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     Fridge Brilliance 
  • Piccolo swore to avenge his father's death at the hands of Goku by killing him. In the Saiyan Saga, he did.
    • It gets better. Just minutes afterward killing Goku he starts becoming a good guy, shown by training Gohan. As soon as he completes his oath, he starts walking his own path.
    • The cherry on top is the WAY he killed Goku; a giant hole through his chest, JUST LIKE Goku did to his father! The Brilliance goes further: He hates and kills Goku because Goku hated and killed his family. Gohan liked him and showed him kindness, so what does Piccolo do? RETURN Gohan's kindness by saving him! Piccolo, being one of the youngest characters intentionally or unintentionally reflects the behavior directed at him back onto those that give it!!
  • The romance between Vegeta and Bulma might look very unlikely from any logical standpoint at first glance, but it makes sense when you consider some relevant elements of both characters. Bulma from the very first arc of the original Dragon Ball was shown as a very vain, flirty woman, who always swoons over handsome guys, but at the same time, goes into jealous rages with alarming frequency. Her on and off relationship with Yamcha precisely never seemed to take off because Bulma gets jealous of any female interaction Yamcha displays. Now enter Vegeta, for most of the series, the guy is just obsessed with surpassing Goku and doesn't care at all about anything else, least of all women. In practice, Vegeta could be in front of ANY earthling woman no matter how beautiful and he wouldn't care less about her, which in turn, makes him the ideal man in Bulma's eyes since he will never, for any reason, look at other women. Future Trunks' description about how Bulma and Yamcha broke up also fits with this, he says (because his mother told him most likely) that Yamcha was too promiscuous, but we never see the poor guy going with multiple women or anything like that, the brilliance being that in Bulma's eyes, even talking to some other woman was acting "promiscuous", something that Yamcha and every other man on the planet would do by sheer nature...but Vegeta would most likely never do. In the end, the prince of the Saiyans was the only male fitting for Bulma (and perhaps well, Goku as she muses a couple of times, but he was already taken).
  • When Vegeta says he's "known stronger houseplants" than Mr. Satan. At first, it sounds like typical Vegeta talk, but remember Vegeta was held in bondage by Frieza nearly his whole life. During that time, he conquered thousands of planets and killed entire civilizations so maybe there was a planet whose populace had some form of plant life to safeguard their homes.
    • Or maybe he actually fought Plant People who managed to put up a decent fight.
    • This is from the Bardock special, so its place in canon is dubious, but wasn't Vegeta (the planet) known as Plant before the Saiyans came?
      • Oh, the Bardock special is definitely canon as its events are referenced several times in the anime proper. (The special where Bardock survives, time travels and turns Super Saiyan, on the other hand...)
    • One word. Saibamen. (Goku at the beginning of the series could destroy rocks as big as him, survive bullets and only had a power level of 10. Saibamen were as strong as Raditz was upon his arrival on Earth: power level of 1200.)
  • When Vegeta says that he succeeded in having become a Super Saiyan because his heart is pure evil, he may have just been exaggerating for intimidation purposes— and instead, what was pure was his determination to win. Which makes more sense for his character anyway, since his determination at the end of Z is so great that it manages to scare Majin Buu because he refuses to give up or stay down, to a level that exceeds even Goku's own Determinator status.
  • While Supreme Kai's assertion that any of them could've killed Frieza makes them come off as dicks, consider how little it would actually solve; Frieza's the most active leader of the Planet Trade Organization, true, but he's not the only one, and as we see later, even killing the colds (King Cold, Frieza, Cooler) would only result in throwing the organization into disarray; countless people fighting for dominance over the most powerful group in the known universe. Whether an acceptable state of affairs or not, leaving an interstellar organization that are the closest to universal lawmakers, and peacekeepers in place is better than fighting it violently, and the Supreme Kai realized this.
    • Jossed in Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, as it shows there is a competing government. On the other hand, given that Jaco, who is still a member of their elite Galactic Patrol (strongly implied to be the weakest, but still a member of an elite force) plainly admits he couldn't take on any adult Saiyan, it's likely that the Planet Trade Organization is the only one with the military force necessary for the job.
    • Also, there's the fact Frieza destroyed Vegeta on Beerus' request. It was a one-time thing, and Beerus was considering killing Frieza next time he woke up, but as far as Shin knew, Frieza and his organization had a use in Beerus' job, and he didn't dare to wake him up and check.
    • But what nobody is mentioning is that the Supreme Kais only act when the actual foundations of the universe are at risk (mass destruction of celestial bodies, deicide, time-related terrorism, anything dealing with the Demon Realm, or demons in general, etc), and while Frieza and his family were a big part of the evil across the galaxies, their affairs were still just something in the realm of mortals, and they had no reason to interfere. It wasn't until the entire universe, including them, was in danger by an insane creature even stronger than them, that destroyed anything in sight just for fun, that they decided to act. There's a reason why they didn't stop Goku from killing Frieza, for them at the time, it was just mortal businesses, though commendable, there's a reason why Beerus wanted to kill him too since the rules of a God of Destruction are way more flexible. His death gave the oppressed people under Frieza's tyranny a chance to rebel (something that would've guaranteed the death of any of them in the past), and as Frieza's henchmen mentioned by the time of Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', many actually succeeded and are free now.
  • Trunks remarks that none of the stuff he predicted (apart from where Goku would land) was true; even the pair of androids who arrived at where he predicted was just a coincidence (they weren't the same androids he expected). He theorizes that it's due to time travel inherently messing with the timeline, however, there are subtle hints he himself was responsible:
    • Goku's disease manifesting itself much later could be because he physically trained himself in preparation for the androids; physical exercise improves your immune system. It was also Trunks who took care of King Cold and Frieza; Goku stated that he already had sensed the two and was prepared to teleport to the battle ahead of time. It's likely the exertion of going Super Saiyan again and fighting off both King Cold and Frieza that accelerated his condition, causing the heart disease to manifest earlier.
      • Except Goku is shown training as a Super Saiyan with Piccolo and Gohan, for 3 years straight. Also, physical exercise doesn't push back the onset of a disease you have already been exposed to. The only difference is that Goku was exposed later, probably because he isolated himself training, instead of going on adventures like he used to do.
    • And this is possibly where Gero changed the power levels of the Androids; In Trunks' Timeline, Goku would have arrived on Earth and would have fought a bloody battle with Frieza. As Cell has Frieza's cells, this means that Gero was, on some level, aware of the battle. He then must have known that the Mechanical Bodies he built for himself and 19 would be pointless, as Goku was clearly above their power level even before training and instead went to tweak on 17 and 18 more. In the main timeline, Goku never fought in it and the battle itself lasted too short for Gero to collect any meaningful data (Frieza and King Cold both got obliterated to ash, as oppose to possibly leaving behind corpses for Gero to collect and study). And the reason why 17 and 18 are weaker in Trunk's timeline? Gero always makes his androids powerful (as evident with 16 being the most powerful despite being the earliest one) and tone down from there. Gero, knowing his own #20 Mechanical body would not suffice, instead opted to tone down 17 and 18's power to manageable levels (which still predictably failed).
      • Gero stated he stopped watching Goku after the fight with Vegeta. The computer was the one handling the Cell project, not Gero. We also only have the word of a single fighter that never actually saw the androids fight at full power that there is any power difference at all. similarly, he was a baby when the androids appeared. For all we know, Vegeta handled #19 in the future, and then Gero activated #17 and #18, just like in the present.
