut Yamcha was this (except around Bulma). He lost most of this after his Heel Face Turn.
  • Yamcha usually has an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy moment every time he gets a large increase in power from training. Perhaps this trait of his was finally lost during his fight against Shen in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament. Coming into the match, Yamcha was absolutely sure of his victory, but after being embarrassed by some of Shen's moves, Shen chastises Yamcha for his arrogance, saying that Yamcha's overconfidence on his own strength as well as his opponent's appearance made him blind to the subtlety of Shen's attacks. After listening to Shen's lecture, Yamcha seemed to have wised up, even managing to land a good hit on Shen before losing, and becomes a lot more focused and dependable on the fights that followed.
• Badass Normal
  • Empowered Badass Normal: After training with Roshi.
  • Retired Badass: After the Cell Games. However, in the anime OVA special, he reveals that he still wears his fighting gi under his suit, suggesting that he still misses fighting.
• Bishōnen: Yamcha's been described as "good looking in a boyish sort of way" and "a pretty boy." Very slightly lessened after he gets his scars.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: When he has long hair.
• Butt Monkey: Has it worse than Krillin, from his first appearance it was always something of a Running Gag that Yamcha was unlucky. And while he puts up a fight, he NEVER gets past the first round of the tournament.
  • He never even gets to fight Vegeta and Nappa with the others; he gets distracted and killed off by a Suicide Attack of a seemingly dead Saibaman beforehand, Power Level guides say Yamcha would've won too if he hadn't let his guard down. He also gets badly injured by Dr. Gero right at the start of the Android Saga. Oh, and then his girlfriend has Vegeta's baby. Poor guy just can't catch a break.
• Combat Commentator/Mr. Exposition: Yamcha's apparently read up on all of the local legends and famous martial artists: he's able to identify Goku's bo staff, Master Roshi, Grandpa Gohan, Ox-King, and the rabbit boss. He even knew that Roshi was the one who trained Gohan and Ox King, and that the two of them were best friends.
• Centipede's Dilemma: Inverted. He thought he was cursed with the inability to talk to or even be around women, and for that reason, once he learned about the existence of the Dragon Balls, he decided to use them to wish away his fear of women. Much to his surprise, by the end of a long period of time where he was forced to be around Bulma, Yamcha learned that his fear of women was all in his head, and that it was only when he consciously invoked it on himself that he felt uncomfortable around women. Shortly afterwards, he and Bulma started dating.
• Clueless Chick Magnet: Yamcha's quite popular around women despite his shyness.
  • Mistaken for Cheating: The above has resulted in this happening on several occasions in Dragon Ball.
• Cool Sword: Yamcha's scimitar in Dragon Ball
• Commuting On A Bus: It's pretty easy to forget that he and Puar were among the first characters introduced into the story.
• Can't Catch Up: Same as Krillin.
• Cannot Talk To Women: Used to be like this to such a degree that he couldn't even be a around women without freaking out. After a while of being around Bulma in the Pilaf Saga, particularly an incident where he picked her up to get her to safety, Yamcha mostly got over his phobia. Though he sometimes still does show some nervous around beautiful women.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Defeat Means Friendship: Thought it was initially a ruse, Yamcha came to befriend the group and turned good for real.
• Demoted to Extra: Cell Saga, Buu Saga, and GT.
• Determinator: Yamcha's pretty eager to fight most of the time, he eagerly volunteered to fight King Piccolo when his leg was broken. Until he goes down against #20, at which point he calls it quits.
• Deus Angst Machina: Yamcha and Bulma forged a relationship at 16 which continued to their mid thirties (over half his life). Yet Bulma ends up leaving him for Vegeta who had once killed Yamcha while trying to Take Over the World. You have to think about what keeps the guy going after that.
• Downer Ending: Yamcha is never seen accomplishing his dream to marry and have a family. In Dragon Ball GT he's even seen going back to his life alone in Diablo Desert. After the Cell Saga he also gave up martial arts and competing in tournaments, when both were things he loved to do.
  • Though he seemed perfectly happy with how things turned out, makes sense seeing how he's such an easygoing guy. He just takes every curve life can throw at him in stride.
• Dub Text: Funimation changes his dialogue more than most characters. For example Bulma being mad at Yamcha for canceling a date due to being broke, became him taking another girl out to a concert in the dub. Even in Kai, Funimation changed a line of Yamcha saying he's got to help Goku with "I'll be there" to "I'll just watch".
  • Perhaps one of the most cruel cases happens in the Lookout, as Bulma fondly remembers Goku. Chi-Chi teases her, saying that Bulma is in love with Goku, but she should give up, because Chi-Chi is prettier. Yamcha then says that Chi-Chi looks very pretty today, which makes Chi-Chi upset, because that implies that she doesn't always look pretty. In the Dub Text, Chi-Chi suggests that, since Bulma likes Goku so much, they should trade husbands: Bulma gets Goku and Chi-Chi gets Vegeta. Yamcha then says that he is available, to which Chi-Chi responds that she wants an even trade, not a downgrade.
• Easily Forgiven: Yamcha is generally shown as pretty forgiving, possibly due to being bad once himself. When Tien Shinhan apologizes for breaking his leg, he just shrugs and says its nothing.
  • Once he stopped trying to prove he was better than Vegeta, they seemed to get along pretty well. He's even paid the prince a genuine compliment once or twice.
  • Hilariously, at one point, Tien criticizes Yamcha for making nice with Vegeta.
• Enemy Mine: When they were still ostensibly enemies, he helped Goku against the Rabbit Mob.
• The Everyman: He is perhaps one of the most relatable characters among the Z warriors. For instance, he is commonly seen wearing outfits other than his combat gear and he has been shown driving vehicles like sky cars and airships instead of flying everywhere like most of the other characters. He also has grounded interests like romance, sports and is actually concerned with having money, as opposed to most of the other protagonists, who do not seem to work at all and spend most of their time training. A notable example of how normal he is happens at the end of the Cell Saga, when the other protagonists are struggling to think of one last wish to be granted by Shenron. Yamcha suggests that, since nobody else could think of any important uses for that wish, they should wish for something for themselves, like lots of money. The other characters silently stare at him as if shocked that he would ever as much as consider using one of the wishes for purposes that are not altruistic. In response, Yamcha timidly apologizes and agrees to leave the last wish to Krillin.
• Failure Hero: In Z Yamcha seldom wins clear victories outside of fillers (and never important ones). Though he's had his moments in filler.
• Fighting With Chucks: Uses a three section staff at one point in the Legend of Shen Long. Yamcha is also seen holding Nun chucks in the anime version of the King Piccolo arc.
• Graceful Loser: Was polite and respectful to Jackie Chun and Kami when they beat him in the World Tournament. He was the first to clap when Tien decided to turn over a new leaf.
  • He's also very friendly to Trunks, his ex's son. They're shown watching TV together and Yamcha is the one who tells him about Vegeta's reaction to his death.
• Genre Savvy: Yamcha eventually realizes that he really Can't Catch Up when he nearly gets killed by Android 20 and from then on stops trying to take center stage, giving up fighting after the Cell Saga.
• Glass Cannon/Fragile Speedster: In most of the RPGs, he has low defense but is the fastest and most damaging attacks.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: He was shown to do Training from Hell prior to the Buu Saga.
• Heel Face Turn: One of the first of many throughout the series.
  • Heel Face Mole: This was his original intention but he ended up turning good for real.
• Image Song: Say what you want about the guy but he's got a very good one.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: After Dr. Gero did this to Yamcha, the poor guy retired from fighting.
• Kamehame Hadoken: He was the second student to learn it, though he doesn't use it much.
• The Lancer: Sometimes holds this role, mainly in the absence of Krillin.
• Like Brother and Sister: He maintained a close relationship with Bulma after their breakup. Even telling Future Trunks about Vegeta going Papa Wolf on Cell to make him feel better.
• Mr. Fanservice: He was the first handsome adult male in the cast.
• Mundane Utility: Uses his powers to become a pro baseball player.
• Older Than They Look: Despite being an ordinary human, Yamcha looks about the same at 57 in Dragon Ball GT.
• Overshadowed by Awesome
• Rapid Fire Fisticuffs: His Signature Move, the Wolf Fang Fist/Rougafuufuuken. Also his improved version, the Neo Wolf Fang Fist/Shin Rougafuufuuken.
• Really Gets Around: According to Future Trunks, this is the reason Bulma eventually left him for Vegeta in that timeline. What's ironic is that Yamcha was initially extremely shy around girls at the start of the series and said he wanted to get married.
  • Fridge Brilliance: Trunks likely heard all of this through Bulma (since Yamcha would've died shortly after he was born in his timeline). Think back to the original Dragon Ball; Bulma considered it cheating if another woman so much as looked at Yamcha the wrong way - whether he flirted back was irrelevant to her. Thinking about it like that it actually makes sense that Bulma would describe him like this.
• Redemption Demotion: Yamcha generally remained useful in Dragon Ball and in the first arc he and Puar actually saved everyone from Great Ape Goku. In "'Z'' Yamcha was really only useful for distracting villains or taking care of wounded characters.
• The Rival: The very first one. Back then, he teamed up with Goku to save Bulma from Monster Carrot.
• Roboteching: His Spirit Ball Attack/Soukidan.
• Scars Are Forever: Its never revealed exactly how he got them. After Yamcha came back from his three year Training from Hell in the Timeskip, he had them on his face.
• Shrinking Violet: A male example. At first Yamcha couldn't even be around women without blushing and fleeing the scene. Even after he hooked up with Bulma, he was still somewhat shy at times.
  • Love Makes You Dumb
• Signature Move: Wolf Fang Fist and Spirit Ball.
• Taking the Bullet: Ever since his Heel Face Turn, Yamcha has been shown as willing to sacrifice himself for his friends. In one of the movies, he even painfully catches a boulder about to crush Bulma. His Saibaman death was actually the result of him volunteering ahead to protect Krillin from a second and final death.
• Training from Hell: Yamcha had been shown to go through this alot of the time, particularly when the date for the World Martial Arts Tournament nears. For the first tournament Yamcha trained alone in the wilderness for a month, the second time with Krillin under Roshi, and the third was for three straight years.
• True Companions: Yamcha seemed to have become this for real with the gang when in Pilaf's desert oven. Even getting distressed when Ape Goku was attacked, hard to believe earlier he was planning to beat up Goku to steal the Dragon Balls.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Filler, at least, Yamcha sometimes does better. He defeated Recoome, a guy who beat Vegeta to within an inch of his life, while training on King Kai's planet. While training in the Other World along with Krillin, he also defeated some of the top fighters in the tournament that Goku had won while he was there.
• Tritagonist: Legacy of Goku Arc.
• Twinkle Smile: It happened occasionally in the Dragon Ball anime.
• We Are Team Cannon Fodder: In DBZ.
• Weak, but Skilled: Yamcha's Spirit Ball is the first fully controllable ki attack shown in the series. While Yamcha was beaten handily by the powerful Shen in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, he managed to show his combat smarts by, after failing to hit Shen with his Spirit Ball, he made the energy ball travel underground and erupt under Shen's chin, catching him off guard. Shen even complimented Yamcha on his skills after the battle.
  • He was the second student of the Turtle School to master the Kamehameha and surprised everyone by showing this in the 22nd Budokai.
• The Worf Effect: Yamcha suffers from this as early as Dragon Ball, always losing in his first round in the three world tournaments he participates in to show how powerful Jackie Chun, Tien, and Hero/Shen/Kami are, despite his training.
• Would Hit a Girl/Would Hurt a Child: In Dragon Ball, he is forced to knock out Kid Chi-Chi.
• X Marks The Hero: After the three year timeskip at the end of Dragon Ball.

