The Son family
- Badass Family: Aside from Goku, Gohan and Goten, we also have Bardock and Raditz, Gine goes through some Character Development, and Chi-Chi resumes fighting.
Son Goku
- Adaptational Nice Guy: While Goku is a Nice Guy on principle, he has a bad case of seeking challenges due to the Blood Knight nature of the Saiyans. Here, he's more capable of controlling his Blood Knight nature. He also is more open with and closer to his family and friends, which is seen when he decides to be revived after the Cell Saga despite Bulma and King Kai's beliefs that Goku is a Doom Magnet.
- Amazon Chaser: He really likes the fact Chi-Chi resumed her training.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In canon, at the end of the Cell Saga, the Z-Fighters think about getting Porunga to revive Goku, only for Goku to reject that idea. Here, because of Goku's belief that him being a Doom Magnet is rendered moot as long as his friends are by his side, the heroes go through their idea, and Goku is revived by Porunga.
Son Gohan
- Adaptational Badass: He steps in to fight Cell of his own accord upon seeing Cell brutalizing Goku. He’s also noted to be excellent at learning new techniques, even for a Saiyan. A notable example is being able to use the Special Beam Cannon during the Namek Saga, something he canonically wouldn’t do until Super Hero.
- Heinz Hybrid: As it turns out, his mother is half-demon, making Gohan 50% Saiyan, 25% human and 25% demon.
Bardock
- Anti-Hero: While Bardock is one of the good guys, he also is more pragmatic than the rest of the cast.
- Combat Pragmatist: He's prove to sucker-punching a villain while said villain is gloating.
- Pragmatic Hero: Shown when he convinces Goku, Raditz and Vegeta to get the fight to King Cold rather than wait him to do anything, as the first thing Cold would do was blow up Earth.
Gine
- Adaptational Badass: While she doesn't like fighting, she still fights when her loved ones are in danger. She's a Super Saiyan like her husband and youngest son, she killed Garlic Jr. and she did the distraction that allowed Gohan to defeat Cell that was canonically done by Vegeta.
- Higher Education Is for Women: She wants to get a degree so she can become a teacher. By contrast, Bardock is content with being a farmer.
Raditz
- Adaptational Heroism: Thanks to the brief family reunion in Hell, which led to Goku asking King Kai to get his family to help him train and then asking Master Roshi to revive his family alongside him, Raditz develops into a nicer person.
- Official Couple: Married to Launch.
- Shout-Out: Raditz's Adaptational Heroism is a nod to MasakoX's What If Raditz Turned Good?.
Chi-Chi
- Adaptational Badass: She resumes training after some pushing for Gine
- Adaptational Nice Girl: Chi-Chi is far more understanding than her canon self.
- Adaptational Species Change: Canonically, Chi-Chi is a bona fide human. Here, she's half-demon due to her mother being a cow demon.
- Almighty Mom: Heck, given that she's far stronger than in canon, Chi-Chi has an easier time telling other people off.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The fact she files down her horns and the loathing she associates with them is an obvious metaphor for self-harm. It can't be made more obvious than Goku seeing the filing as self-harm, as he pleads to her to stop hurting herself.
Launch
Ranch
Son Goten
Son Chika
- Dead Guy Junior: She's named after her maternal grandmother.
- Little Bit Beastly: Aside from the traits she gets as a half-Saiyan, Chika also has cow horns as a manifest of her demonic heritage. It's notable because neither Gohan nor Goten share this trait with her.
Spoiler character
Turles
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Unlike in canon, Turles wasn't always evil.
- Affably Evil: Despite the fact he is, in Bardock's words, "unhinged" and wants to Take Over the World, Turles never stopped loving his brother.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Unlike in canon, Turles lacks one arm.
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Because Turles is nicer than most Saiyans, has a low power level, and is missing an arm, Bardock took the credit (albeit unwillingly) for the Power Ball technique because the Saiyans wouldn't use it if they knew Turles is the one who invented that technique.
- Related in the Adaptation: It is unknown if Goku and Turles are canonically related; while they do look identical, there's no other evidence. Here, Turles is Bardock's brother, making him Goku's uncle.
The Briefs-Royal Saiyan family
Vegeta IV
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Vegeta is far more caring towards his family and has more respect towards the Z-Fighters than in canon.
- Adaptational Intelligence: Unlike in canon, he doesn't grab the Idiot Ball when Cell throws it to him, as he has no respect for people who steal other people's powers.
Bulma Briefs
Dr. Briefs
Trunks V. Briefs
- Embarrassing Middle Name: The "V" in his middle name stands for Vegetathefifth. Written with no space (it was a rush job on Vegeta's part). No wonder his Bad Future self is so embarrassed...
Bulla
- Age Lift: She was born much earlier and is closer in age to Trunks rather than Pan.
- Adaptational Badass: Never was able to turn super saiyan, or really learned to fight in general in canon. Here, she’s able to.
- Daddy's Girl Just like in canon.
The Z-Fighters
- Ascended Extra: In the Anime, most of the Z-Fighter started to lost focus as the Series goes on, with some of them even being Put under the Bus. Here, they share the role of the Main Characters with Goku and his Family, with Yamcha having his own Story Arc during the Cell Saga.