    • Finally, as to why the Androids are different; all of them have the objective of killing Goku, but as Goku is already dead by their activation, they really had no other goals; 16 (if he was activated) would have probably wandered into the woods to live a peaceful life with the animals (or possibly take up the job of being a park ranger to protect said animals, much like 17 does later on). 16 also acted as a sort of morality chain for the two, usually advising against the really heinous behavior of the two. Without him, the two went off the hook (especially 17, who even in the main timeline seemed to like carnage).
      • #16 never advised the other 2 on anything. He just refused to fight himself. The androids just (eventually) went off the deep end, because no one was there to stop them.
    • Alternate interpretation: Gero in the original timeline would probably hear that Goku had died. This was six months before the androids attacked. So possibly, he stopped upgrading the androids or downgraded them because their most powerful opponent was dead, and changed their programming. In the "main" timeline, the core instruction would have been something like "Kill Goku." That was all they were programmed to do, which explains their focus on finding him. But in the original timeline, with Goku dead, Gero might have changed the mission to "Kill Everyone."
    • Another possibility is that in Trunks' original timeline, Dr. Gero spent more time programming the androids, resulting in their hatred for humanity as a whole and leading to them being more psychotic. In the main timeline, Dr. Gero turned himself into an android and worked on other projects as well, including Android 16 and 19, seeing 17 and 18 as being too unstable. This could explain why they aren't as evil in the main timeline, as their programming wasn't complete and Dr. Gero only activated them as a last resort.
  • Vegeta never really gets revenge for everything Frieza ever did to him but Frieza and his father were ultimately killed by Vegeta's son.
  • At first, it seems rather odd that Majin Buu's original, primal form is so... small compared to the rest. But then you remember: Buu was created by Bibidi. And Bibidi's species are puny little shrimps compared to humans, Saiyans, and the like, with the adult Babidi being the same size - or smaller - as a 7-year-old human child. To shrimpy little Bibidi, the ~5-foot Kid Buu would be tall and imposing!
    • Jossed. Buu's origins were Retcon so Bibidi didn't create him, only summoned him. Buu is as old as the universe. Him being puny just goes with the theme of the series of not judging people by their appearance.
  • Why is Goku such a neglectful parent? It's literally In the Blood: Saiyans (or at least low-ranking ones), from what we're shown, are basically sent off to other planets as infants, with no time to spend with their parents. It's questionable whether pure-blooded Saiyans even have a childhood phase, seeing how they're expected to start conquering the planet shortly after landing. While Prince Vegeta suggests this isn't always the case, it's possible that he got special treatment for being a prince (or at the very least, for being high-ranked). Tarble being banished for being too kind-hearted supports this. Add in the fact that Goku was Raised by Wolves, and he quite literally does not know how to be a parent.
  • It used to bother me that in in the Buu saga the people competing in the martial arts tournaments are all such weaklings and people, in general, are so disbelieving in abilities like ki and energy attacks and easily accept Mr. Satan's claims that it's all a trick when before those same abilities seemed much more widespread and known about. But then I realised that by the end of Piccolo saga it's pretty much just Goku and the other Z fighters who use those abilities and they basically disappear from the tournament scene until the Buu saga. All their adventures and battles take place in out of the way places or other planets and largely remain under the radar of the general public up til the Cell Saga. Also over the course of Dragon Ball Z, nobody has sought out any of the Z fighters to train under them the way that Goku and Krillin sought out Master Roshi. So it's not surprising that by the time of the Buu Saga, knowledge about abilities like energy attacks and use of ki would have faded out of public consciousness and the techniques themselves fallen out of practice.
    • Plus, Mr. Satan's claiming that it was all tricks and special effects might have helped people to further dismiss the notion of ki and supernatural martial arts abilities as being real, as they would have then looked back on any stories or recordings/accountings about such things as people falling for an old con, rather than actual evidence of its existence.
    • On top of that, let's be honest here, the knowledge that there are literally multiple people standing on Earth with them that could destroy the goddamn planet on a whim would scare the shit out of the vast majority of people. Refusing to acknowledge that as a possibility is probably the only thing keeping half the population of the Earth sane.
    • Ki and energy attacks are really rare in the Dragon Ball world (until DBO anyway) because hardly anyone actually knows how to use Ki or that it even exists. Those taught by the Turtle and Crane schools and their teachers are the only ones that are shown having the ability to access Ki at all and both of those schools hardly take on any students at all. Take a look at all the tournaments and fighters throughout Dragon Ball and DBZ and the number of people besides the protagonists and last round fighters that actually are shown using it is next to zero, and anytime Ki techniques are used by anybody such as the Kamehameha wave it's almost always mentioned to be legendary and mythical technique, something only people in the fighting biz and rabid fighting fans would have so much as heard of. Overall I'd say a couple dozen people on the entire planet can use Ki in any capacity at the most. Mostly the fighters besides the protagonists just use purely physical techniques based around raw power and/or speed rather than Ki. It's easy for a population of billions to dismiss something like Ki as tricks when hardly anybody knows about it, fewer have seen it firsthand, and next to nobody actually uses it. It isn't until the Cell games that Ki becomes involved in something big enough to be known to the world at large and Hercule quickly squashes much interest in it. Ki is definitely not something the average Joe runs across every day and/or uses themselves.
    • There's actually dozens of people on Earth who can use ki in some capacity, if only by becoming strong enough to shatter a boulder and tough enough to shrug off bullets (but not enough to survive heavy weapons), but with very few exceptions they tend to live in remote locations and interact with the wider world only when they have pressing needs (Roshi is flat-out a hermit that stays out of the way until he has to train Goku and Krilin, Nam stayed in his village until he needed to procure water to save his village, Bora lives under Karin Tower, and so on). On the other hand, it's likely there's people who pretend to use ki or have deluded themselves into thinking they have this ability (like in our world) and Mr. Satan, who is a legitimately powerful martial art under human limits, started becoming famous by challenging these supposed superhumans to fights and debunking them.
    • It's possible that Mr. Satan actually knew more about the existence of combat ki than he originally lets on - as in he disputes many of the 'supernatural' things that can be done with it but believes in its existence and applicability to martial arts. The scene where he requests the Earthlings to give of their energy to supply Goku's Super Spirit Bomb to defeat Buu sort of relies on this - if he had been public about the complete nonexistence of ki, then why would the people of Earth listen to him in that instance? It's more likely his line of thinking was "ki is definitely a thing but it doesn't work like that (i.e. flight, energy blasts, transformations). And to be fair, with the exception of the specifically trained or literal aliens, he's mostly right.
  • Pan's name - on the one hand, a pan as in 'frying pan' fits well with the series' food-related theme naming. But also, a panpipe is a type of flute, like a piccolo. So Gohan named his kid after his mentor, too.
    • Pan is also a religious figure often associated with the devil. As in Mark "Hercule Satan", and Videl.
    • Most importantly "Pan" is Japanese for "Bread"
    • So in short, her name is a crossroads of all of the naming conventions of the prior generation.
    • Also foreshadowing. One of the works most cemented in Pop Culture Osmosis as far as comparing Pan to The Devil is The Great God Pan. Now, what was the Super Saiyan transformation that came after 3, not counting Dragon Ball GT? How was that transformation achieved?