Krillin (クリリン; Kuririn)

One of the few human characters who retained most of their screentime even in DBZ (even though it was mostly as a Plucky Comic Relief and by few we mean the only one). Started off as a rival to Goku when both trained under Master Roshi when they were kids. He soon became a best friend and Heterosexual Life Partner to Goku and the two have been through thick and thin through their battles and lives.

• Action Dad
• Adorkable
• Awesome, but Impractical: His signature move, Destructo Disk, can cut through anything (except Cell...) and is completely unblockable, but it's slow to produce, its aim is unwieldy, and it can't be guided once launched. And the few times he has an opening to actually use it, he tends to ruin it by Calling His Attacks.
• Back from the Dead: Just about everyone did this but Krillin is notable for being the first and is tied with Chiaotzu for most deaths in the manga.
• Badass: At least compared to the Saiyans. He's the strongest human in the cast. He may even be stronger than the mythogical Herecules (yes, the one from Greek legend).
  • Retired Badass: In GT.
• Bald of Awesome: Until the Buu Saga anyway. Since childhood, he had been shaving his head, thinking great warriors like Roshi did that. He was embarrassed to learn that Roshi was naturally bald.
• Big Brother Mentor: To Son Gohan.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: In his first appearance.
• Butt Monkey: He died the first major death in the entire series. Many more would follow. He even lampshades this in the film Super Android 13 by shouting "Why does this always happen to me?!" while being knocked away by Vegeta's unconscious body. He also lampshades it much earlier in the second movie after pointing out how every attempt he made to hit Dr Wheelo ended in humiliating failure.
• Can't Catch Up: Started out as the The Rival, fell further behind with each new storyline, although remaining very important.
• Character Development: While he wasn't purehearted enough to ride the Nimbus at the beginning of the series, he's more than worthy of it now.
• Chivalrous Pervert: When he was younger. Seems to fade out with age.
• Combat Pragmatist: Initially started out like this, using a pair of panties as a distraction against Jackie Chun/Master Roshi, asking Chiaotzu basic math questions to disrupt his psychic powers, and attempting to exploit Goku's Achilles Heel by grabbing his tail during their fight in the Tournament. It's turned Up to Eleven in Z, where he takes on foes many times stronger than him with just his guts and dirty tactics.
• Dating Catwoman: Him married to Android 18 of course. He is a very mild while she is very spicy.
• Deadly Disc: His Signature Move, the Destructo Disk/Kienzan.
• Deadpan Snarker: When he's not screaming in terror, the guy tends to be the wittiest character and the most likely to lampshade hang.
• Death by Irony: His second death: After seeing Frieza transform into his final form, he comments that he doesn't look very intimidating. He later becomes the last character Frieza kills on Namek, screaming in terror as he died.
• Demoted to Extra: GT.
• Determinator: It's very hard to keep this guy down. The only time he gives up is when faced with the Androids, and even then it's because he knows that even Vegeta and Piccolo don't stand a chance.
• Deuteragonist: Throughout most of Dragon Ball, excepting the Piccolo Saga where he's dead and Tien takes over.
• Dork Knight
• Doting Parent: To his adorable little girl Marron.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the King Piccolo Saga.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Having lost the World Martial Arts Tournament three times, been killed twice, and had incredibly nightmarish battles against the Saiyans, Ginyu Force, and Frieza, Krillin finally achieves his dream of landing a girlfriend by the start of the Buu Saga.
• Fan Nickname: Called Pachinko-Head by Yajirobe.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Goku.
• Friendly Target: Three times in the manga (which ties him with Chiaotzu), plus another two/three/no one is sure times in alternate timelines, plus another on GT. So, 3-7 times. Ouch.
• Genius Bruiser: He's one heck of a strategic fighter.
• Happily Married: To Android 18.
• Heel Face Turn: Krillin was started out as a bullying rival of Goku but became his best friend.
• Henpecked Husband: Shows shades of this in "Bio Broly."
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With Goku.
• Honorary Uncle: To Gohan.
• Hot Dad: Having hair by the time he became one really helps.
• Informed Ability: Supplemental material has stated that Krillin the strongest human character in the series. Ignoring the Can't Catch Up tendency for all the non-Saiyan characters, Tien had the better showings in fights in the series.
• Kamehame Hadoken: Learned from Roshi. He doesn't use it as often as Goku, though.
• Kavorka Man: He may not be the most attractive of the series (although YMMV), but somehow he dated Maron, and married Android 18, to the surprise of the fans of the series.
• The Lancer: Until Tien showed up, where he was shifted into The Smart Guy.
• Love Makes You Dumb: The reason why Cell was able to absorb Android 18 and reach his final form.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The Feminine Boy to Android 18's Masculine Girl.
• Nice Guy: Moreso as a grown up, not that he wasn't nice as a kid.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: See Love Makes You Dumb above.
• The Noseless
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Former Trope Namer.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Basically his major role in Z and the movies. (For example, disguising himself as Piccolo before saving Gohan, and then doing a cape twirl).
• Porn Stache: Despite not having a nose, he manages to grow a big, bushy mustache worthy of a 70s porn star in GT.
• Punny Name: His name is based on "kuri" (栗), which means "chestnut."
• The Rival: Hell, his introductory episode was even called "Goku's Rival", though the two went from rivals to best friends fairly quickly.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He kills three Saibaman with his Scattering Bullet special attack when Yamcha died to protect him. Goku always has one when Krillin dies.
• Robosexual: Played with. He marries Android 18, but she isn't completely a robot.
• Sacrificial Lion: First major good guy to die in the entire series.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Goku's Manly Man.
• Signature Move: Destructo Disk, although he is hardly the only user of it....
• Skintone Sclerae: While a staple of the early Toriyama style, he's the only major character to keep this trait. Interestingly, his earliest depiction didn't include them consistently.
• The Smart Guy: This is what keeps him in the game until the end of the Frieza arc.
• Spell My Name with an S: Oh, let us count the ways... Krillin (Funimation), Kuririn (Viz, also the literal transliteration), Kulilin (wears hats with this on it in the manga), Klilyn (most Bandai toys and in some cel art by Toei)...
  • Despite his name having been spelt as "Kulilin" in the manga, the name "Kuririn" involves a play on "kuri", the Japanese word for "chestnut" (this is joked about, with reference to his bald head, at one stage) - likely, "Kulilin" is the result of liberal transliteration of Japanese ("l" and "r" sounds are indistinct), and "Krillin" is supposed to be an adaptation that is better suited for the foreign palate.
• Story Breaker Power: This trope is probably the reason he never uses the Solar Flare and the Destructo Disc together to defeat any of his opponents.
• Taken for Granite: Along with Piccolo.
• Tender Tears: Sensitivity, thy name is Krillin.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: To Android 18, who's the tallest female character in the series.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: To Android 18.
• We Are Team Cannon Fodder: Subverted. Yes, he's part of Team Cannon Fodder, but Krillin always gets a few good hits in against the villain of the day, and he doesn't lose his importance as a character until the Buu arc.
• Weak, but Skilled: Not having nowhere near as much raw strength or ki, he is a seriously cunning fighter. He ran rings around Nappa and Frieza when they tried to kill Gohan, and played a major part in the battle with Vegeta.
  • More notable is that he managed to develop a technique that could seriously wound or kill an opponent easily a hundred times his strength. He just rarely hits anyone with it.
  • During their "image training" on the way to Namek, when Krillin compliments Gohan on his strength, Gohan tells him he was surprised by just how many different techniques Krillin threw at him.
  • Even in the Cell Saga when stakes quickly became so high he was outmatched, he still kept his importance due to his skills at observation and resourcefulness - when things look their bleakest, Krillin is often the one to point out something important or give a pragmatic plan of action.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: As seen in a movie, when Chi-Chi slaps him with a shopping bag and kicks him, he doesn't make an effort to fight back (he knows that Chi-Chi can crush him, but still...).

Tien Shinhan (天津飯; Tenshinhan)

Introduced in the second World Martial Arts Tournament arc, Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu were initially rivals to Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha (as they belonged to an opposing dojo to Roshi's). The two eventually become friends to our heroes after realizing the lack of honor in their own methods. They become instrumental in the the next few arcs following their introduction, but by Z their roles had become less and less till they were reduced to cameo appearances and a few references in Dragon Ball GT.

• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Tien was one of these before he became one of the heroic characters. While most Dragon Ball villains are this to a certain extent, Tien is the most clear example of it as afterwards the villains are all Aliens, Demons, Androids, and Genies. He was likely the Trope Codifier of an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy for anime.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: How he learns the Kamehameha and the Evil Containment Wave in Dragon Ball. He is stated to have the ability to copy techniques.
• Badass
  • Badass Boast: To Yamcha in his villain days.
  Tien: Poor Yamcha. The only thing more pathetic then a loser is a loser who thinks he's born to win.
  • Badass and Child Duo: Tien and Chiaoutzu in Dragon Ball. Mess with the kid and he'll tear you apart.
  • Handicapped Badass: He lost his left arm during his fight with Nappa. It didn't stop him from continuing the fight.
• Bald of Awesome
• Balloon Belly
• Berserk Button: Hurting Chiaotzu, who is like a little brother to Tien.
• Big Damn Heroes: Tien gets some pretty awesome moments.
• The Big Guy: Until his resurrection.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: In his fight against Goku during the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, Tien, who was starting to feel overpowered by Goku's tremendous stamina and having several of his techniques outdone by Goku's very own, ingenuously decided that, if he could not knock Goku unconscious or push him out of the platform, he would simply destroy the entire platform; that way, Goku would lose by ring out because there would be no platform left to stand on. Tien, who possesses the ability to fly, did not have that problem. He managed to destroy the platform with his powerful Tri-Beam attack, but instead of simply waiting for Goku, who had jumped very high to escape the blast, to hit the ground, Tien decided to fly close to him, accompanying Goku as he fell down, in order to gloat about his inevitable victory. That opened an opportunity for Goku to use one last attack that knocked Tien unconscious, and now both fighters were falling to the ground. Subverted because Tien, by a stroke of luck, actually won the fight, but he was likely in worse physical condition than Goku by the end of it.
  • That was only in the anime. In the manga, he intended to stay where he was and watch Goku fall, but Goku reacted quickly.
• Broken Pedestal: Tien idolized the assassin Mercenary Tao, until he realized Tao had no honor.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: He did manage a joke. Once. But it took rigorous discipline and concentration.
• The Comically Serious: After his Heel Face Turn.
• Can't Catch Up: He lasted a little longer then Yamcha and Krillin and was still useful after he fell behind though.
• Cast From HP: Tien's Tri-Beam drains its user's life and will kill him if he uses it too much. On the plus side, attacks that use life force, such at this one, far exceed the potential of ki attacks. He kept Semi-Perfect Cell in check with it (it didn't actually cause any damage, but Cell couldn't move until he stopped using it).
• Characterization Marches On/Character Development: Upon his introduction, Tien was an arrogant fighter who enjoyed taunting and mocking his opponents, and even had a somewhat acid sense of humor, like when, after an accidentaly humorous and rather embarrassing exchange between Roshi's students, Tien mockingly suggests that comedy must be one of the disciplines taught at the Kame school of martial arts. Once he changed sides, Tien became a lot more serious and composed, rarely smiling and so humorless that he is shown struggling to tell a simple joke. That's likely because his earlier humor was mean spirited and not meant with any sense of irony. As he became nicer and more emphatic that kind of humor probably would be hard for him to pull up again.
• Determinator: He has no problem rushing into battle with opponents he knows he can't beat.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Subverted. Tien actually won; Goku didn't beat him until the next tournament.
  • However, that defeat was on a technicality, and Tien outright says that Goku was the real winner in that fight.
• Demoted to Extra: In the Buu Saga and GT. He shows up again to fight in the Buu Saga only to be one-shotted.
• Doppelgänger Attack: His Multiform/Shishin no Ken technique, but unfortunately the copies are weaker than the original.
• Deadpan Snarker: In his early appearances, he displayed an acidic sense of humor:
  Tien: (To Yamcha) For someone who doesn't speak pain, you sound very fluent.
• Deuteragonist: From the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament to the end of Dragon Ball.
• Dragon-in-Chief: To Master Shen. He's stronger, but still follows orders until his Heel Face Turn.
• Dub Name Change: Not as obvious as other examples but Tien Shinhand is most definitely not the single name Tenshinhan.
• Enemy Mine: After King Piccolo attacks, Krillin is dead, Yamcha has a broken leg, and Goku is off trying to beat up Krillin's killer. Ergo, Tien and Chiaotzu get recruited by Roshi to gather the Dragon Balls before Piccolo gets to them.
  • Tien notes this as much, saying even though he acknowledges his previous actions as wrong, he still considers himself and Chiaotzu as Shen's students, and simply asking for forgiveness won't be enough.
• Epiphany Therapy
• Extra Eyes: Has a third eye on his forehead for unexplained reasons, representing his awakened Psychic Powers.
• Finger Gun: The Dodon Ray/Dodonpa.
• Flight: One of the first characters in the series to fly, as it is the signature technique of his martial arts school.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: The scar on Tien's chest is a memento of his tournament battle with Mercenary Tao, who had hidden a knife in his cybernetics.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Tien is the only character among the human Z fighters who has no interest in living a normal life and he spends most of his time training, even during peaceful times. Unfortunately, all of his effort is still not enough to put him in the same league as the Saiyans or Piccolo, making his usefulness against the incredibly powerful enemies the Z fighters must go up against very limited.
• Heel Face Turn
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With Chiaotzu.
• Honor Before Reason
• Kamehame Hadoken: He copied it off of Yamcha.
• Kick the Dog: His and Chiaotzu's introduction chapter. For Tien, also breaking Yamcha's leg after he was already defeated and unconscious.
• Odd Friendship: Hints of it with Piccolo in the Cell Saga. His friendship with Gohan could also be considered this, especially in the beginning.
• Older Than They Look: Looks the same age in GT. By then, he's in his early sixties.
• Only Sane Man: Sometimes.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Though Tien does lose importance later on, it's still arguable that he's the strongest earthling in the series whose power is entirely his own (thus excluding the cybernetically enhanced Androids and magically enhanced Uub). Of all the human characters, Tien has won the most battles, having defeated Yamcha, Goku, Mercenary Tao, a Saibaman, Jeice, and Burter (in the anime filler). That's not too bad considering he's a human.
  • The issue of Krillin vs. Tien as the strongest human is one of DBZ's biggest Base Breakers and continues to rage.
  • Tien also suffers the most awesome death amongst the Worf characters, and manages to keep Cell at bay in his Semi-Perfect form, and this was all after losing an arm seconds into the fight.
  • Later on, he proved to be one of the only survivors Buu's Extinction Attack (along with Hercule and the other Z-Fighters atop Kami's Lookout, who were not targeted) and managed to save Dende and Hercule's lives by deflecting one of Super Buu's energy blasts. Of course, he was in no way capable of actually fighting Buu in any capacity and proceeded to get knocked out by a single kick.
• Put on a Bus: After the Cell Games, Tenshinhan had no more reason to hang out with the Z gang since Goku chose not to be revived and went into hiding with Chaozu. Throughout the Buu arc, he and Chaozu had a couple of brief appearances until Tenshinhan saved Mr. Satan and Dende from getting killed by Buu.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Tien has no spoken lines in Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! special for Shonen Jump's 40th anniversary due to Hirotaka Suzuoki not being among the living anymore. Toei Animation felt the reason to pay their respects this way because the entire original cast came back to voice their characters, meaning only Tien would have been the odd one out.
• Redemption Demotion: When he was first introduced as an antagonist, his powers were as great as Goku's. After he became one of the good characters, he was surpassed by Goku and, as the series developed, his powers were thoroughly outclassed by the Saiyans, Piccolo and most enemies.
• Shirtless Scene/Walking Shirtless Scene: Tien mostly fights topless.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: One of the only people with this ability.
• Signature Move: Tri Beam
• Spell My Name with an S: Tien Shinhan vs. Tenshinhan.
• Sphere of Destruction: Tri-Beam/Kikouhou, though it's actually more of a square.
• Supporting Leader: During the King Piccolo Saga.
• Tame His Anger: Master Roshi specifically wanted to do this with Tien. And he's one of the first major characters to do it (Yamcha and Krillin weren't really angry).
• Third Eye
• We Are Team Cannon Fodder: In DBZ, though he does get one decent fight in the Cell Saga (see You Shall Not Pass).
• Weak, but Skilled: He possesses an incredible repertoire of techniques (including growing a pair of extra arms). Indeed, several characters have copied his techniques for their own use, most notably the Solar Flare. Goku even took it a step further and turned that very attack against Tien in their rematch.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After Dende healed Tenshinhan from Buu's attack, he wasn't seen again until after the Earth was restored and everyone was revived.
• The Worf Effect
• You Shall Not Pass: Tien kept Cell (in his Semi-Perfect form) pinned down using his Neo Tri-Beam, so that #18 could get away and hide until the Saiyans completed their training. Note this is pretty late in the Z series, and he was useless in hand to hand combat compared to the now-Super Saiyans. Also, it was only not a Heroic Sacrifice because of Goku's instant transmission and a Senzu Bean.

Piccolo (ピッコロ; Pikkoro)

A Namekian (a race of green skinned aliens), though at the start this wasn't really known; he was the son of the self-proclaimed Demon King Piccolo, who Goku defeated in the original series. After being spat out as an egg and hatched. Piccolo tried to carry on his father's work but was defeated by Goku and allowed to live. As the series rolls into the Z saga, his evil exterior softens due to training Son Gohan, and eventually becoming a second father to the kind-hearted little boy during Goku's frequent deaths. The one-time Demon King eventually becomes one of Goku's most trusted allies, and incredibly popular amongst the fanbase.

• Alien Blood: Piccolo's blood was originally red in Dragon Ball and early episodes of DBZ (it was turned green in early episodes of the original dub), but after he was established as an alien, he is shown to have purple blood, like his fellow Nameks.
• Aloof Ally
• Anti-Hero
• The Atoner: Of a sort. He never expresses regret over his past actions, but definitely works off his bad karma.
• Avenging the Villain: Well, technically himself, since he's the reincarnation/son of King Piccolo.
• Badass: One of the series' biggest.
  • Badass Arm Fold: Just look at his picture!
  • Badass Cape: Ditto!
• The Bad Guy Wins: Although Goku beats him at first, Piccolo finally gets the chance to avenge his father/himself when he kills Goku in order to kill Raditz. Granted, the objective wasn't revenge but that was the effect.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: It was Gohan's innocence and kindness towards him that triggered his Heel Face Turn.
• Big Damn Heroes: Piccolo swooping in out of nowhere to rescue Gohan is so prevalent in the movies that the tenth finally tosses it a Lampshade Hanging: this time, Krillin is the one who rescues Gohan... while dressed up as Piccolo.
  • He even chews Goku out for not doing this against Cell when he's basically torturing Gohan, and was about to perform another one until Cell decided to stop and steal the Senzu.
• Big Good: Sometimes.
• Can't Catch Up: He lasted the longest out of all of the non-Saiyans, remaining the third or second most powerful hero all the way until Semi-Perfect Cell was born. He did get to spend time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, which at least made him much stronger than Semi-Perfect Cell, but he still fell behind because the Saiyans got to go in to the chamber twice. By the Buu saga, when the three main Saiyans have all unlocked become Super Saiyan 2 and gotten even stronger than they were at the Cell Games, Piccolo knows that he won't be of much use and retires.
• The Coats Are Off: When Piccolo removes his weighted cape, some poor fool's getting a major beat down!
• Characterization Marches On: Piccolo Jr. was a cackling, raving psychopath in the 23rd World Martial Arts saga, often prone to shouting and Slasher Smiles. In the following saga (the beginning of Z), he's suddenly much more composed and only occasionally gives a Psychotic Smirk.
  • He is also noticably more physically adult at the start of DBZ. He was only a few years old at the end of Dragon Ball, and looked like a teenager. The change could be attributed to him growing up.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Defeat Means Friendship: Eventually.
• Demoted to Extra: Late in the Buu Saga and definitely in GT.
  • Arguable in the Buu Saga; even if he didn't engage in active combat, he remained in the mentor role for Trunks and Goten and was on the battlefield with them right until Buu absorbed him.
• Doting Parent: He's so gentle and kind towards his surrogate child Son Gohan one tends to forget that he was ever a Demon King. Some fans even argue he is a better father than Goku.
• Enemy Without
• Finger Gun: His Special Beam Cannon/Makankousappou.
• Fusion Dance: Merges with two other Namekians throughout the series (Nail and Kami). Though both of them say his personality won't change, there are subtle differences.
• Genius Bruiser: Due to doubling as The Smart Guy and The Lancer.
• Good Thing You Can Heal
• Heel Face Turn
• Heroic Sacrifice: He died protecting Gohan during the Vegeta Saga. In GT, he stays with the exploding Earth to keep the Black Star Dragon Balls from being used again.
• Hot Dad: Adoptive second-dad to be exact, but still hot.
• Humanity Is Infectious: "Pathetic... to think that Demon King Piccolo would fall... protecting a child... I have been.... contaminated... by you... and your father's decency... Gohan."
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Kamehame Hadoken: Special Beam Cannon.
• The Lancer: Both kinds—he's Goku's foil until the end of the Frieza arc, and after that he takes the role of trusted second-in-command.
• Large and in Charge: The tallest Z-Fighter, and the one most likely to lead the team into battle when Goku's not there (which is often).
• Like a Badass out of Hell: A mix of type 2 and 4, near the end of GT Piccolo is forced to corrupt his soul by causing carnage in heaven in order to be sent to hell to help Goku escape to fight Super 17, but he couldn't do anything to leave (and it's implied that he didn't want to, seeing it as being where he finally belonged). With an eternity to kill and nothing else to do he decided to pick up making sure the villains didn't act up again, becoming an unofficial leader of hell's jailers.
• Like A Son To Me: He refers to Gohan as "the son he never had."
• Lima Syndrome: Who'd have thought abducting a four-year-old to train with him in a dinosaur-filled wasteland would end up being so good for him?
• Literally Shattered Life: He is accidentally shattered by Kid Trunks when he's turned to stone. Subverted because it's a Good Thing He Can Heal.
• Literal Split Personality: He's the reincarnation of King Piccolo, who was Kami's evil side made flesh.
• Loner Turned Friend
• Love Redeems
• Manly Tears: See Humanity Is Infectious Above.
• Nice Hat: One of the few people who can make a turban look completely bad-ass.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Piccolo had never told the dying Raditz about the Dragon Balls, Nappa, Vegeta and even Freeza wouldn't be going after them.
  • ...and then Cell or the Androids would have slaughtered them all. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero meets For Want Of A Nail?
  • Neither of them would have existed...or at least not as they were introduced.
  • Speaking of which, this trope may count for the Cell arc too considering Piccolo's the one who taught him how to use his regenerative abilities, which he would then proceed to spam up until his destruction.
• Noble Demon: More so after Z starts.
• The Obi-Wan: To Gohan in the Saiyan Saga. Subverted in that Gohan brings Piccolo Back from the Dead and they reunite on the battlefield.
• Obsolete Mentor: By the end of the Cell Saga, Gohan has surpassed him in every way, but their bond is as strong as ever.
• Odd Friendship: Hints of it with Tien in the Cell arc.
• Only Sane Man: Most of the time.
• Overprotective Dad: Even when Gohan becomes far more powerful than he will ever be, Piccolo would still lay his life down to protect the boy.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: But not so much that he loses plot importance. When he Can't Catch Up after the Cell Saga, he switches roles to The Mentor for the younger heroes. He gets a better deal in the movies though (if you consider them canon), where he usually at least gets to dispatch the Big Bad's Elite Mooks and, in two of them (Dead Zone and Lord Slug), he even saves the day.
  • By the Buu arc, not only is he God (well, he fused with God...), but he's the fourth most powerful non-fused Z-Fighter (unless you count the Supreme Kai) and one of the top ten most powerful beings in the universe, period. Too bad that's still nothing compared to Buu, Vegeta, Gohan, Goku, the Supreme Kai, and Dabura.
• Papa Wolf: Not even Frieza could withstand his wrath when he tried to murder Son Gohan.
  • Not just Frieza—Piccolo took on Broly to save Gohan. He put up a pretty damn good fight too.
• Perpetual Frowner
• Promotion to Parent: To Son Gohan, whenever Son Goku is dead or missing.
• Psychic Powers: Mostly in Filler but he did levitate about four pyramids with his mind. Seems to be an innate Namekian trait since synchronising his with Dende allowed Goku to escape from HFIL in GT.
  • Mind Over Matter
• Purple Is Powerful
• Redemption Equals Death
• Reformed But Not Tamed: Even after his Heel Face Turn, he was generally aloof and distant to the human characters, some of them considered him outright scary, while he spared his gentler side for Gohan. Shoot, he even invoked this when he acted as if the Z fighters weren't his allies when he reluctantly decided to merge with Kami. He's also pretty ruthless in battle, at one point severing Dr. Gero's arm (though he originally assumed he was just an android), and bifurcating Babidi.
• Signature Move: Special Beam Cannon, Light Grenade, and Hellzone Grenade
• Sink or Swim Mentor: When he first started training Gohan, he had no qualms about throwing him at a sheer cliff to trigger his hidden power, and followed that up by leaving him in a wasteland filled with dinosaurs for half a year. He made up for it.
• The Smart Guy: In the Cell Saga.
• Straight Man: Especially while paired with Gotenks.
• Supporting Leader
• Surrounded by Idiots: How he feels most of the time,
• Taken for Granite: In the Buu Saga thanks to Dabura.
• Taking the Bullet: For Gohan in the Saiyan Saga, and Goku in the anime version of the Frieza arc.
• Tame His Anger: This had a lot to do with his friendship with Gohan.
• Team Dad: It is so worth noting that he's probably the most sensible, level-headed character in the entire series, and the other characters often defer to him in a crisis. He's the responsible one who always has a plan and probably the most protective of Earth. Also tends to get stuck training or babysitting the younger characters.
  • Not to mention he's probably the smartest. After fusing with Kami (aka God) he became much more intelligent, not to say that he was stupid. It's no wonder they come to him for advice when he possesses the wisdom of God.
  • Gets even funnier when you realize that, technically speaking, he's one of the youngest characters. He's only four years older than Gohan—making him something like sixteen years younger than Goku! (Technically speaking, he is a mind that is hundreds of years old inside of a much younger body.)
• Theme Naming: After a musical instrument which he (his dad) and his siblings are all named after.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Three times. Once after training Gohan, once after merging with Nail, and once after reuniting with Kami.
• Tritagonist: In the Saiyan Saga. He and Vegeta trade the position throughout the Frieza and Cell arcs.
• You Killed My Father: Towards Goku (well, technically, its revenge towards Goku having killed him, as he is the reincarnation of his father, King Piccolo).