- Adaptational Badass: Aside from being much stronger, everyone with the exception of Piccolo who trains with King Kai learn the Kaio-Ken. Tien and Yamcha even develop their own unique Power Ups.
Krillin
- Weak, but Skilled: He’s this in comparison to the other Z-fighters, alongside Chiaotzu. He makes up for it with technique and strategy.
Master Roshi
Tenshinhan/Tien
- Can't Catch Up: Tien’s refusal to let this happen to him is one of the largest motivators for training.
Chiaotzu
- Can't Catch Up: Physically, Chiaotzu realizes this around the Cell Games. So he begins focusing a lot more on training his Psychic powers instead.
Yamcha
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After Bulma breaks up with him and marries Vegeta, Yamcha ends up in a major slump. While he does help with fighting the Androids, it's mainly because the world is in danger. However, he saves Suno's life after she and Eighter were attacked by Cell, and she ends up falling in love with him. The two end up marrying.
Piccolo
- Adaptational Badass: As he absorbs his father alongside Nail and Kami. With only Nail and King Piccolo, he was noted to be slightly stronger than Frieza’s canon full power of 120,000,000.
Future Trunks
Future Ranch
Future Daikon/Goten
- Walking Spoiler: Hard to talk about him without revealing he's not actually Raditz and Launch's unborn son, but Gohan's younger brother Goten.
Android 17
- Arch-Enemy: He sees Cell as one, because of how much pain he inflicted on 18.
- Ascended Extra: He's not absorbed by Cell at all in this continuity. Cell absorbs 18 first, and when Vegeta forces Cell to throw 18 up, Cell absorbs the Bad Future Androids instead. As such, 17 has a more major role in the Cell Saga; among other things, he fights in the Cell Games.
- Berserk Button: If you harm his sister, 17 will try to kill you, even if it's futile.
- Evil Me Scares Me: Upon learning of his Bad Future self's actions, 17 ends up mortified. When Gohan forces Cell to throw up Future 17, 17 kills Future 17.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Because his parents were abusive of him and his sister, 17 has this belief. It takes a callout from 16, some kindness shown from Krillin and learning what his Bad Future counterpart did to set him straight.
- Named by the Adaptation: His real last name is unknown in canon. Here, it's revealed it's Lazarus.
- Shipper on Deck: He's this for his sister and Krillin.
Android 18
- Demoted to Extra: Due to being absorbed first and having her Infinite Energy Engine damage beforehand, which leads to her being hospitalized during the Cell Games, she has a more minor role than in canon.
- Named by the Adaptation: Her last name is unknown in canon. Here, it's revealed to be Lazarus.
Android 16
- Amnesia Resonance: 16 doesn't have all of Gebo's memories, only enough to know about his personality and his past in the Red Ribbon Army. He does, however, remember a song which is heavily implied to have been sung to Gebo by his mother.
- Humans Are Special: He believes this. He wants to be human, but cannot, so he does the next best thing: making sure 17 and 18 don't throw away their humanity.
- Morality Chain: Despite being permissive with some of 17 and 18's antics, like petty crimes, 16 will stop them from killing anyone except Goku. Since he wants to be human but cannot, he can't stand seeing 17 and 18 throw away their humanity. The chapters focusing on the Bad Future shows how horrible 17 and 18 are without 16 around.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Due to being modified to be made out of self-replicating nanobots that harden in response to physical trauma, 16 manages to survive the Cell Games.
Allies
King Kai
- Adaptational Badass: Between the time of the end of the Cell Games, and the start of Gohan going to high school, he’s noted to have learned several spirit control techniques in the meantime.
Mr. Popo
Kami
Dende
Grand Elder Molluska Guru
Grand Elder Tsuno
Grand Elder Moori
Nail
Future Bulma
Android 8/Eighter
Suno
Mr. Satan
- Papa Wolf: Part of what motivates him to step up to fight Cell again, despite knowing he’d be killed effortlessly. He couldn’t help but imagine if it was Videl instead of Gohan that was fighting Cell, because there was no other choice, and that INFURIATES him.
Videl
Marron
Koriocha
Burter, Jeice, Recoome and Guldo
- Adaptational Nice Guy: They’re genuinely close as comrades, and are devastated whenever one of them dies. In canon, Guldo getting killed didn’t get much more than some complaints about needing new poses to make up. Here, they’re genuinely angry. They also genuinely want to spare Gohan, as he genuinely thinks their song and poses are cool, noting that “praise from a youthful heart is second only to praise from Lord Frieza.”
Villains
Nappa
Dodoria
Zarbon
King Piccolo
Captain Ginyu
Frieza
King Cold
Garlic Jr.
Abo and Kado
Android 20/Dr. Gero
Android 14
Android 15
Android 19
Android 13
Cell/Android 22
- Adaptational Badass: In Canon, Cell’s claims of being able to perform the Kaio-Ken and Spirit Bomb are never proven true, though Cell does use the Spirit Bomb in some games. Here, he proves that yes, in fact, he can.
Bojack
Lord Slug