  • Gohan and Piccolo were both people who initially just wanted to be like their fathers, only to realise that the life their fathers had wasn't the life they wanted to live.
  • Vegeta was pretty calm when he entered the Chamber, despite Trunks openly stating that the gravity and air were different, if not difficult, to get used to, and how mentally taxing it was to be in a complete void as well with torturous changing environments. Vegeta has been going to different planets all his life, these conditions are nothing new to him, if anything, it most likely gave him even more of a boost in confidence since he was reliving those days.
  • It's been pointed out that despite the fact that Vegeta trains even harder than Goku, he can't quite catch up. This is contrasted with the irony that Vegeta was considered the natural prodigy as a child. However, when Goku first emerges from the Time Chamber during the Cell Saga, he explains that he was able to surpass Vegeta in less time because he trains better than Vegeta does; Vegeta tortures himself through rigorous but inefficient training methods because he doesn't know any better. He never needed to train very hard because of his natural aptitude, whereas Goku was taught very effective training methods by Roshi, Korin, Kami, and King Kai.
    • Resurrection F has Whis point out that Vegeta also trains too hard, constantly straining his body and mind without proper amounts of rest. As anyone who does physical training will attest, rest allows the body to heal and grow stronger. As for his mind, it's the equivalent of several cram sessions instead of gradually learning something over time. Vegeta's methods prove self-sabotaging.
    • The fact Goku knows how to train himself better than Vegeta first becomes a plot point in the Android Saga, in their opposite ways to surpass Super Saiyan: Vegeta, never having a good trainer, brute forced it through a power stressed form that increased his muscle mass and raw ki output at the cost of stamina, but Goku applied his existing knowledge training and simply went and got himself used to the base form, obtaining far greater ki output, and thus increased strength and speed, without losing stamina - something Vegeta copied as soon as feasible once he figured out what Goku had done.
    • Vegeta has also done most of his training completely alone by pushing himself to the brink of death and relying on the Zenkai boost for power scaling - which is implied to have diminishing returns once you reach the class of power Goku and Vegeta find themselves in post-Frieza Arc. While this may have something to do with his insane durability it's also made his ki technique unrefined in comparison to Goku. A large portion of Goku's tutelage has been centered around ki control, not just power. Through his combination of teachers, Goku understands the importance of balancing power output with staying power in a fight. Vegeta isn't seen studying under anyone until Whis in Super.
  • Cell, who has the cells of all the Z-Fighters and Frieza within him, attempted to blow up the Earth when he realized he couldn't win... which is also what Frieza did on Namek in similar circumstances. Like Father, Like Son, eh?
    • His Not Quite Dead moment also consists of killing a character via Death Beam through the chest. Given that he has the techniques (and it's implied, some of the memories) of all of the fighters facing him and Frieza, it's almost certain that this wasn't just coincidental, but intentional psychological warfare. First, it echoes both Frieza's murder of Dende (the animations are even similar) and his near-kill of Piccolo. Second, Frieza also killed Vegeta through an energy beam through the chest. Goku also died back in the second episode due to a similar attack - and Piccolo was the one who fired said attack. Then, Cell decides to try to destroy the entire solar system with the Signature Move of the franchise. It's not just wanton destruction; it's trolling and humiliation on a level not really seen by many other villains in the series. Which could be the Frieza in him working, but it could also be the Vegeta...
  • This took me a while to realize, but every time a new villain appears, they worf the ultimate technique used against the previous villain.
    • Raditz, Nappa, and Vegeta, for example, made many techniques and weapons from Dragon Ball useless: Nimbus (not fast enough), the Power Pole (never used), the Multi Form technique (rendered useless by Nappa), and even the Kamehameha wave (only had an effect when used in tandem with the kaioken). In other words, earthly martial arts just wouldn't cut it. So what did? Martial arts made by the gods, namely the Kaioken and the Spirit Bomb.
    • Then Frieza came along, tanking both a Kaioken x20 Kamehameha and Universal Spirit Bomb. Then comes along the ultimate, legendary technique, usable only by a Saiyan of pure heart: the Super Saiyan form...
    • Which the androids immediately proved to be immune to. Instead, the form had to be reformed and perfected until we got Super Saiyan 2.
    • A few years pass and Buu comes along, and not even a Super Saiyan 2 Vegeta can stop this monster. Instead, it takes Super Saiyan 3, a form that technically shouldn't exist.
    • And many years after that, Beerus comes along and takes out Super Saiyan 3 Goku with one finger, prompting our heroes to discover a form even beyond that: the Super Saiyan God.
    • Super Saiyan God and even the form beyond that proves to be ineffective against Goku Black, who achieved a Super Saiyan God form of his own, Super Saiyan Rose. Judging from the next episode, Goku and Vegeta will revisit Potara fusion, last seen in the Buu Saga.
    • Comes the Tournament of Power, and Jiren easily overpowers Goku throws at him, with only Ultra Instinct allowing him to match the warrior stronger than even the Gods of Destruction.
  • Despite the World Tournament going into shambles after Gohan's energy is stolen, the fights actually continue on. The next two matches scheduled after Gohan vs Kibito are Android #18 vs Mr. Satan, and Goku vs Vegeta, both of which end up happening, although under very different circumstances.
  • Mr. Satan manages to get away with taking the credit for killing Cell and not a single character calls him out on it. That's because they'd been reminded by Goku of how all of Earth's most recent threats (Piccolo Jr., the Saiyans, Frieza, the androids and Cell) were all drawn to him either through vengeance or for the chance to challenge Earth's greatest warrior. They've learned that in order to protect the Earth, they'll need to keep a low profile.
    • Though this doesn't stop Babidi from noticing their huge ki levels...
  • The fusion of Goku and Vegeta into Vegetto (Vegito, Vegerot, what have you...) is brilliantly designed. The more powerful warrior (Goku) serves as the base of the body and clothing, and the more dominant personality (Vegeta) provides the color scheme plus miscellaneous items like gloves and boots. Now, what this have to do in relation to the Elder Kai and Kibito Kai...?
  • If Frieza feared the Saiyan so much, then why did it take a request from Beerus for him to destroy their homeworld, and still kept three of them around? Well, Jaco explains that the Galactic Patrol, enemy of Frieza's Planet Trade Organization, has virus bombs that can quickly extinguish all life on a planet but the Saiyans are immune to that. The Saiyans were the only members of his army that could take on the Galactic Patrol without worrying about the virus bomb.
    • This is a mistranslation. Beerus never ordered Frieza to destroy the Saiyans, he only approved of it.
    • Specifically, Frieza doing it meant Beerus didn't have to travel the thirty minutes via Whis to do it himself. The point about the Galactic Patrol virus still stands.
  • How did, during the Saiyan Saga, the Z Fighters go from weaker that Kami to stronger than Raditz by training under Kami, when three years of the same training didn't make Goku so strong? Because when they started they were already stronger than Goku was when he started, and because most of Goku's training there was aimed to calm him down so he wouldn't just use violence as his solution to everything as he used before.
    • In a similar way, that's how the defunct Z Fighters benefitted more from training under King Kai: by being faster they didn't waste six months in just arriving there, and by being stronger than Goku was when he arrived they got more advanced training early on.
    • Also, the other Z fighters are much more intellectually inclined than Goku. There was probably a lot less repetition and making it manageable than when Goku went through it.
