Despite being billed as your typical Shonen series, Dragon Ball plays around with and deconstructs a lot of Shonen tropes before the genre itself went into a divergence.
- Master Roshi's Turtle School of martial arts is a deconstruction of Fantastic Fighting Style. When we first see the Kamehameha in action, it's not much of a leap to assume that the Turtle School also teaches other similarly fantastical techniques that border on magic. When Goku and Krillin come under Roshi's tutelage, however, they learn that, the Kamehameha aside, the Turtle School is not about learning powerful fighting techniques: the Turtle School is more of a way of life wherein one maintains discipline through regular physical training (along with some mathematics for the otherwise uneducated Goku), with the actual fighting styles determined by the practitioner using this discipline as a base. While other mentors have come along, such as King Kai, who teach Goku unearthly abilities, the Turtle School continues to form the backbone of his entire fighting style.
- Vegeta's entire character development is a deconstruction of Defeat Means Friendship, Can't Catch Up, Always Someone Better and Always Second Best. It was the fact that not only was he defeated by a 'low-class warrior' such as Kakarot (Goku), but the fact that in his eyes his life was spared as if he was a child that fueled his great resentment, anger, and bitterness towards Goku and his friends and his desire to become stronger than Goku. When Goku eventually came back for the first time in seven years in the Buu Arc, the realization that Goku was still far ahead of him in terms of strength hit Vegeta very hard that it lead to him willingly getting controlled by Babidi as the resentment, anger, and bitterness he felt towards Goku since their first battle many years ago officially boiled over. It was so bad that it drove him to the point where he pulled a Face–Heel Turn and then killed over 200 people to prove that he didn't care about anything other than keeping up with Goku and was willing to go to great lengths for a rematch to reclaim the pride and honor he felt Goku had robbed him of by sparing his life in their first battle. The battle also led to the resurrection of a five million-year-old demon, who would later wreak absolute havoc throughout the universe. Of course, both of them already knew that was a potential consequence of them fighting each other. Goku accuses Vegeta's reasoning of placing his one-sided rivalry with Goku over anything else, including his family, as nothing except only lies. Vegeta initially denied Goku's accusations but later admitted Goku was right. However, he later revealed that he was genuinely angry and frustrated about how mundane his life had become because of the influence of Goku and his friends, but had become fond of his family over time and eventually came to care and love them to the point where he thought that Earth may have actually become a nice place to live.
- Vegeta also deconstructs Training from Hell. After the Frieza Saga, he puts himself through torturous training sessions that sometimes end with him being hospitalized. Despite all his hard work, he can't surpass Goku, who doesn't train as hard as Vegeta. In Resurrection 'F', Whis explains to Vegeta that the reason he can't reach his full potential is that he trains too hard and doesn't let himself properly rest.
- This was already explained by Goku himself to Gohan during the Hyperbolic Time Chamber in the Cell Saga. In a father-son bonding moment, Goku explains to Gohan the importance of resting and pacing oneself when training, and that simply abusing your body won't let you really reach the level you want. This actually calls back to the above with Roshi's training; despite the grueling training he put Goku and Krillin under, he emphasizes the importance of rest.
- Frieza deconstructs more than one trope:
- Determinator/Villainous Valor: While his will to live and continue to fight Goku even after losing most of his limbs is quite admirable, it's also presented as his Fatal Flaw, as his inability to swallow his pride and Know When to Fold 'Em leads not only to his downfall on Namek but also his death, both times.
- Hard Work Hardly Works/World's Strongest Man/Smug Super/Brilliant, but Lazy: As revealed in Resurrection 'F', Frieza was born as powerful as he is, didn't have to train a day in his life to become the most powerful being in the universe, and refused to train, believing he outwits everyone else and always will. Because he doesn't train, Frieza never learned to control his full power, has no endurance for a prolonged fight with someone equal in power to him, and once simply crushing his foes with raw power proves ineffective, he has no response aside from simple Rage Quitting. The moment he does train, he becomes on par with the gods of the series.
- He also provides a deconstruction of Cruel Mercy. On multiple occasions, Goku chooses to spare Frieza because he believes that he's Not Worth Killing and that letting him live with his pride torn to shreds is a Fate Worse than Death. And every single time Goku does so, Frieza just keeps trying to kill him or blow up the planet they're standing on; in Resurrection F and the subsequent Super adaptation, he successfully blows up the Earth and kills nearly everyone on the planet before Whis rewinds time to prevent it. In other words, Frieza is too dangerous to be kept alive for any reason and is the type of foe who needs to be killed.