Son Gohan (孫 悟飯)

Son of Goku and Chi-Chi introduced in the Z series, and a half-Saiyan (he starts off having a tail like Goku did). At first was just a little crybaby with hidden strength. But under the tutelage of Piccolo and his experiences in battle, turns into quite an accomplished warrior. Unfortunately for him, he hates violence and would rather be a scholar.

• Action Dad: At the end of the series.
• Adorably Precocious Child: As a kid.
• Adorkable: Teen Gohan and Adult Gohan.
• Audience Surrogate: Gohan is the sensitive, down to Earth every-boy that the audience can easiest relate to amongst all the warriors.
• Badass: He gets it from his father. Even at kindergarten-age, Gohan doesn't hesitate to stand up to opponents much stronger than him if it means protecting his loved ones, and is able to land blows on Vegeta and Frieza. His best moment comes when he destroys Cell, an android with the abilities of the strongest fighters in the world, at the age of 10. Even his father only started to get stronger at age 11.
  • Badass Adorable: Even when his gorgeous little brother Goten took the Moe status away from him, he became the ideal boyfriend amongst otaku fangirls.
  • Badass Bookworm
  • Badass Cape: Gets one like Piccolo's for the Cell Games.
  • Badass Decay: invoked Experienced this in the 7 years of peace after the Cell Games, as clearly shown in his fight against Dabura. When the audience is introduced to Capsule Corp. again after the timeskip, Vegeta merely glances at him, and is the first one to notice. And he calls him out for it on two seperate occasions. He later fixes it, though.
  • Future Badass: In the The History of Trunks side story.
  • Handicapped Badass: Future Gohan becomes one after he loses an arm fighting the androids.
• Battle Couple: When teaming with Videl as Saiyaman and Saiyagirl, respectively.
• Being Good Sucks: Future Gohan is a very good example of this. After witnessing his father and all of his friends die at the hands of the androids, Gohan went into hiding in order to train himself to become strong enough to challenge this new threat. He spent his entire adult life challenging the androids to no avail, watching as countless innocents died at the hands of the monstrous duo. His reward for all of his self-sacrfice was to lose his left arm, and in the next and final fight between him and his two nemesis, Gohan was completely outmatched and left for dead, with his face down on the ground of the wreckage of yet another city he failed to protect. And then a sad rain starts pouring over his battered, crippled corpse. It's amazing how Trunks didn't have all of his spirit sapped way at such a tragic sight.
• Berserk Button: You can pound him into dog food, but hurt his loved ones or any Innocent Bystander in front of him and...
• Beware the Nice Ones: ...You'll get the shit kicked out of you by Super Saiyan 2 Gohan.
• Big Brother Mentor: To Future Trunks in the alternate timeline; slightly less so to Goten and Present Trunks in the main series timeline. Krillin is this to him.
• Big Eater: Inherits his father's appetite when he reaches adulthood.
• Boring, but Practical: "Mystic" / "Ultimate" Gohan doesn't look flashy (he doesn't even go Super Saiyan), but goes even beyond Super Saiyan 3 in power and doesn't require Gohan to spend energy or put any strain on his body to use it.
• Boy Next Door
• Brainy Specs: Post-Time Skip after Buu is defeated, as an adult, when he's finally become a scholar.
• Break the Cutie: Poor Gohan...
• Bully Hunter
• The Cape: Parodies this as a Shout Out to Super Sentai as the Great Saiyaman.
• Character Development: He undergoes the most in Z, appropriate to his aging throughout the series. Notably, his entire subplot in the Saiyan Saga revolves around his growth from a cowardly "spoiled brat" to standing up to his fears and being able to fight.
• Child Prodigy: In both fighting and academics.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: One of Gohan's defining characteristics. He absolutely cannot bring himself to pass up someone in need. This leads to his friendship with Dende, becoming Saiyaman, and his eventual death fighting the androids in the other timeline.
• Cool Big Bro: To Goten.
• The Cutie: Especially as a child.
• Dead Guy Junior: Named after Goku's adopted grandfather.
• Demoted to Extra: In GT.
• Determinator
• Dork Knight
• Deuteragonist: Though he's demoted to Tritagonist during the Buu Saga.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: "There is no way I'm gonna let my girlfriend kiss that old relic!" after several instances of denying anything more than friendship with Videl.
• Dogged Nice Guy
• Extreme Doormat: Has tendencies of this. When Videl blackmailed him and all the times he ran into Vegeta as a child. Especially one infamous moment when Vegeta lectured him by being brutally honest because of his fight with Dabura. In both situations, he just stood and did nothing instead of standing up for himself.
• Fail O Sucky Name: "The Great Saiyaman?" ...really, Gohan?
• Father I Dont Want To Fight: Until provoked by Cell that is...
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible Sibling to Goten's Foolish Sibling.
• Friend to All Living Things: Has his father's tendency to love and befriend animals.
• Genius Bruiser: One of the most powerful members of the cast, and also one of the smartest.
• Half-Human Hybrid: His father's a Saiyan, his mother's a human.
• Happily Ever After/High School Sweethearts: Meets his wife on his first day of high school.
• Harmful to Minors: This guy saw his dad die at four years of age, and was exposed to the horrors that come along fighting the Z-Fighters at five. This led to not following up on a combo Meteor Move against Nappa, and panicking behind a rock, with Piccolo later chewing him out because of it, nearly dismissing him *
  As Piccolo was born basically to avenge his father/himself and kill Gohan's dad, it kinda makes sense why he couldn't understand why Gohan ran away.
  , whilst Krillin was more sympathetic and understanding. He later grows out of his fear by the end of the Vegeta arc, battling alongside his senior warriors with guys like Frieza and Cell.
• Honor Before Reason: Will protect the innocent no matter what.
• Hot Dad: At the end of the series. We still wish Pan had followed Bra's example and destroyed those glasses...
• I Just Want to Be Normal: If he wanted to he'd be the most powerful being in the entire universe, but he'd much rather have a normal life... he does succeed for a little while, but then everything goes to hell again.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: Like his father, he turns into a great ape whenever he looks at the full moon while he has his tail, which was once used to the heroes' advantage as a last resort in the battle against Vegeta.
• I Thought Everyone Could Do That: Having grown up with literally everyone in his life having superhuman powers, he doesn't realize that normal people cannot effortlessly jump 30 feet into the air.
  • He doesn't realize that since common crooks are far less dangerous than Freeza and Cell, Videl can take care of herself in fights with them. Then again, he's right to be worried about her, since she often make mistakes dealing with terrain hazards (cliffs, falling objects) that could easily prove fatal without his help.
• Kamehame Hadoken
• Large Ham: THE GREAT SAIYAAAMAAAN!
• Licked by the Dog: Leading us to...
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: Videl is the strongest woman on the planet, just as Chi-Chi was at her age. The Funimation dub even had Gohan explicitly say that he's never met someone so headstrong and obstinate, "except for my mother." They didn't bother hiding this one.
• Lunacy: The Oozaru transformation.
• Megane: As an adult.
• Martial Pacifist: Has the potential to be the strongest person in the universe; hates watching people get hurt.
• The Messiah: Like father, like son.
• Messianic Archetype: In the original Japanese version of the chapter where he achieves Super Saiyan 2 and saves the world from Cell's genocidal killing-spree ("Son Gohan Erupts!!"), the subtitle blurb of the chapter cover is "Savior, Thy Name is Son Gohan!!" This of course, is butchered-and-mangled into "A great fighter, his name is Gohan" in the English version to avoid offending the religious.
• Minored In Ass Kicking
• Momma's Boy: To Chi-Chi.
• Morality Pet: To Piccolo.
• Mr. Fanservice: Grown up Gohan.
• My Death Is Only The Beginning: Future Gohan to the Androids: "There is no end for me! NO END!"
• Nerds Are Sexy: Even when wearing orange pants and heavy glasses!
• Nice Guy: One of the most unambiguously kind characters in the whole franchise.
• Not With Them For The Money: For Videl.
• The Obi-Wan: To Trunks in the Bad Future.
• Oblivious to Love: Endearingly and completely clueless about Videl's affections towards him until it's spelled out in black and white. Once that happens, he tries to deny his own feelings toward her for a while, but it doesn't last long at all.
  • He can't tell that Erasa has a crush on him either, when she's clearly hitting on him while doubling as Ms. Exposition.
• Only Sane Man: Most of the time.
• Out of Focus: After being one of the primary protagonists during the entirety of Dragon Ball Z, his role in GT is little more than a cameo at times.
• Power Strain Blackout: When Gohan first goes Super Saiyan 2, he triggers it for only a second then passes out. This was seen in one of Goku's flashbacks of their training in the time chamber and was the moment that convinced him that Gohan could beat Cell if he could sustain that power.
• Psychotic Smirk: Oh dear god yes.◊
• Punny Name: Saiyaman! (Remember that hito/jin means "person".)
• Purple Is Powerful: Subverted in the actual Big Bad fights in the Frieza and Buu arcs.
• Revenge Before Reason: Super Saiyan 2 Gohan refused to just kill Cell already because he felt Cell hadn't suffered enough..
• Secret Identity: The Great Saiyaman.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Denied anything going on between him and Videl. At first...
• Signature Move: Masenko and Kamehameha (Specifically Father-Son Kamehameha)
• Specs of Awesome: In GT.
• Spiky Hair: His hair as a teenager is spiked up by default.
• Superpowered Evil Side: His transformation into a cold-blooded and sadistic Super Saiyan 2 is chilling, to say the least.
• Tagalong Kid: Until the Cell Saga.
• Talking to Himself: See Goku's entry.
• Tall, Dark and Handsome: Of the Adorkable/Nerds Are Sexy kind in the Buu arc. He's even taller than Goku.
• Tender Tears: It is quite tragic that one so powerful is born with a heart this kind.
• The Worf Effect: Gets one-shotted by Fat Buu, demonstrating that despite his childish appearance, Buu is insanely powerful. In fact, the blow was so strong, it knocked him out, sent him flying miles away, and reduced his ki to below sensory threshold, causing everybody but Supreme Kai to think he was dead.
• Time to Unlock More True Potential: In fact, he's got so much innate potential that he is told by Guru that he is capable of unlocking only a small portion of it, the rest of which is later manifested as Super Saiyan 2 and fully unleashed by Old Kai.
• Took Over Nine Thousand Levels In Badass: Throughout all of Z but mainly achieving Super Saiyan 2.
• Training from Hell: The poor kid suffered this under Piccolo, and when he finally escaped it he suffered this under Chi-Chi. Totally worth it, mind.
• Tareme Eyes/Tsurime Eyes: Look at the picture.
• Understatement: In GT, when Chi-Chi freaks out about Goku acting like an idiot.
  Gohan: She finally cracked.
• Unskilled, but Strong: According to Raditz's scouter, his power level as an emotional four-year-old dwarfs that of trained adults Goku and Piccolo. Unlike the other characters, Gohan is very rarely training to become stronger, per se. Gohan's training is usually about accessing the huge amounts of latent power he already has. As a result, he's rarely shown utilizing different techniques or strategies, he tends to either get tossed around like a rag doll or overwhelm his opponents with sheer brute force.
  • To put into perspective just how powerful he is, at the age of six he was several thousand times stronger than his father was in young adulthood.
• Unstoppable Rage: What Gohan's "hidden powers" usually manifest as.
• Use Your Head: Used effectively against his uncle Raditz.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: The Serious Child to Goku's Wacky Parent. Although he has his "dork" moments, he is usually portrayed as more serious and sane.
• Well Done Son Guy: Not so much towards Goku, who he loves anyway, but towards his second-father Piccolo. Thankfully, the love is fully returned from the Demon King.
• What Could Have Been: He apparently was slated to become the protagonist after the Cell Saga.
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: A rare non-villainous example. Gohan has been known to not use his full power to end a contest quickly, largely because he lacks his father's tactical skill and Vegeta's killer instinct. This bites him in the ass on more than one occasion, particularly during the Cell Saga.
  • Though the Cell Example is more an example of Superpowered Evil Side. The worst example of this would probably be when he failed to finished off Buu while he had the chance.
• You Leave Him Alone: Invoked for the first time to stop Raditz from beating Goku to death, and with spectacular regularity later on.