    • As for Piccolo becoming strong during the Saiyan Saga... He was inflicting Training from Hell on a half-Saiyan who replied with equal violence as he demanded, and who became much stronger every time he recovered from the Piccolo-inflicted injuries. He (unwittingly?) inflicted himself an extremely sadistic Training from Hell, either he became stronger too or he died.
    • Kami is never shown training them in the sense of sparring with them or even teaching them much at all. They seem to mostly train independently, although a filler episode has them being given a taste of what they're up against, so they train harder.
  • The 25th Tenkaichi Budokai shows some differences from the previous tournaments we've seen (21st, 22nd, and 23rd), namely a 30 minutes time limit, the preliminaries disputed via the Punching Machine to prevent injuries, and greater commercialization (shown by the larger stadium and the previously absent television broadcast), all of them apparently coming out of nowhere. Thing is, those very three tournaments are the reason for the new rules: the superhuman fighters of those tournaments proved themselves capable of fighting for hours, with the final match of the 21st tournament taking four hours, hence the time limit due the fighting being scheduled to happen in a single day; the 23rd Tenkaichi saw Tao Pai Pai almost killing Chiaotzu and, considering his character, he likely did the same to anyone who fought him in the preliminaries (in fact the anime shows him beating a preliminary opponent so bad he needed hospitalization. Even Piccolo at his most evil was showing more restraint), hence the Punching Machine made specifically to prevent injuries in the preliminaries; the greater commercialization was made necessary by the heavy damage caused in those three tournaments, where, aside from contestants randomly breaking the walls by sending others flying into it (and Panput doing it on purpose because he thought Goku was too weak to face him and didn't want to beat up a child), Goku in Great Ape form caused heavy damage to one of the buildings, Tien disintegrated the ring, and Piccolo annihilated the whole place, necessitating the commercialization to raise the money and rebuild the whole place for the 24th Tenkaichi .
    • Another change is the Junior Division. With the greater exposure, the public would protest to children fighting adults-and due to the lack of previous television broadcast, most people wouldn't know that the children in the 21st and 22nd tournament had been stronger than most adult fighters.
  • Amongst many, many, many other titles, Biblical Satan is referred to as "The Father of Lies". In Dragon Ball Z, Mr. Satan justifies his title by being the biggest liar of them all, claiming the credit for killing both Cell and later Majin Buu, along with many other lies such as defeating Android 18 and claiming Buu is his apprentice.
  • Vegeta's characterization in the Frieza Saga is TOTALLY different than that of the Cell saga. In the former, he's a borderline magnificent bastard, while in the latter, he's a trigger happy idiot who makes numerous mistakes that ultimately end up giving the villains the upper hand on more than one occasion. And then his characterization mysteriously changes back after the Cell Saga, and while he's still a prideful idiot, he's got a much better head on his shoulders? What happened in the Cell Saga? He became a Super Saiyan, which is noted to emphasize the traits of recklessness and arrogance natural in Saiyans, especially if you're not used to the form. Remember, Vegeta didn't train to lose the negative aspects as Goku and Gohan did, and as a result, he kept the negative side effects of SSJ throughout the Cell Saga. By the time of the Buu saga, he's got more of a handle on the form.
    • Also, recall that Vegeta’s characterization during the Cell Saga is similar to his characterization during the Saiyan Saga. It’s actually the Frieza Saga where he’s different. And what happened just before the Frieza Saga? He lost his tail, and with it, the free transformation/power-up into the Great Monkey form (remember, thanks to the Power Ball technique, Vegeta didn’t have to wait for a full moon and could access that form at will). Captain Ginyu was treated as the second-most powerful fighter in Frieza’s army thanks to his power level of 120,000, but with the Great Monkey form, Vegeta’s power level would have gone from 18,000 (nothing to Zarbon or Dodoria, let alone Ginyu) to 180,000. (Actually kind of puts into perspective why the Saiyans were considered so horrifying.) So, during the Frieza Saga, Vegeta is at his smartest and most cautious because he’s both just openly betrayed Frieza and lost his single best weapon against him. He’s back to normal in the Cell Saga because he finally managed to replace his old, lost transformation with an even better one.
  • Vegeta wanted immortality to fight Frieza, but what use would have it been if Frieza was still stronger than him? Easy: every time Frieza hit him in such a way that should have killed him Vegeta's immortality would make him regenerate, and the Zenkai would boost his strength until he either became strong enough to win or Frieza exhausted himself and became too weak, whichever came first.
  • When fighting Vegeta on Namek Frieza, who was supposedly terrified of the Super Saiyan, never showed any fear whenever his opponent became stronger and claimed to have become one, and later is strangely immobile when Goku actually becomes one and doesn't kill him before he can complete the transformation. This is easily explained if we take "Episode of Bardock" as canon: he already knows what a Super Saiyan looks like from his ancestor Chilled's warning (the creature that becomes blond called a Saiyan. Realizing it was actually a Super Saiyan wouldn't be a stretch for him once he heard of the legend), hence him not taking seriously Vegeta's claims, as he knows he's wrong (and not revealing what a Super Saiyan looks like because this way he'll break Vegeta that much harder when he has to face the truth he's still weaker), and being too stunned to react when Goku starts transforming.
    • Even without considering Episode Of Bardock, not only is Frieza a creature who transforms, but all of the Saiyans and at least three of his non-Saiyan employees also transform. Even without the ability to sense ki, he can probably recognize a legit transformation, and even though Frieza and Zarbon do it to contain (power and hideousness, respectively), Abo, Kado and all the Saiyans do so to increase. Seeing a noticeable, visible change in a Saiyan, no matter how subtle, would be likely to freak him out if he can't think of a way to explain it with something like tails or full moons.
  • King Kai originally told Goku that planet Vegeta had been destroyed by its Guardian, or God in the original Japanese, had summoned a meteor to crash into it when the wicked ways of the Saiyans went too far. We later learned that it had actually been Frieza to destroy it... And even later, we learned that Beerus sped up his plans due to king Vegeta keeping the most comfortable cushion in the universe for himself. A God did summon what destroyed planet Vegeta due to the Saiyan doing something evil, just it wasn't the planet's god, it wasn't a meteor, and the evil was suicidally stupid pettiness.
  • At the start of the series, Bulma is shown actually scared of Goku when Raditz reveals they're both Saiyans. As Jaco the Galactic Patrolman establishes she had known of the Saiyan for years, she has just realized that her best friend had come to Earth to wipe everyone out.
  • In the Buu Saga, Majin Buu displays the ability to heal very early on, which starkly contrasts from Buu's nature as we were told up to that point - a merciless, destructive force of nature. The brilliance comes in when you realize later on that Buu's healing ability was Foreshadowing of the fact that he had absorbed two Supreme Kais in the past, with Kibito demonstrating healing abilities in the same arc.
  • Raditz said that Nappa and Vegeta would take a year to arrive, yet they show up a month early. Was he wrong? No, he was just measuring time in either the old Saiyan way or by the PTO count, and in whatever system he was using a year is shorter than Earth's by about an Earth month.