- Gotenks deconstructs The Chosen One, Idiot Hero, and Smug Super. He was created specifically to defeat Majin Buu, and Piccolo outright declares him the warrior destined to do so... but sadly, Gotenks is an immature, egotistical fool who's far more concerned with showboating and looking cool and is virtually incapable of taking things seriously even when lives are at stake, which just keeps making the situation worse; in this order, he gets himself and Piccolo trapped in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, enables Buu to escape and eat all of his loved ones, and gets himself absorbed by Buu, allowing Buu to beat Gohan senseless. Come Super, the rest of the Z-Fighters have yet to forget this, and unanimously agree that Gotenks can't be trusted or relied on for anything, especially not something as high-stakes as the Tournament of Power. In the end, Gotenks' particular personality makes him very much not cut out for being a hero, and he shows that trying to forcibly create an all-powerful savior will not always be successful.
- Goku has three deconstruction points:
- A major part of Dragon Ball Z seems dedicated to deconstructing his, and by extension the Saiyan race's, Blood Knight tendencies. It starts with the moment when Goku convinces Krillin to spare Vegeta, pretty much just because he wants to fight Vegeta again someday. Then, when he's fighting Frieza, he lets the Ax-Crazy Space-Caligula power up to 100% of his full power, because he wants to defeat the World's Strongest Man at his best, and when King Kai fixes to have everyone on Namek relocated to Earth, he demands that he and Frieza be left on Namek, a planet that is minutes away from blowing up because he wants to see the battle through to its end. Come the Android saga, Bulma suggests that they locate and kill Dr. Gero before he can unleash the Androids upon the world, only to be rebutted by everyone who feasibly could kill him wanting to fight his Androids, which a man from the future has already revealed will kill them all. The QED comes during Gohan's fight against Cell where Goku's inability to understand that Gohan isn't a Blood Knight, he's a Martial Pacifist, results in him giving Cell a senzu bean, allowing a homicidal monster to beat the tar out of Goku's own terrified son. It's not until Piccolo screams straight into Goku's face that, from Gohan's POV, his father just threw him to the wolves, after making sure that the wolves were at their deadliest because he cared more about the struggle between his son and said wolves being good and fair than his own flesh and blood's well-being, that Goku finally realizes that his nature has led him to mess up big time.
- His status as The Ace is deconstructed starting from the Android/Cell Saga. Because he is so good and so powerful his friends and family tend to depend on him too much to solve the current problem. They also become noticeably deflated and pessimistic when he isn't around and Gohan firmly believes that he can never surpass his father, despite Goku showing him otherwise. Goku's death in Trunks' timeline was one of the many reasons things got so bad and Bulma invented the Time Machine mostly to save him, firmly believing that he could do something to stop the androids. Vegeta eventually got so tired of being overshadowed by Goku that he sold his soul for power and unleashed Majin Buu upon the world. Goku himself has realized that his loved ones are far too dependent on him; he knows that one day, he will be dead for good, and if his loved ones don't stop relying on him so much, then no one will be able to counter the next big threat to Earth.
- The end of the Kid Buu fight deconstructs Humble Hero. Because Goku always saves the world from the shadows. No one, outside a few, knows of his deeds. So when Goku begs the world for energy to power the Spirit Bomb that will kill Majin Buu, only the people who intimately know him listen. Everyone else blows him off like Vegeta. It takes Mr. Satan, the resident Fake Ultimate Hero, to yell at the people of Earth before they're willing to help since Mr. Satan, not Goku, is known as the world's savior.
- The TV special Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks deconstructs many tropes:
- Cosy Catastrophe: One of the few safe places left on Earth turns out to be, of all things, an amusement park. Due to the carnival constantly being lit and giving too much noise it doesn't take long for the Androids to find and raze it to the ground alongside everyone who was inside.