Vegeta (ベジータ; Bejiita)

The royal prince of all Saiyans and, along with Goku, one of the few surviving members of his race. Started out as a villain who came to Earth to use the Dragon Balls for his own ends. But after that battle and his repeated run-ins with the heroes, he slowly but surely starts to come over to the heroes' side... somewhat.

• Absurdly Youthful Father
• Action Dad
• Always Second Best: Throughout the series, he hates that Goku is stronger.
• Antagonist In Mourning: As far as he's concerned, the entire Android-Cell saga is an inconvenience they have to deal with before he can settle the score with Kakarott. The prospect of this never happening puts him in I Will Fight No More Forever territory.
• Anti-Hero
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: The king of this trope. Often leads to epic Break the Haughty moments, even after becoming a good guy.
• Authority Equals Ass Kicking: There's a really good reason why he and his father were treated like royalty by the one of the most savage and brutal races in the universe. Just ask Nappa... in the afterlife (see below).
• Awesomeness by Analysis: How he learned the Z fighters' signature ability to sense other people's energy.
• Ax Crazy: In the earlier seasons.
• Badass: Continued to be so despite experiencing some Badass Decay.
  • Badass Decay: And he's completely aware of it.
  • Badass Arm Fold: Almost as iconic as his psychotic smirk.
  • Badass Boast: Quite a few.
• Bad Boss
  (to Nappa) "A paralyzed Saiyan has no further need to live. Die!!"
• Bad Guys Do The Dirty Work: On Namek.
• Berserk Button: Despite his attempts to be a Well Done Son Guy father, threatening or hurting his children and wife can easily send him into an Unstoppable Rage.
• The Berserker
• Big Bad: Of the Saiyan Saga. Though, it could be argued that as he was still under Frieza, and fans argue that the Saiyans' arrival was part of the Frieza Saga, he was more of a Dragon with an Agenda.
• Big "Shut Up!": He does this a lot.
• Blood Knight: Takes this Saiyan trait to extremes to the point he allows Cell to become Perfect Cell in hopes of getting a greater battle from Cell. And boy, did he ever. Of course, being Vegeta, he didn't expect to be handily beaten while Cell was holding back most of his power the entire time.
• Blood Upgrade: When he realizes the "bottom-tier / low-level / etc" has drawn his blood in their first fight, he goes absolutely nuts and tries to blow up the entire planet.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the English dub to the audience. "What are you looking at?"
• Break the Haughty: His story is jam packed full of this trope. After he makes a very long speech about how there is no way he can lose, he promptly gets his ass handed to him on a platter. Then he screams in rage about his pride and unleashes everything he's got, but it barely dents the monster. Then comes the dramatic crying. This happens at least once per season, if not more.
• Bullying a Dragon: When Vegeta is at the tournament waiting for his match, a guy walks up to him and constantly berates him. Vegeta then knocks the guy out by punching him lightly in the face.
• Butt Monkey: In GT. He gets down by his own daughter for his mustache, and even if he shaved it off, neither Goten nor Chi-Chi seem to notice that change.
• Byronic Hero
• Changed My Mind, Kid: During Gohan's Beam-O-War against Cell, Vegeta wouldn't help the Z Fighters in trying to aid Gohan because he didn't think they could do anything. Then at the last minute, Vegeta shoots a powerful beam strong enough to distract Cell, which allows Gohan to win the battle.
• Character Development: Goes from being a massive arrogant Jerk Ass of villain at the start of Z to an honorable warrior and close friend at the very end. He's still kind of a prick though.
  • Accepting that Goku is better than him at the end of Z is without a doubt the biggest step in that direction.
• Child Soldier
• Combat Pragmatist: Knowing that the Ginyu Force were as dangerous as they were silly, Vegeta kills Guldo, Burter and Recoome after the former had his back turned and the latter two were defeated and knocked unconscious by Goku.
  • Also, in an Earlier battle with Zarbon, he proved he wasn't above throwing dirt in his eye, then attacking from behind.
• Cry Cute: A rare male example of this trope, tearfully begging Son Goku to avenge the cold-blooded murder of their people as he dies of a punctured heart.
  • Also during movie 12, Fusion Reborn. He's frustrated with Goku always being stronger and with the fact that he's dead and in Hell, therefore he doesn't have his body except for the duration of the movie.
• Deadpan Snarker: Mostly when he's trash-talking his opponents.
• Demoted to Extra: Mostly in GT.
• Determinator: (Seeing a trend yet?) One of his most consistent character traits, from the Saiyan Saga to his fight with Kid Buu. No matter how much punishment he takes, he just keeps getting up. His refusal to stay down unnerves Buu more than SSJ3 Goku.
• Doting Parent: To his daughter Bra, and Trunks to a lesser extent.
• Even Vegeta Has Standards: For a jerk, Vegeta is disgusted with Goku when he fails to save his children from the exploding Earth. He is also upset with himself after letting Trunks get severely injured by Cell.
• Extreme Doormat: To his daughter, Bra in GT to a lesser extent.
• The Fighting Narcissist
• Final First Hug: When he hugged his son Trunks for the first time expecting it to also be the last time.
• Forehead of Doom: Could be said to be a general trait of Toriyama's art style, but Vegeta's is especially egregious, to the point of being a meme in Japan.
• Four is Death: The number of Saiyans still alive, according to Raditz.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: In the early Frieza Saga and the Cell Saga, to everyone but Goku and Bulma - even Trunks spent about as much time berating him as he did seeking his approval.
• Freudian Excuse: The dub adds in that one of the reasons he served Frieza was essentially by blackmail, as Frieza demanded that he submit to Frieza or else daddy will die by his hand. Of course, Frieza ended up killing daddy anyways, along with most of his race. This is implied somewhat in the original, but with nowhere near the level of importance the dub suggests to Vegeta's motives.
• Genius Bruiser: When he swallows his pride and uses his head, he becomes this.
• Genre Savvy: To the point of killing people Goku defeats because he knows Goku won't (see: Ginyu Force).
  • Genre Blindness: Why yes, Vegeta, fly right at Ginyu over and over. What could possibly go wrong?
• The Glasses Come Off: Though it was not really glasses but a monocle-like scouter. Doing this, however, showed the audience exactly how dangerous he really was.
  • And he only became even more dangerous when he stopped needing it at all.
• Gratuitous English: In the Japanese version, he is the only major character to have English signature moves, namely the Big Bang Attack and Final Flash. Everyone else has Japanese-named techniques. According to Toriyama, this was done to make the alien Vegeta more exotic, or as he said in an interview, "to portray his foreign personality".
• Growing Muscles Sequence: Got a couple. The first time he ate a senzu and the first time he attempted to go beyond Super Saiyan against Cell. He didn't go USS so it wasn't as dramatic as Future Trunks'.
• Grumpy Bear
• Hair-Trigger Temper
• Happily Married: At first, he didn't care about Bulma or his son after he was born. But after seeing Future Trunks die at the hands of Cell, he tries to show concern for his family. Post-Boo incident, he finally settles down with Bulma for real, and a daughter to boot.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: To sum up his alignment changes in DBZ: he's bad, he's good (sort of), he's bad again (for a cup of coffee), he's good (for real).
• Hereditary Hairstyle: Same hair as his dad King Vegeta.
• Honor Before Reason: Much like Goku, though with a distinctly Saiyan-centric cultural influence to it.
• Hot Blooded: Even if it does lead to a lot of trouble for the Z-fighters he still looks cool talking about the hurt he's going to deliver.
• Hot Dad: He was the first anime crush of many an adolescent girl... and some guys too.
• How Much More Can He Take: While he may not win most of his fights, Vegeta is notably the biggest tank in the series. It takes something special to kill Vegeta, like a punctured HEART or the man himself. This is one of two guys who got up and kept fighting pretty well after being hit with a Spirit Bomb.
• Human Aliens
• Humiliation Conga: Happens at least Once a Season.
• I Am X, Son of Y: A variation: "I am Vegeta, Prince of the Saiyan warrior race!"
• Idiot Ball: Drops a fairly big one during the Frieza saga; When Krillin goes to Guru's to gain the password needed to activate the Namekian Dragon Balls, Vegeta decides to take a nap, not only disregarding the fact that Frieza could return at any moment, but also trusting Gohan to come and wake him up when Krillin returns.
  • Considering he hadn't slept for days, he'd have been in worse shape if he didn't take a nap.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: One could argue this was why he was so hell bent on being stronger than Goku.
• Insistent Terminology: Makes a point of always calling Goku by his Saiyan name Kakarot, because he believes that Goku should take pride in his Saiyan heritage. The times he's ever spoken the name "Goku" can be counted on one hand.
• Inter Species Romance: With Bulma.
• Jerkass —> Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ends up becoming the latter in the last saga.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Although he 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.
• Kamehame Hadoken: His Galick Gun and Final Flash.
• Kick the Dog: His speech to Kid Gohan in the Frieza Saga about Goku's supposed death on Namek.
  • Also in the episode "Vegeta's Pride" when he killed a majority of civilians to provoke Goku into fighting him. (which may overlap with Moral Event Horizon.)
• Lame Comeback: In Funimation's dub, to Android 18. "Sad for you!"
• The Lancer: After the Frieza arc, acting as a foil to the other Z fighters.
• Large Ham: His ham level is OVER 9000!!!
• Leitmotif: Appropriately named "Hell's Bells".
• Lethally Stupid: Vegeta's Saiyan pride always tends to bring him and others into trouble. Especially when he let Cell absorb Android 18.
  • The Load: Vegeta normally zig-zags this trope. He causes way more problems than he solves. He does manage to do some useful things, but not things that couldn't have been done by anyone else (i.e. Nail could've killed Frieza's henchmen, Goku was more than strong enough to take the entire Ginyu Force, either Future Trunks or Piccolo could've killed Android 19, Future Trunks could've beaten Semi-Perfect Cell, either the Supreme Kai, Gohan, or Goku could've killed Pui Pui, et cetera).