  • At first, Uub seems like a retread of Gohan. He's an unimpressive fighter with a lot of potential that only becomes apparent when he is enraged. But that was the entire point. Goku wasn't just given an opponent who mirrored his son, but unlike Gohan, who had all the resources and conditions necessary to become a great fighter but kept throwing it away to focus on more worldly pursuits, Uub doesn't have the opportunities to develop his talents because of harsh worldly realities until Goku gives him relief. Goku loves his biological sons the way they are, but Uub is the son he mistakenly believed Gohan to be during the Cell saga. Gohan doesn't lose his head until someone he cares about gets hurt, Uub got into fight mode simply by being in front of an opponent he didn't like.
  • Scouters being broken so easily on certain mooks. For low-level mooks, the scouters are probably not built as well and don't have the range of power levels as one's higher-tiered leadership hold, as low-level mooks would only really need to deal with civilians and low tier warriors. High power levels would overload these scouters really quickly and cause them to explode easily.
  • On Namek, Recoome taunts Vegeta on not having any attack capable of dealing with their huge difference in power. Years later, Vegeta finds himself in the same situation against Perfect Cell... And suddenly he has the Final Flash, that would have disintegrated Cell had he not dodged at the last moment (and still caused him what should have been crippling damage had he not been capable of regenerating from much worse). Sounds like Vegeta conceded that Recoome had a point...
  • When the Z Warriors first meet Shin and Kibito, Krillin thinks they just look weird, while Goku and Piccolo guess they're powerful opponents. As gods, Shin and Kibito have Godly Ki that Krillin cannot feel, but Goku has spent the last seven years around other gods and Piccolo has now Kami's wisdom and knowledge, they know that some very powerful beings have ki that cannot be sensed.
  • Why did 18 have so much trouble with Trunks and Goten at the Tenkaichi even before they went Super Saiyan when she could fight them as such? Partly because she couldn't make sense of their fighting style and was holding back to not kill "Mighty Mask"... And partly because her fighting style involves her dragging on the fight to take advantage of her infinite energy, and partly that she knew that they were Goten and Trunks in disguise.
  • Videl as a teen often wore fingerless gloves, but stopped after retiring from fighting. Those weren't simple gloves, they were martial arts padded gloves to protect her hands and stopped wearing them after retiring from fighting-or realizing her ability to use ki meant she didn't need them anymore.
    • Related to the above, Pan in Dragon Ball GT also wears fingerless gloves. Either she's taking clues from her mother in her youth, or she started wearing them at Mr. Satan's insistence and grew used to them.
  • Fat Buu often made acrobatic maneuvers while flying around with Babidi, but stopped after he was dead-he knew exactly how frail Babidi was and was already trying to kill him without being sealed away, he just hadn't thought of the way he ultimately used yet.
    • In general, Buu showed he was far smarter than he looked since the moment he attacked Dabura: Buu was confident in his power and regeneration, and yet went immediately for the eye to cripple him just in case. Then there's how he manhandled Vegeta (far stronger than Dabura) once he grew bored of their "fight"...
  • During the end of the Frieza saga, Goku turned down an offer to be quickly transported back to Earth via the Dragon Balls, insisting on heading back to Earth on his own. This actually may be the smarter idea if you take into account that he just unlocked his Super Saiyan form, a power he at the time knew very little about, knowing only that it gave him a power boost while making him significantly more violent and rage-filled. Goku, keeping those factors in mind, likely figured he needed time to figure out how to control his Super Saiyan powers (remember he didn't even figure out how to turn it off while on Planet Namek) before returning to Earth since otherwise he might've risked someone pushing the wrong button at the wrong time which might prompt a still rage-filled Super Saiyan Goku into hurting that person along with damaging the Earth.
    • Not just that, but he likely feared that letting Frieza live would just result in him potentially surviving Namek's explosion and locating Earth some time later to seek his revenge. Guess what would later happen - twice?
  • Goten and Trunks are immature children when they're introduced. What does Goku teach them to make them effective fighters? The Fusion Dance, which is a kata. Katas teach discipline, control, and proper form, which is perfect for the Unskilled, but Strong children.
  • Speaking of Goten, this troper just had one about his name. It’s twofold: first, the characters, Go and Ten, translate to "understanding the heavens". Goku’s characters translate to "understanding the sky". So, Goten’s name is a direct memorial to his recently-deceased father on Chi-Chi’s part. But, in Chinese (and Dragon Ball is implied to take place in mainland China), the characters would be pronounced as Wuten (compare Sun Wukong, the inspiration for Goku) — as in, Wuten Laoshi, a.k.a. Muten Roshi. Just like Gohan, Goten is named after one of Goku’s old masters. Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
  • The Spirit Bomb really was the only way to kill Kid Buu. All the guides state that Goku at Super Saiyan 3 was the more powerful of the two but it was becoming abundantly clear that nothing else in Goku's arsenal could get the job done. Notice that he tried to atomize Buu with random energy blasts multiple times during their initial fight. It's very likely that Goku did stop playing around halfway through the battle and started going for the kill before realizing that Buu's healing factor was just too damn advanced. It's a very good thing that Vegeta came up with the Spirit Bomb plan, otherwise they would've all died from exhaustion.
  • Gohan becomes Super Saiyan 2 after seeing Android 16 die, even though he didn't even know him that well. Then you realize Android 16 was one of the few good characters to be Killed Off for Real (as he was completely artificial), so his death would actually be one of the most significant in the entire franchise.
  • The Edible Theme Naming in the Frieza Force makes a whole lot of sense when you think about it. Where do you store fruits and vegetables mostly? In the fridge or freezer! So all of his underlings are named after stuff you put in those "cold" compartments like vegetables (Saiyans), drinks and dairy products (Ginyu Force), and fruit (other soldiers).
  • Yes, the amount of power ups and transformations available to Saiyans ended up becoming rather ridiculousnote  even before Dragon Ball GT added Super Saiyan 4 and Dragon Ball Super added God and Ultra Instinct transformations into the mix. However, it becomes Fridge Brilliance when you realize Sun Wukong, the character whom Son Goku is based on, knows 72 Earthly Transformations that allow him to transform into animals and objects. As such, Goku having about 7 or more forms can be considered a continuing Call-Back to his meta-fictional origins.
  • The Androids attacked on May 12, 767. According to Daizenshuu 7, Goku destroyed the Red Ribbon Army Headquarters on May 12, 750. Dr. Gero must have chosen that date on purpose for his revenge.
  • When Goten protests Vegeta knocking Trunks out, notice that he takes a long pause before knocking Goten out to silence him. At first you might think that Vegeta's conscience is stalling him, but Vegeta was probably gauging Goten's power level so that he knew how much force to use to knock the boy out but not cripple or kill him by mistake. One can only imagine the whirlwind of emotions in Vegeta's soul as he wants nothing more than to be with his son, but he has to do the cold equation necessary (applying the right amount of force) to make sure he remains safe.
  • When watching the fight between Goku vs. Pikkon, I at one point wondered why, when Goku went Super Saiyan, everyone (apart from King Kai) was surprised to see this, with West Kai outright asking what had happened to him. Then I realized that this was because practically every other Saiyan had been to some degree like Vegeta in their personality, and thus would have most likely been sent to Hell. The only possible exception to this would have been Bardock, and because Bardock was not an incredibly powerful fighter, he would not be "qualified" to participate in the Otherworld Tournament. Therefore, everyone is surprised because most of them have never seen a Saiyan before, and the few who might have seen one have definitely never seen a Super Saiyan. Rellevart.
    • Jossed. Bardock went Super Saiyan in Episode of Bardock. However, it's quite possible that he's just never been in the Otherworld Tournament, and is just kinda chillin' somewhere.