- Trunks and Gohan's Determinator personality attributes are deconstructed six ways to Sunday. The many years of battling the Androids take a physical and mental toll on both Trunks and Gohan. The fact they flat out refuse to stay in hiding for more than even a day and keep themselves safe and instead constantly fight the Androids creates no progress in actually defeating them. Hell, Gohan eventually loses an arm and becomes disadvantaged in battle, and Trunks gets driven to near depression over the fact that they're constantly battling to save humanity and always losing.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Gohan's attempts at invoking this trope did nothing to change the plot. Even when Trunks becomes a Super Saiyan as a result of his death, Trunks is still no match for the Androids. Gohan's death is even more worthless in the manga version of the story as Trunks was already a Super Saiyan by the time Gohan died. And just to add insult to injury, in the manga version of the story it's strongly implied that only Android 17 had fought and curbstomped Gohan on his own as opposed to him taking on both Android 17 and 18 at the same time and putting up a reasonable fight. So Trunks and humanity as a whole gained nothing from Gohan's supposedly epic and poignant final stand.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Gohan knocks out Trunks to prevent him from taking on the Androids with himself and risk dying. But because he goes alone it makes it even easier for the Androids to kill Gohan, and he wasn't exactly putting up much of a fight prior to confronting the Androids alone. And because Gohan dies, it only makes the job of defeating the Androids an even more impossible task. And with no one to train Trunks anymore, it takes years before Trunks feels strong enough through his own self-training methods to take on the Androids again... and he still loses and very badly.
- Heroic Second Wind: Gohan tried to take on the Androids just after recently nearly dying and losing an arm? He's overwhelmed by the Androids and dies very horribly.
- Heroic Resolve: Trunks and Gohan never learned how to stay down even with the odds stacked against him. This ultimately proves to be their greatest flaw and eventually leads to Gohan being murdered, leaving humanity even more defenseless and Trunks spending several days in the hospital in critical condition.
- Last Stand: Gohan doesn't kill either of the Androids before he dies and because he doesn't humanity is in an even more hopeless situation as the only one who is left to defend Earth and humanity from extinction is Trunks. And he wasn't anywhere near as strong as Gohan was, let alone as strong as the Androids. So in a nutshell, Gohan's Last Stand only made things worse.
- The concept of Passing the Torch gets deconstructed in the Buu arc. Right before the final battle with Kid Buu, Goku privately admits that he could have defeated Fat Buu with Super Saiyan 3 earlier in the arc but didn't because he wanted to leave something for the next generation to do. The next generation ends up not being up to the task due to various factors- Namely Buu's unpredictable nature, the immaturity of Trunks and Goten, and Gohan's carelessness; with Goku having to come back to life to set things right. Instead of being proactive and stopping Buu when he had the chance before things could get worse, Goku chose to gamble with the fate of the planet and the entire universe just to give the next generation the spotlight- resulting in the deaths of almost the entire cast, the entire population of Earth being wiped out, and the planet itself eventually being destroyed (with Goku and his remaining allies barely managing to undo all of this and defeat Buu). Goku's attempt at Passing the Torch wound up being a costly failure due to factors he didn't/couldn't account for.
- Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods deconstructs two tropes of its own:
- Always Someone Better: Goku faces and battles Beerus, the God of Destruction. Despite gaining the powers of a Super Saiyan God, he can't beat Beerus. Even worse, Beerus is just one of twelve gods and his servant Whis is stronger than Beerus. Goku is hit with the same Can't Catch Up trope that hits all of his friends with his own power.
- The Power of Friendship: Goku obtains the Super Saiyan God form through the power of five other Saiyans, but privately admits to Beerus that he hates it — one of Goku's defining traits is that there are certain things he wants to handle or accomplish on his own and Super Saiyan God was something that he could never do without the help of others, which frustrates him.
- Dragon Ball Super joins in on the fun:
- Can't Catch Up: Because of how absurdly overpowered Goku and Vegeta have become, many of the warriors have opted to slack off and take a mentality of "We'll just wait until Goku and/or Vegeta shows up and kicks their ass." This hurts them big time once Frieza returns for the Resurrection 'F' storyline, especially with Gohan, who has foregone training to take care of his family. When Piccolo is killed at the hands of a sadistic Frieza, it's because Gohan could barely reach Super Saiyan. Once Piccolo's revived, Gohan asks Piccolo to retrain him. In the Future Trunks Saga, when Trunks learns that Vegeta and Goku have obtained Super Saiyan Blue, he lets his guard down and decides that everything will be okay because they're there. However, Vegeta gives him a What the Hell, Hero? over this, telling him that they're not always going to be there.
- The Power of Love: During the Universe Survival Arc, we're introduced to Universe 2, whose entire stick is this trope, especially with its big heroines, the Kamikaze Fireballs/Maiden Squadron and its leader Ribrianne. However, as the fight goes on, we learn that Ribrianne's views of love are terribly skewed and hypocritical as Ribrianne believes that Evil Cannot Comprehend Love. This is exemplified when Ribrianne is grossed out at the fact that Android 18 and Krillin start acting mushy around each other and can't comprehend why 18 would like someone like him. This is what ultimately defeats her.