    • In fact, he's literally responsible for every single arc in the series. The Saiyan Saga is obvious. The Frieza Saga only happens because he let Frieza know what the Dragon Balls were. The Cell Saga wouldn't have happened if he didn't stop Trunks from finishing Cell off and actively help Cell absorb 18. The Buu Saga would never have happened if Vegeta didn't sell his soul to Satan (or, to be more precise, Satan's puppet master), which kept Goku from just killing Babidi and Dabura and released enough energy to free Majin Buu.
• Lunacy: The Oozaru transformation.
• Manipulative Bastard: He's actually quite cunning when he's not letting his arrogance or rage get out of control. Particularly in the Namek Saga; he bordered on magnificence there.
  • Note that he went into that conflict knowing beforehand that he was hopelessly outclassed on several levels in terms of battle strength (in other words he came in with a humble perspective from the get-go), and his second most cunning moment (at the end of the Buu Saga) came just after he finally admitted to himself that Goku was the better warrior. In short, the cunning gets turned on when the arrogance gets turned off.
  • The Cell Saga, on the other hand, is pretty much a case study of Vegeta letting his arrogance get the best of him. It gets so bad it verges on Too Dumb to Live territory.
• Manly Tears: To Goku describing how Frieza used the Saiyans and killed them off despite their blind servitude. In the first dub this was included enslaving Vegeta via threat on his father... and doing it anyway.
• Mr. Fanservice: The reason female readership went up after his appearance. He was the first manga/anime crush of many a fangirl.
• Narcissist: Big time.
• The Napoleon: Short and perpetually filled with rage? You betcha!
• Nice Job Breaking It, Anti-Hero: See Lethally Stupid above.
• Nobody Calls Me Chicken
• Noble Demon: Became this by the end of the Frieza arc. Whilst he still wasn't a remotely nice person, he wasn't anywhere near as evil as he used to be.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Towards Kakarot of course.
  "Kakarot is MINE!!!"
• Papa Wolf: Shows this side of him going completely berserk when Super Perfect Cell kills Future Trunks.
• Perpetual Frowner
• Pet the Dog: Before he sacrifices himself to Buu, he gives a heart-to-heart speech to Trunks and then hugs him.
• Pornstache: In GT. Thankfully, Bra makes him shave it off.
• Pint Sized Powerhouse: He's not that short, but he was the smallest of the four Saiyans that originally came to Earth, and at that time he was by far the strongest. Out of the adult Z fighters, only Krillin and Chiaotzu are shorter than him.
• Pride: It's Vegeta and since this is a trope, it BELONGS HERE!
  "There's one thing a Saiyan always keeps..."
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Most Triumphant Example for manga and anime.
• Psychotic Smirk: One of the most iconic users of this trope in anime. If he's not scowling, he's doing this.
• Pure Is Not Good: He achieved Super Saiyan without having a pure good heart. He retcons this rule in the sub by explaining that having a heart of pure evil satisfied the requirement.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: Former Trope Namer
• Real Men Wear Pink: Literally, after he mellows into a family man later on.
• Redemption Demotion: He eventually caught onto this, which is why he allows Babidi to make him a Majin. He does manage to avoid the worst of this trope however, unlike most of the others who get hit with it in this series. Vegeta manages to remain in the top three among the heroes in terms of power and ability fairly consistently. He's even the number two behind Goku during the latter parts of the Frieza saga and the beginning of the Buu Saga.
  • Even in GT (where if your name isn't Goku or Pan, you're automatically doomed to get demoted to extra), he was close to Goku in his Super Saiyan 4 state.
• Redemption Equals Death: Against Majin Buu.
• Redemption in the Rain: He actually subverts it when he screams the rain clouds away.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: In his earlier episodes, he was the blue to Nappa's red.
• Reformed But Not Tamed: He's still cold and aloof, but he genuinely cares for his family.
• Retired Monster: At the end of the Frieza Saga, he's put his mass-murdering ways behind him to focus on surpassing Goku. He doesn't really pull a Heel Face Turn until the Buu Saga.
• The Rival: Goku's biggest one.
• Royal Blood
• Royal Brat
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Manly Man to Goku's Sensitive Guy.
• Shirtless Scene: Particularly when training for the coming androids.
• Signature Move: Galick Gun, Big Bang Attack, and Final Flash
• Sixth Ranger: To the Z-Fighters on Namek.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: To Frieza.
• Skewed Priorities: In the Buu Saga, he cared less about saving the world and more about getting powerful enough to beat Goku, which led him to allowing Babidi to turn him into Majin Vegeta, and led to Majin Buu getting released.
• Slasher Smile: When he's neither grumpy nor smug, but on a powertrip, he'll be wearing this. And he wears it well.
• Small Name, Big Ego: To the extreme.
• Smug Smiler
• Sociopathic Hero: Even after becoming one of the good guys, he never lost his penchant for using violence as an answer to his problems... and then laughing maniacally.
• Sphere of Destruction: His Finishing Move the Big Bang Attack.
• Spit Take: He does this in GT when Bulma tells him that the machine she made can help him turn into Super Saiyan 4.
• Supporting Leader: During the final fight against Kid Buu, and briefly against Majin Buu.
• Talking to Himself: In the FUNimation dub, Chris Sabat plays Vegeta, Piccolo, and Yamcha. While the latter doesn't have too much screen time, it doesn't change the fact that Sabat is talking to himself a majority of the time, especially through most of the Saiyan arrival scenes.
  • Notable that Sabat once said that he wanted to get Scott McNeil to be Piccolo in the dub of Kai, which would've largely averted this trope the second time around. Flying someone all the way over from Canada to Texas for a voice acting job is unfortunately not always feasible...
• Tame His Anger: He took the longest to do this out of the main characters, but by the end of the Buu Saga he had made his peace with Goku's superiority.
• Tears of Fear: When he realized he had no chance against Frieza. Pointed out by the narrator in the manga and King Kai in the anime.
• Tears of Remorse: As he self destructed in an attempt to kill Majin Buu.
• To Serve Man: In their first appearance, Vegeta and Nappa are shown successfully invading an alien planet and eating the remains of the planet's Humanoid Alien inhabitants.
• Token Evil Teammate: After his Heel Face Turn.
• Too Arrogant To Live: Vegeta has a habit of recklessly rushing into battle with opponents that he has little to no chance of defeating.
• Tritagonist: Shares this role with Piccolo in the Frieza and Cell sagas and is promoted to Deuteragonist in the Buu Saga.
• Troubled, but Cute: In-universe, this is his appeal to Bulma.
• Tsundere: A Type A rare male example.
• Tsurime Eyes
• The Unfettered: As "Majin" Vegeta.
• Unsympathetic Protagonist: Even after his Heel Face Turn, particularly in the Cell Saga, Vegeta was still a prick who some fans felt got off too easy for his bad deeds. Even Piccolo and Tien treat him like this.
• Villainous Breakdown: When Vegeta first fights Goku and finds himself struggling, his pride and vanity are pricked so hard that he completely forgets A) why he's on Earth in the first place and B)that he cannot breathe in space. He then tries to blow up the planet, and is narrowly prevented from doing so.
• Villain Protagonist: During the Frieza Saga.
• Villainous Rescue: On Namek when he saves Krillin and Gohan from Guldo, and then saving Gohan again from Frieza.
• Villainous Widow's Peak
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Has full control of his Great Ape form and has a technique specifically to artificially create full moonlight in order to transform when there is no natural moonlight.
• Warrior Prince: The ultimate anime example.
• Well Done Son Guy: Well, he seems to try to be a standoffish father to (main timeline) Trunks, but his son never takes him seriously. Played straight with Future Trunks whom he was actually very jealous of for having become a Super Saiyan before him.
  • He does take pride in Trunks' accomplishments (witness his uncharacteristic glee when Trunks beats Goten in the Budokai), and then there's this line regarding Future Trunks:
    It's still hard for me to believe that he's a Super Saiyan at his age... but then again, he is my son!''
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After first losing his tail Vegeta points out that it doesn't matter since it'll grow back again soon. Then it's never mentioned again.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: It doesn't come up very often, but he dislikes "squirmy things". Watch his reaction to meeting a family of giant worms inside Buu's body. "Kakarot, I think I'm going to puke."
• Worf Effect: Serves this role from the Frieza Saga forward. Though to be fair, he had a major role in defeating Cell, Kid Buu, and later on Omega Shenron. He just wasn't strong enough to fight them one on one.
• Worthy Opponent: How he sees Goku by the end of the series.
• Would Hit a Girl: Vegeta didn't hold back in his fight with Android 18. He got utterly crushed.
• Would Hurt a Child: He didn't mind beating Gohan and kneeing him in the stomach in the Frieza Saga.

Trunks (トランクス; Torankusu)

Son of Vegeta and Bulma. There are actually two versions of him in the story.

Both Versions

• Bishōnen: The most stand out example of the cast.
• Half-Human Hybrid
• Heroic Bastard: At least, Bulma and Vegeta aren't husband and wife when Trunks is born. They are (in the normal timeline) by the time the Majin Buu Saga rolls around. In Future Trunks's world, they never get that chance.
• Human Mom Non Human Dad: His father's a Saiyan, his mother's a human.
• Kamehame Hadoken
• Meaningful Name/Theme Naming/Unfortunate Name: Named after undergarments like all of Bulma's family.
• Only Sane Man: Future Trunks in the Android Saga as he was the one most concerned with destroying the villains as quickly as possible. Then main timeline Trunks takes this to Butt Monkey proportions in the first arc of GT.
• Purple Is Powerful
• Tsurime Eyes

Future Timeline
When Trunks is first introduced, he is a traveler from an alternate future where Androids have destroyed much of the world. He comes to the main timeline to warn Goku and his friends of their fate and then sticks around to make sure none of it comes to pass.