    • Even if we take Episode of Bardock as true, he most likely didn't keep his body after he died. In the Dragon World only heroes or people who spent their lives doing good have the privilege of keeping their bodies. Although Bardock risked his life to save the people on the planet he was on, it most likely wasn't enough to balanced all the evil he did while working under Frieza. As Piccolo noted to Vegeta, one good deed doesn't negate a lifetime of evil.
  • There's a more subtle and likely unintentional parallel between Goku and Frieza by the Buu Saga. Frieza had four forms in total — his base restricted form, and three more powerful states leading to his true form. Goku eventually became so powerful that the only way to bring it all out was with a whopping three stages of Super Saiyan beyond his base form. In other words, his base too became his "restricted" form. Frieza, as you'll recall, had a fatal flaw in using his full power. As soon as he hit that peak, his ki would begin to take a staggering nosedive. Remember what Goku's crux was in going all the way to Super Saiyan 3?
    • Not to burst the bubble, but Super Saiyan multiplies a Saiyan's existing power, rather than jumping it to a set number.
  • Right before he dies on Namek, Vegeta tells Goku he wants Frieza to die by a Saiyan's hand. Guess who does ultimately kill Frieza? Not only a Saiyan but Vegeta's son, Trunks!
    • Frieza gets one as well. His DNA is used to create Cell, who in one alternate future kills Trunks, thus bringing the Saiyan race to extinction.
  • In early Dragon Ball Z, Bulma and Roshi ask Baba if she can see the outcome of the fight against the Saiyans. Specifically, they ask whether the earth is intact one year from now. There was no apparent reason for her not to see the outcome, except for not spoiling the fight, of course. Then this troper realized that, if Roshi and Bulma asked her about this only a month or so before the fight, then the reason she couldn't see the year ahead into the future anymore was because of Cell travelling to the past before that point. Remember that Cell arrived a year before Trunks, and the Frieza saga lasted barely over a month, with only a year's time between then and Trunks arriving. Once time travel becomes involved, Baba can't see the future anymore! Must have hurt her business.
  • This troper often wondered why Gohan went Super Saiyan 2 after Cell crushed Android 16's head. Sure, it was sad and all, but Gohan didn't really know 16 very well. But then, it hit me after seeing some video's: That scene was exactly identical to a nightmare Gohan had in some filler, where Cell crushed Piccolo's head, one of the people he cares most for, in the same manner. Cell crushing 16's head made him realize how Cell could easily destroy everyone he knew and loved. - Shadowgirl 13 Chaos
    • Furthermore, the filler episode early in Z, The Strangest Robot, shows Gohan developing feelings for a robot called C-6, which then sacrifices itself to save him. Not only would Android 16's death remind Gohan of his old friend and the sacrifice it made for him, but the loss of C-6 was the first time Gohan had experienced death and grief, and it happened to be a mechanical being. Thus, Gohan seems to associate much pain with the loss of artificial life that has developed a virtuous, altruistic personality of its own despite its programming. Some may write this off as a coincidence due to the episode being filler but keep in mind that Toriyama was directly involved with the creation of the anime's filler and he made many suggestions and contributed many ideas to filler episodes. - E Bsessed
    • Cell seems to be especially weak, even with The Worf Effect taking place. It does make sense that Cell who's absorbed people to gain people with hints as early as the Imperfect Form implying that the soul is literally being kept within Cell as battery to power him up. When he finally dies for real, he loses all of those boosters due to both the wish bringing back those who died and King Yemma extracting the rest that didn't fit the wish- leaving Cell- even with his revival booster to enable him to exist as Perfect Cell permanently- a base power that's much weaker than his prime.
  • At first, Gohan's love of doing silly, Sentai-esquie poses as "The Great Saiyaman" seem to come out of nowhere as just a gag. But, when you stop and think about it, there's multiple reasons why Gohan might have picked up the trait.
    • Firstly, a defining element of Gohan is that he's much more civilized than his father, but still shares a lot of things in common with him. Super Sentai is a very popular genre with Japanese kids, so Gohan liking it shows that he's more in-tune with the "normal" Japanese person (as opposed to his near-feral father), but at the same time, he's still quite childlike, just like his father.
    • Secondly, Gohan fought the Ginyu Force, who pose just like that, on Namek, and they were nothing less than deadly warriors. Considering the most flamboyant of the team, Recoome, nearly beat Gohan to death, it makes sense that he would believe such posing is legitimately overawing and intimidating.
    • Finally, an unacknowledged fact of Gohan's life is that he had a pretty traumatic childhood. It kind of makes sense that he'd immerse himself in Super Sentai after the Cell Games because it offers him the action & fighting his Saiyan genes crave, but it's all for show — nobody's actually getting hurt or dying for real, so it's a kind of escapism to the former Child Soldier. When he takes up the Great Saiyaman role, he attempts to emulate those Sentai heroes because he wants to cling to the idea that fighting can be similarly "just for fun" and not a matter of life and death.
  • I'm sure to a lot of people this was obvious but it took me a while to figure out that the whole reason Cell tried so hard to get Gohan to turn into a Super Saiyan 2 was because he had Vegeta's cells, and like Vegeta, he wants to prove that he can beat people while they're at their strongest.
    • More likely, it's because he's the literal embodiment of the idea of perfection. The Cell Games are all about showing the Z Fighters that he's the perfect warrior, so he had to dispel any doubt about Gohan.
    • Not only is he part Vegeta but part Goku as well. Maybe the Saiyans all have some trait about them that makes them want their enemy at full power when they're defeated.
      • It's stated in canon that ALL Saiyans are tremendous Blood Knights. Some take it the sadistic and more common route such as Vegeta, and others are entirely interested in the thrill of the fight such as Goku. Okay, just Goku.
      • Consider the Saiyan from an evolutionary perspective and compare it to human evolution. When humans became predators, they took pride in waging a war on all other competing top predators (which has been successful to different degrees), and are quite proud of killing large dangerous non-humans, like bears. Saiyans don't bother hunting the lesser predators - they are hunters of the TOP predators (ie, people), and take the same joy in wiping out people-level creatures, as human people take in wiping out wolves, bears, and tigers. Humans just don't like being treated the way they treat other species.
  • At first, Cell self-destructing seems to be just an act of desperation. Here comes the brilliance; using the move, Cell manages to accomplish the purpose he was built for: killing Goku.
    • Actually it can be seen as somewhat ironic (I think I'm using that right) as Cell was the only Android in the entire saga that was NOT built for killing Goku, instead he was only built to achieve perfection.
      • This troper thinks the reason he was meant to become perfect was to help him beat Goku, and Cell just kinda went on his own from there. Even more ironic in that case would be that Cell actually wasn't perfect when he killed Goku since he lost Android 18.
    • I think I can solve the confusion here. Dr. Gero states that the reason for creating new androids was to find one capable of killing Goku. Apparently not convinced 17 and 18 could do the job, he creates Cell, who upon perfection can beat Goku. Cell reaches perfection, but the power corrupts his programming, making defeating Goku seem like a trifle. Nevertheless, Cell's tactics do lead to Goku's death. Note this is more Fridge Brilliance for Dr. Gero, not Cell.
      • Cell actually says as much to Trunks, at least in the Dragon Ball Z Kai version, when explaining and deciding that he wants a tournament.
  • After Cell's self-destruction and subsequent regeneration, he somehow learned how to use Instant Transmission even though that technique had puzzled him before. How did he suddenly figure out how to use it? The answer is simple: because of Tien's cells! During Tien's fight against Jackie Chun in Dragon Ball, he displays his ability to copy and instantly master any technique that he sees, by firing a Kamehameha after only witnessing it once during his match against Yamcha. Because Tien's cells were also used in the creation of Cell, it's very likely that Cell also possesses this ability.
    • Goku himself seems to possess a savant-like ability to learn fighting techniques quickly as wellnote , and Vegeta might have the talent for it (given his acquisition of the ability to sense ki after fighting on Earth for little more than a day) if not the disposition. So it's almost like a three-fer.
  • Goku seems to have a lot of problems with killing in the Saiyan/Namek saga (wanting to let Nappa, Jeice, Recoome, and Burter live and letting Vegeta and trying to let Frieza live). The reason that stopped after the Namek saga was because for the first time that Goku had let someone live (Frieza) it didn't turn them good. Every other villain Goku let live in the past became good so Goku wanting to let everyone live, until Frieza proved mercy doesn't make all bad guys good, is understandable.
    • Although in the case of Frieza it was more Cruel Mercy. Goku thought it would be far more painful and humiliating for an egomaniac like Frieza to go on living, knowing he was beaten by a 'monkey'. Giving Frieza some of his energy to escape Namek, however, was Goku being unable to turn a deaf ear for a plea for help.
    • His tendency to spare his enemies goes back to him letting Piccolo Jr. live at the end of Dragon Ball. It's a dramatic departure from his earlier attitude of killing his enemies without hesitation. What happened in the interim? He lived with God for three years! Kami didn't just make Goku stronger physically, he refined him spiritually.
  • Android 16 was a pacifist and Gentle Giant. He was also far more obedient than 17 and 18. So why was Doctor Gero so afraid of him? Perhaps he had a really bad experience with an android that had the exact same personality but a few hundred thousand times less fighting power (one from 8 generations ago).
    • Actually, it's for a different reason and related to the other 16 one: Android 16 was inspired by Dr. Gero's own son. He was killed by a bullet as a high-rank soldier in the Red Ribbon army. So when he remade him, he made 16 strong enough to protect himself, but also had his son's personality. This was revealed in a somewhat recent interview.
    • No, Gero was afraid of 16 because 16 was good. 16 was obedient to 17 and 18, to an extent, because he thought they were decent people and he only wanted to kill Goku, but he wouldn't do anything for them that did not interest him. When 16 figures out Cell is a no-good bastard, 16 immediately tries to kill Cell and doesn't let anyone stop him. Gero himself is a no-good bastard directly responsible for Cell's existence. 16 would immediately try to kill him. Then he would have tried to kill Goku. 16 literally puts Cell's death ahead of Goku's.
  • This troper thought it was weird at first Gero made cyborgs when he was perfectly capable of making robots, then had a moment of fridge logic: Gero created CELL. To make Cell the most powerful being in the universe Gero needed him to have nigh-infinite energy, but couldn't give him an infinite energy generator because Cell was grown from... cells. 17 and 18 NEEDED to be cyborgs in order for Cell to be able to absorb them since he can't absorb pure machines (shown with 16) I like to think this is correct when 17 himself has an inner monologue pondering the same thing.
    • Furthermore, notice the term INFINITE energy. This explains why Cell refers to the state he reaches after absorbing the twins as "perfection".
  • This troper used to think that Gero saying android 16 was a "horrible defect" was just a fake warning to keep 17 and 18 from re-activating him, as he was perfectly functional. But, then I just realized he is defective, in Gero's eyes, anyway; he had no motive for destroying Goku like he wanted, and was peaceful and gentle, not the Goku smashin' death machine he wanted him to be. - Shadowgirl 13 Chaos
    • Android 16 seems to have an extremely good ability for analyzing his opponents, as observed by his sensing the Kami/Piccolo fusion. This might be why he turned out a "defective" pacifist. With perception comes empathy.
    • Not entirely true. I can't speak for the anime, but in the manga at the start of the Cell Games Goku says to 16 something along the lines of "Hey, thanks for fighting alongside us," to which 16 replies "Don't forget, I was created to kill you". YMMV on this, but he may have been implying that once Cell was gone, he was going to kill (or at least fight) Goku.

  • Krillin refusing to kill 18. Here I was thinking "what a softy, to think this was the pain in the ass punk kid Goku trained with." then I realized, that's why he's so reluctant to kill someone who, so far, has shown themselves to be little more than a delinquent, not a villain. He knows firsthand people like that can reform.
    • He even flat-out states it at the beginning of the Android Saga when explaining to Bulma that they should try to fight the Androids with Vegeta because it gave them a common enemy. Goku made most of his friends like this. At first, people like Oolong, Yamcha, Tien, Yajirobe, Piccolo, Vegeta, and even Krillin were all rivals and enemies against Goku, but when faced with a common goal (i.e. finding the Dragon Balls and defeating a stronger enemy), they became allies and later friends. I think that Krillin was thinking that if they became allies to fight against Cell, she wouldn't need to die.
  • This troper used to wonder why Goku was willing to allow Frieza a chance to redeem himself and live, even after killing Krillin, even though when Demon King Piccolo did the same (indirectly, but still), Goku became a berserk Blood Knight who would not stop until Piccolo was absolutely dead. Then I remembered that Goku's utter pureness, he cannot bring himself to kill anyone who has even an ounce of redeemable qualities in them. Even though Frieza was as bad as we see in Z, he still must have been good at some point in his life, even if it was only as an infant, so he does have at least a minuscule amount of good in him. Demon King Piccolo, however, was literally the embodiment of evil, being what was formed when Kami expelled all the bad stuff from his body. He was born of pure evil and Goku was able to sense that. Even though he didn't know Piccolo's backstory, he could sense that there wasn't even the smallest chance at redemption, so he had no choice but to kill him.
    • Even more brilliant when you remember what he said about Vegeta episodes earlier, how Vegeta wasn't born bad, but made that way! Goku might be applying this same logic to Frieza and is offering him a chance to redeem himself.
    • Alternatively, it's Cruel Mercy. He was clearly mocking Frieza at the end and essentially told him to hide in a corner of the universe and never come back. Frieza would've spent the rest of his life a shell of his former self with the knowledge that he was owned by "a lowly Saiyan." Which, to a Saiyan, would be a Fate Worse than Death, one that Frieza deserves.
    • Better still, it might have been both. Being beaten by a "lowly Saiyan" would be the kind of push that might knock Frieza off his high horse and change him significantly, and would only be a Fate Worse than Death if he didn't undergo any Character Development. If he did eventually redeem himself, his defeat at Goku's hands (and the subsequent energy dosage to make sure he lived) would undoubtedly be the start of that paradigm shift.
      • This would also explain Goku's desperation to get Gohan to finish Cell later in the series, as he's already made the mistake of wanting an enemy to suffer, only to have that Cruel Mercy come back to bite him.
  • He's still not very strong by any means, mind you, but Mr. Satan probably isn't the wimp we all think he is. He's still the martial arts champion, and the World Tournaments bring in the craziest of fighters with a library of tricks and techniques. For him to be in his position, he has to be not only the strongest human martial artist that doesn't use Ki, but the most battle-smart human martial artist that doesn't use Ki as well. It's not particularly relevant given how his main assets to the Z Fighters are his fame and fortune, but it's a bit surprising given his reputation as a weakling.