• Adaptational Badass: When he first shows up. In the manga, he's only about as strong as Goku was on Namek when he fought Frieza. In the anime, he defeats two guys who are stronger than Goku was on Namek. In a Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • To clarify: in the manga, Frieza was always inferior to Super Saiyan Goku despite putting up a decent fight, and King Cold was weaker than Frieza. Mecha Frieza was stronger than normal Frieza, but not quite as strong as Goku. When Trunks showed up, he pretty much instantly ended Frieza when he was distracted rather than let him power-up, so Frieza never really got the chance to put up a fight. In the anime, Frieza was equal with Super Saiyan Goku on Namek, fighting him to a stalemate until his stamina started dropping... and Mecha Frieza was supposedly even stronger than that, but without the stamina issues. King Cold is also made out to be even stronger than Mecha Frieza. Unlike in the manga, Trunks actually lets Frieza power up... and despite Mecha Frieza being even stronger than Goku was on Namek, Trunks completely humiliates him with no effort and kills his stronger father soon after.
• The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People/Misery Builds Character: Growing up After the End (and without Vegeta's influence) made this Trunks responsible, polite and selfless.
• Badass: Remember Frieza? The guy who took a really long time to defeat back on Namek? Trunks introduces himself by instantly killing him.
  • Badass Arm Fold: An overconfident Trunks displays this when fighting Perfect Cell.
  • Future Badass: Probably the Most Triumphant Example in manga and anime.
• Bad Future: Where he came from.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Like his mentor, Gohan, he's shy, polite, kind, and values the sanctity of life. Also like his mentor, if you violate that sanctity in front of him, he will do his damndest to end you. And, as other tropes attest, he's perfectly capable of ruthlessness.
• The Big Guy: His fights mostly showcase his raw strength. His fight with Perfect Cell, however, deconstructs this.
• Big "NO!": (In)famously in the English dub, as well as in Kai.
• Breakout Character: His importance in video games is something to be amazed with. That's where his attacks got named in the first place. In Final Bout he's treated as a separate character even tough there's other two grown-up Trunks in the game already. In Shin Budokai and Heroes, Trunks is The Protagonist and a Supporting Protagonist respectively. Also the latest video games are fond of giving the Super Saiyan 3 transformation to other Saiyans besides Goku but they're just thrown in with no proper build up. Trunks' transformation, however, is an important plot ticket in Heroes and got an animation just for it.
  • During the Cell Saga, in Japan's Character poll Trunks ranked higher than both Vegeta and Piccolo.
• Break the Cutie: Growing up After the End was one thing but particularly finding his Big Brother Mentor Gohan dead at age 13.
• Calling Your Attacks: Averted—he's actually pretty quiet during battle and his attacks only get named in the video games.
• Clipped Wing Angel: A rare heroic example when he goes Ultra Super Saiyan against Perfect Cell.
• Combat Pragmatist: Bless him, he tries to fight according to "common sense". He does have a sense of honor, but that's for friendly sparring matches or tournament bouts only; when it comes to saving innocent lives, he'll do whatever works. Unfortunately for him, he's in a Shōnen series.
  • That said, when he is stronger than his opponent, it does not last long. Future Trunks is not interested in a fair fight, holding back, or challenges. This is completely justified as a byproduct of the Bad Future he grew up in.
    • Seen clearly against Frieza. Instead of letting him power up to 100% like Goku did, he cut him in half the minute he was distracted. In the manga at least.
• Cool Sword: Apparently the one Tapion used, assuming Wrath of the Dragon is canon and that it's the same sword used by Main Timeline Trunks.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: First to Freeza and King Cold. Then gets to perform an ultra satisfying one on the Androids and later on Cell after returning to his own time.
• Did He Just Slice and Destroy Frieza?: The reaction he invoked in the cast when they witnessed him slice Mecha Frieza in half.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After growing up in an apocalyptic world, seeing your mentor and the closest thing to a big brother die, fleeing everyday from the killing machines responsible for all of the above, going back in time to a world where the heroes are still alive and to find a solution to make his timeline better, maybe earning the respect of the father he never knew, and confronting another horrible killing machine from the future (even dying briefly). With the Earth saved, he finally earns his father's respect, returns to the future to exact sweet revenge on the androids, and finally wait to defeat Cell, saving his world and allowing for the world to rebuild itself.
• Expy: Something of a Composite Character of Kyle Reese and John Connor from the Terminator series.
• Friend to All Living Things: Anime and Bojack Unbound movie only, where he's a hit with the squirrel population and pink alien rodents at least...
• Genius Bruiser: A variant. His fighting style is mostly brute force, but he's quite intelligent out of battle.
• Good Is Not Soft: While Trunks is normally polite, caring and greatly values life, he is also very practical minded and can be very ruthless when the situation calls for it. He rarely speaks or engages in boastful behavior during combat, and he always fights with his full strength, seeking not the defeat of his enemies, but their deaths. Notable examples of this aspect of his personality at work include attacking his father Vegeta with a powerful blast because Vegeta was trying to stop him from killing Cell before he became Perfect and, before accepting him as an ally, powering up in front of a damaged Android 16 in order to show him that he is the stronger one of the two and that, should Android 16 ever step out of line, Trunks will destroy him without hesitation.
• Growing Muscles Sequence: Gets a very dramatic one when he goes Super Saiyan 3rd Grade. Unfortunately, the extra mass slows him down.
• Heroic BSOD: When he fails to defeat Perfect Cell with the realization his Ultra Super Saiyan form is too slow, he gives up all hope and promptly tells Cell to kill him. Luckily, Cell was more interested in the Super Saiyans' sudden enormous strength to oblige.
• Hurting Hero
• Kid from the Future: Nearly blows his cover too, but luckily Bulma and Vegeta don't figure it out early.
• Last of His Kind: As far as we are shown (if the movies aren't canon), Future Trunks is the last being with Saiyan blood left in his timeline.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Again when his hair is longer.
• Mighty Glacier: In his Ultra Super Saiyan state. He's only "slow" when compared to the other characters, but that was enough for Cell to beat him handily.
• Mr. Fanservice: It's been theorized that a major reason people ship Vegeta/Bulma (which, when it was first written into the manga, would have been a Crack Pairing of epic proportions) is just to make sure he's born. Readership with women went up when he was introduced.
• Never The Selves Shall Meet: Averted. Trunks meets his present self, still an infant, who pulls his hair.
• Nice Guy: In contrast to his brash, egotistical, arrogant and violent counterpart raised by Vegeta, Trunks raised by Bulma alone turns out to be a well-mannered, gentle, intropsective, sensitive and kind sweetheart.
• Past Me Scares Me
• Put on a Bus: He returned to his alternate future timeline.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Upon returning home, Trunks proceeds to hunt down 17 and 18 and destroys them in a Curb-Stomp Battle that doubles as a Reason You Suck Speech. He then waits for Cell and also takes him out with haste finally securing peace for his timeline.
• Sacrificial Lion: He was this to show that not only was Cell BACK, he was Super Perfect and that anyone could bite it with Goku already being dead.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong
  • Failure Is the Only Option: He's well-aware that anything he does in the past will have no effect in his future, but merely create a better alternate timeline.
• Shout Out: A Future Badass comes back in time to save the present from cyborgs? Where have I heard that before? This version of Trunks and Bulma also visually resemble John and Sarah Connor as they appear in the second movie.
• Signature Move: Burning Attack
• Smug Smiler: Something that gets overshadowed by his overall character but Trunks, when he believes victory is assured, tends to drop some pretty epic smirks as seen when fighting Frieza and Cell in his future. Perhaps he’s not that different from his father after all. To the point that Vegeta has a dream of a Super Saiyan Trunks giving him one◊.
• Sphere of Destruction: His Heat Dome Attack makes one around him. Also his Burning Attack, which involves him flailing his arms around wildly first.
• Stepford Smiler: Trunks was definitely this at the beginning of the Android Saga when he met the Z Fighters with smiles after defeating Frieza and King Cold. They had no idea where he was from or the fact he's a Hurting Hero who arrived to prevent their deaths.
• Tell Me About My Father: Bulma's kindly-meant whitewashing of Vegeta's personality paid off with some unexpected dividends later on.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: To be fair, Frieza had come back from near death before and it was the only way to be sure.
• Took a Level in Badass: Wasn't badass enough at first to take on the androids of his timeline but then spent time training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
• Troubled, but Cute: Twenty years of fleeing for your life from two homicidal androids has left Future Trunks emotionally scarred and serious.
• Well Done Son Guy: Desperately wants approval from the father he never knew.
• Would Hit a Girl: Justified in his fights against Future Android 18.
• You Are Already Dead: Does this to Android 14 in the Super Android 13 movie with his sword and without saying a word.

Main Series Timeline
Afterward, the Trunks of the main timeline is revealed to be somewhat of a daredevil and thrill seeker (partially thanks to his father's influence), usually being the one to make the decisions between Goten and himself. He mellows out by the GT saga though and is a bit more rational—he has to be when he's the CEO of Capsule Corporation at only 23.

• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy
• Badass in a Nice Suit: He may be the President of Capsule Corp but he can still kick ass.
• Bash Brothers: With Goten.
• Bratty Half-Pint: What distinguishes him from Future Trunks, thanks to growing up in a time of peace (and having his father around).
• Dragged Into Drag/Disguised in Drag/Harmless Lady Disguise. Hilariously in GT as a bride.
• Demoted to Extra: Later on in GT.
• Fusion Dance: Into Gotenks and part of the Trope Namer.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Like father, like son.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With Goten.
• Morality Pet: The first half of Vegeta's reason to become a better person.
• Mr Fix It: In GT.
• Naughty Is Good: As a kid.
• Nobody Calls Me Chicken: Again, like father, like son.
• Pint-Sized Kid: As a kid.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: GT, but only when he dresses up to work at Capsule Corp/
• Scarf Of Ass Kicking: In GT.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The "manly" part (well, bratty at least) with Goten.
• The Smart Guy: In GT. Granted, his competition is Goku and Pan...
• Spoiled Sweet: Unlike Future Trunks, he grew up privileged. Still a decent guy, he just picks up more of Vegeta's arrogance.
• Straight Man: To Goku and Pan in GT.
• Team Mom: Is a male version of this in GT. He's just not enough of a disciplinarian to be a Team Dad.

Son Goten (孫 悟天)

The second son of Goku and Chi-Chi, born some time after the Cell Games. Has a very childlike naivety not unlike Goku when he was little; though also has Gohan's childhood crybaby tendencies. Between Trunks and himself, he's surprisingly the voice of reason, though he usually goes along with the former's ideas. By GT, he settles down to live more or less as a normal teenager, worrying more about girls than fighting.

• Adorkable: Well mannered, naive and so dorky he's the only person who finds Gohan's embarrassing superhero costume to be "cool."
• Adorably Precocious Child: As a kid.
• Always Save the Girl: In GT, always tries to save Valese.
• Badass Adorable: Considerate, kind, sensitive, warm-hearted, polite AND can kick the ass of evil.
• Bash Brothers: With Main Timeline Trunks.
• Big Brother Worship
• Big Eater: A family trait.
• Break the Cutie: He goes through this after watching Super Buu murder his mother by turning her into an egg and crusing it.
• Cheerful Child
• Chick Magnet: In GT, college-age Goten seems to be going out with girls all the time.
• Children Are Innocent: As a child.
• The Cutie
• Demoted to Extra: In GT.
• Dork Knight: As an adult.
• The Everyman: When he grows up.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Foolish Sibling to Gohan's Responsible Sibling.
• Fusion Dance: Into Gotenks and part of the Trope Namer.
• Friend to All Living Things: His love for animals is identical to that of his father's too.
• Generation Xerox
• Half-Human Hybrid: His father's a Saiyan, his mother's a human.
• Hereditary Hairstyle: Got it from Goku.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With main timeline Trunks.
• Kamehame Hadoken
• Keet
• Momma's Boy: Is this to Chi-Chi along with Gohan.
• Naughty Is Good: He is partners in mischief with Trunks, after all.
• Nice Guy
• Only Sane Man: Sometimes.
• Pintsized Powerhouse
• Ret Gone: Inverted. He doesn't exist in the original timeline (the timeline Future Trunks comes from), but the changes made by Future Trunks and Cell's timetraveling alter this.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive part, with Trunks.
• Shipper on Deck: For Gohan/Videl before they started dating. Goten asks her to be his big sister.
• Someone to Remember Him By: He was born nine months after the Cell Games and Goku's death.
• Strong Family Resemblance: When first introduced, he looked almost exactly like Goku did back at the start of Dragon Ball, without the tail and wearing longer sleeves. He later mentions he grew his hair specifically because he was sick of looking identical to his dad.
• Talking to Himself: See Goku's entry.
  • Also with Videl in the English dub, as both are voiced by Kara Edwards.
• Tareme Eyes/Tsurime Eyes: Like his father and brother.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Trunks isn't "toxic," per se, but Goten sometimes goes along with whatever mischief Trunks does.
• Unskilled, but Strong: As a kid. He was a Super Saiyan and yet couldn't even fly.

Gotenks (ゴテンクス; Gotenkusu)

When Goku returned from the afterlife with the knowledge of the Fusion Dance but no eligible partner to perform it with, Goten and Trunks were taught it, and their mothers came up with the combined name Gotenks. The result combines Goten's childishness with Trunks' brattiness to create one of the weirdest and goofiest fighters in the series, the kind who would come up with the Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack.

• Awesome, but Impractical: Pretty much all of the attacks he comes up with are flashy but ineffective. The Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack initially seems to be very powerful and effective, but when Buu later attempts to use it against Vegetto, he quickly demonstrates the attack's fatal flaw (the ghosts can be detonated from a safe distance with ki blasts) and subsequently mocks Buu for thinking an attack dreamed up by two kids could beat him.
• Bratty Half-Pint
• Boisterous Bruiser: He's more fight-loving and the biggest loudmouth in the series.
  • That "Loudmouth" was the thing that enabled him/them to create a dimension hole with his/their mouths.
• Break the Haughty: The time he was born (perfectly), he recklessly rushes into battle with Buu and gets utterly crushed. He doesn't learn from this experience, of course.
• Calling Your Attacks: He even gives names to somewhat stylized versions of otherwise normal punches and kicks, most of which are ridiculous ("Screaming Angry WOMBAT!!!").
• Composite Character: Literally. He combines features from Goten and Trunks... though he ends up looking kinda like a chibi Vegeta, because Trunks very obviously has mostly Vegeta's facial features, so once you add black hair...
• Cute Bruiser: If you can get past his "I'm the best" personality.
• Hair-Trigger Temper
• Half An Hour Of Power
• Idiot Hero: Combining the arrogance of Trunks and the naivety of Son Goten results in a naive and arrogant showoff-blowhard who is too busy "looking good" to save the world.
• Large Ham
• Let's Get Dangerous: Once he stops messing around, he pummels the living daylights out of Buu.
• The Minion Master: With the Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack, which summons dozens of not-too-bright ghost copies of himself that explode on impact.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: His Signature Move the Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack, which are ghosts he spits out o his mouth that look like him and explode if they touch anything.
• Multicolored Hair: Trunks' purple hair on the sides, Goten's dark hair up the middle.
• Naked People Are Funny: In the episode "The Celebrations of Buu."
• Naughty Is Good
• The Napoleon: Powerful and the shortest main character (save for Goten and Trunks obviously) at the end of Z.
• Pint Sized Powerhouse: As the fusion of Kid Goten and Kid Trunks, he's one of the strongest beings in the universe and one of the shortest.
• Portmanteau Name: In Japanese his name is the first two syllables of Goten, the last two syllables of Trunks, and an "n" dividing the two halves.
• Signature Attack: Super Ghost Kamekaze Attack
• Skunk Stripe
• Smug Super
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Son Goten was not an egotist; all that arrogant and overconfident traits therefore all comes from Trunks.
• Voice of the Legion: Non-creepy example, he talks with both Goten and Trunk's voices simultaneously. This also applies to Gogeta and Veggito.

Gogeta (ゴジータ; Gojīta)

The combined form of Goku and Vegeta using the Fusion Dance. He debuted in movie 12, Fusion Reborn, as a last ditch effort to defeat Janemba, and it worked. He shows up again in GT as a rather goofy Super Saiyan 4 to fight against Omega Shenron.

• Awesome, but Impractical: At Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta's time limit is extremely short.
• Badass: There's a very good reason this guy's limited by time constraints; the fusion of Goku and Vegeta makes him the single strongest fighter in the series, capable of taking down a demon made of pure evil in seconds in his first appearance. Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta takes this even further, as his power exceeds that of Omega Shenron. His goofiness is the only thing preventing him from ending the fight in five seconds.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Deals these out like a champ.
• Half An Hour Of Power: Except as a Super Saiyan 4, he only has ten minutes due to the massive power of the form.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's so fast he can hit an opponent multiple times before moving his arms.
• Portmanteau Name: Like Vegito, only this time it's the first syllable of Goku and the last two syllables of Vegeta.
• Redheaded Hero: As a Super Saiyan 4.
• Showy Invincible Hero: As a Super Saiyan 4, he's more like Vegito.
  • Arguably, he's more like Gotenks. Vegito played around with Buu, but Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta was just plain silly.
• Signature Attack L Stardust Breaker and Big Bang Kamehameha
• Sphere of Destruction: His Stardust Breaker / Soul Punisher, a rainbow-colored ki sphere that completely obliterates Janemba from the inside out.
• The Stoic: His initial appearance has him as one.
• Story Breaker Power: He and/or Vegito are by far the most powerful character in the history of Dragon Ball.
• Voice of the Legion
• Weaksauce Weakness: Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta is effectively omnipotent as a fighter... so long as he can beat opponents in a handful of minutes.

Vegetto (ベジット; Bejitto)

The combined form of Goku and Vegeta, using the Potara Earrings. A long-awaited combination and the most powerful character in the manga Z series. And then he got turned into a coffee candy. And he still kicks ass. Hilarity Ensues.

• Badass: The fusion of two Badasses could only result in this. He effortlessly kicks Super Buu around before letting himself get turned into candy to free his comrades.
  • Adaptational Badass: And the effortlessly part, in the manga, he immediately goes to Super Saiyan, the anime has him effortlessly overpowering him and only turned Super Saiyan for the heck of it
  • Badass Boast: After Super Buu turns him into a candy.
    Vegetto: "I'm no ordinary candy — I'm a jawbreaker! The strongest piece of candy there is!" (He's turned into a coffee candy in the original Japanese.)
• Barrier Warrior: He made a ki barrier around to protect himself from being properly absorbed by Buu.
• Baleful Polymorph: But he didn't let that stop him. See The Amazing Fighting Candy!
• BFS/Laser Sword: His Spirit Sword/Ki no Tsurugi attack.
• Captain Ersatz: Of Gogeta. As Akira Toriyama mentions in an interview, he wanted Goku and Vegeta to fuse, but didn't want to step on the toes of Fusion Reborn, which was already in-development at the time. He took the earrings that Kaiōshin had been wearing all along, changed the way the fusion worked (permanent vs. temporary; melded-outfit vs. fancy vest; composite vs. original attacks), and Vegetto was born. Toriyama did later sketch Gogeta for the movie DVD box set in Japan, though.
• Composite Character: About halfway between Goku and Vegeta in height, frame, and hairdo. By some strange coincidence, the result looks like Gohan did during the same saga. He also has composite attacks. For example, the "Final Kamehameha".
• No Sell: Baring Buu's absorbing technique, EVERYTHING. And he didn't plan on getting absorbed to free the others he probably would have dealt with it.
• Portmanteau Name: In its Japanese spelling, it combines the first two syllables of Vegeta and the last two syllables of Kakarotto.
• Showy Invincible Hero: And he's well aware of it!
  Vegetto: "No, really! That was an awesome attack! I could have been killed."
  *beat*
  Vegetto: "Well, maybe I am exaggerating a little bit. I could have at least gotten a bruise or maybe a small scratch..."
  • It quickly becomes very clear that Buu has no chance of killing him, even though Veggetto isn't fighting at full strength, and yet the fight is still oh so entertaining to watch.
• Signature Attack: Final Kamehameha and Beam Sword Slash
• Spell My Name with an S: "Vegetto" (Bandai's spelling) or "Vegito" (Funimation's spelling)? Neither one makes sense in most English adaptations, since his name is a portmanteau of Vegeta's name with Goku's Saiyan name, which is commonly romanized as "Kakarot" instead of the literal "Kakarotto". Viz attempted to reconcile this by changing his name to Vegerot in the English manga, but then they changed it back to Vegetto in the Viz Big reprint (although, one has to wonder why they didn't went with the more obvious "Vegetot").
• Story Breaker Power: He is the strongest character to ever show up (not including GT). Old Kai states that Potara Fusion is stronger than Fusion Dance (Gogeta) and even if it wasn't, there's half hour time limit so he could outlast anyone.
• Too Powerful to Live: If this guy stayed around, the plot would have basically ended in five minutes. And you would've written off the main character and his main foil at the same time...
• Voice of the Legion: Except in the Ocean dub, where he is voiced by Brian Drummond (Using a higher-pitched version of his Vegeta voice).
• You Fight Like A Cow: Most well known for this. He combines Goku's sense of humour with Vegeta's arrogance and wit, to both beat and mock the living daylights out of Super Buu.
  • Batman Gambit: Of course, this is all part of his plan: getting Buu pissed off and desperate enough to absorb him, so he can free everyone absorbed by Buu.

Pan (パン)

The daughter of Gohan and Videl, introduced at the tail end of the original series though given more of a fleshed out character in the anime-only GT series. Very much a tomboy and thrill-seeker, willing to prove she's just as tough as her grandfather when given the chance. But not without a soft side either.

• Adorkable: As a four year old she was seen as cute and bubbly and full of energy. This rarely appears in GT though.
• Affirmative Action Girl
• Badass Adorable: At this point, it's pretty much safe to say that this trope must run in the Son bloodline.
• Bare Your Midriff: In GT.
• Berserk Button: Never make fun of her eyebrows.
• Boyish Short Hair
• Bratty Half-Pint: In GT.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Despite being something of a tomboy.
• The Chick: In GT.
• Cool Old Lady: At the end of GT.
• Cute Bruiser
• Dressing as the Enemy: In GT.
• Fingerless Gloves: Her clothing style.
• Genki Girl
• Hair-Trigger Temper
• Heir to the Dojo: Of Satan-style. She winds up running the dojo as a teenager.
• Kamehame Hadoken
• Kawaiiko: Only something of a tomboy.
• Last Episode New Character
• Little Miss Badass
• Little Miss Snarker: In the GT series.
• Mouthy Kid
• Nice Hat: As an old lady at the end of GT.
• No Guy Wants An Amazon: Much to her chagrin.
• Outdated Outfit: Her clothes in GT are extremely 90s.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: She already possesed tremendous strength and the ability to fly by the time she was four years old.
• Ret Gone: Inverted, see Goten's entry.
• Shorttank
• Talking To Herself: Shares the voice actress of her mother, Yuko Minaguchi. Both roles are Playing Against Type, since Mrs. Minaguchi more than often voices soft-spoken girls like Hotaru, Princess Hinoto and Nadeshiko Amamiya-Kinomoto.
• Theme Naming: Pan-chan is Akira Toriyama's Crowning Moment of Awesome in theme names. The obvious facet is that "pan" is a Portuguese loan word for "bread," punning off her dad's name, which means rice (and if you want, you can stretch the pun: Chi-Chi can mean "milk" or "breast milk."). Pan is also a satyr in Greek mythology whose imagery was borrowed for the Christian devil. Her mother's name is an anagram of "devil," and her maternal grandfather is Mr. Satan! Pan could also be a reference to the Pan Pipes in honor of Piccolo.
  • It gets even better: In Greek, "pan" is a prefix meaning "all." So Pan is, in fact, named after all of these characters.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Bra's girly girl.
• Tomboy With A Girly Streak