  • Shin said that those who can wield the Z Sword (Or Zeta Sword) could defeat Majin Buu, Gohan was able to wield it just fine... And so was Goku, who in the end, did manage to do so.
  • During his final clash with Gohan, Cell ignores the intervention of the Z Fighters until Vegeta blasts him in the back, at which point he's scared... Because while the others weren't strong enough to harm him, he knew from experience that Vegeta could in fact kill him and had a clear shot at his back. He had just realized he couldn't survive this, he could only choose between who killed him - and before he could remember Vegeta was too tired for the Final Flash he got disintegrated.
  • Before Vegeta blew himself up trying to kill Majin Buu we're told that he's far too evil to not go to Hell, but when, three days later, all the good people killed by Buu are brought back Vegeta too finds himself alive again... Thanks to a number of actions Vegeta did during the arc fully knowing his fate and that if he pulled it off he was cutting his brief reprieve short, starting from sacrificing himself knowing that this one good deed wasn't enough to spare him from his fate. One good deed wasn't enough, but repeated selfless deeds he expected would still lead him to Hell were.
    • Also, we see that bank robbers were brought back to life, and in Super we see that major jerk Barry Khan was revived too as well as the survivors of the Red Ribbon Army. Again, remember that the wish was made to the Namekian Dragon, Porunga. Given that the Namekians were a peaceful agricultural society not familiar with the smaller evils of city life, Porunga's moral perspective may have been such that only truly irredeemable monsters and invaders would be judged as evil and excluded by the wish, and Vegeta had already started becoming a decent person even before dying.
  • Mr Satan is very strong for someone who can't use ki, even using a Flash Step once. That's likely where his skepticism about ki, and the general public following suit, comes from:
    • People claiming to use ki are relatively numerous in the martial arts world, and in DB, where there's people who actually can, they'd be even more numerous... Ensuring Mr Satan would fight, and defeat, many of them, both fraudolent and truthful who just happened to not be really that strong. No matter if he ever believed it, by crushing so many who claim to use ki he'd end up becoming a skeptic (at least until the Z Fighters and Cell proved him wrong).
    • Given his fame, Mr Satan would be challenged by many McDojo owners falsely claiming to be able to use ki, expecting to be ignored by the far more famous guy... Except Mr Satan is someone who'd never waste a chance to show off, and would not only accept at least a few such challenges but have them broadcast. And once the fight went the way of MMA instructor Xu Xiaodong versus Tai Chi master and supposed qi user Lei Wei, they'd be humiliated. Rinse and repeat, and by the time of the Cell Games people had decided to disbelieve ki and rationalized King Piccolo and the Saiyan invasion in some way.

     Fridge Horror 
  • This troper hasn't seen DBZ in a while so please forgive any mistakes. If this troper recalls, 16 wasn't able to be wished back for whatever reason, perhaps because he was pure machine. Does this imply that he's soulless? Because if he could think, and feel, what makes his physiology any different from any of the aliens we saw in Other World? Does this mean 16 was only simulating the emotions according to glitchy programming, rather than experiencing them on the same spectrum as a human? Really makes this more Fridge Depression rather than Fridge Horror.
    • It's not canon but, one of the guidebooks says #16 was revived, and he went to live with #8. From a canon perspective, though, #16 wasn't revived simply because he wasn't alive to begin with. The gang specifically wished for all those killed by Cell to be revived, but #16, not being alive in the first place, was never killed by Cell. He would have been revived by a wish to restore everything destroyed by Cell, though, if they had thought to fix all the property damage Cell caused instead of removing some bombs that Bulma could have taken care of anyway.
  • Dragon Ball Super now established that a Potara fusion used by mortal beings only has a time limit of one hour at most. The only thing that allowed Vegito to retain his sentience and power despite being turned into a candy was his Potara-enabled power. What if the hour had run out -before- Buu reverted him to a human??
  • Near the end of the show, Super Buu uses the human extinction attack to kill pretty much every Earthling who isn't on the lookout. Dr. Slump shares the same world as Dragon Ball. Sure, everyone was brought back later but Arale, her fairies, and Dr. Slump might have been suddenly killed in front of each other by mysterious energy beams. That would be incredibly traumatic, especially if Dr. Slump had to essentially watch his daughter die a second time and she probably hasn't aged considering she's a robot. Would she even be brought back by the Dragon Balls? Then again, considering that she made an appearance in Dragon Ball Super, it's safe to say that she's alive and well.
  • I used to think the heart virus Goku contracted during the Android saga, the one that killed him in Future Trunk's time, was just a regular heart virus. Then I got to thinking. Goku isn't a normal human. He's a Saiyan, a Super Saiyan, a guy that knocked Frieza out in minutes. And this super elite warrior was taken down by a heart virus? Just how nasty was this virus, because I doubt he would've fallen if it were a regular virus found on Earth. What if he had contracted a deadly alien disease while he was in space, one that attacks the heart and is unlike anything found on Earth? That would explain why there wasn't a cure for the virus Goku got, not until Future Trunks gave such a cure to him. Had it been an Earth-born virus, Goku probably wouldn't even have noticed it.
    • Nope. Regular old virus. Having a lot of ki protects you from things that hit hard, and to a much, much lesser extent, heat. It doesn't protect from anything else. And Saiyan biology is nearly identical to human biology, so there is no reason Goku would be immune, or even especially resistant, to a disease that is deadly to humans. Not to mention that in the entire series, Goku is the only character to ever get sick. There is also the matter of the different timing of the sickness in the two timelines. In the future timeline, he got sick shortly after returning to Earth, but in the present timeline, he got sick 3 years later. Since viruses have very consistent incubation periods, that means he had to contract the virus on Earth, because he had no alien contact after he got back.
    • You make a number of excellent points, but one thing I wanted to point out is that some viruses become dormant for extended periods of time, only to "trigger" later. Taking into account time travel resulting in alternate timelines and thus numerous variations and how some viruses are fully capable of immediate infection and prolonged, lysogenic-cycle dormancy, it is possible that the virus was extra-terrestrial.
      • If you assume that what triggered the virus was fighting for a long time in Super Saiyan form, Goku fought Frieza in Trunk's timeline but didn't in this timeline, and the virus only activated after Goku went Super Saiyan and fought android 19 then the difference becomes an example of fridge brilliance.
    • It actually make perfect sense that even a Super Saiyan can be brought down by an ordinary virus, because of how viruses work. Viruses are parasitic DNA that attach themselves to that of their hosts. No amount of strength can save you from that because in a sense the virus is a part of you. The only way to get rid of them is for the body's immune system to kill off the infected cells, indeed that's what causes the most damage. Not all viruses are malevolent, plenty are perfectly willing to just harmlessly ride along in their hosts DNA (some are even useful, a virus was likely responsible for the evolution of the mammalian placenta) but the body can't tell the difference. Goku was still just as vulnerable to the virus because it was causing him to be eaten alive by his own immune systems.
    • Ah, I see, I see. Thanks for the clarification. I just assumed because Goku was a Saiyan, he was immune to Earth-borne diseases and viruses.
    • Actually, going by Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, Saiyans and humans are quite different biologically. Jaco has an extinction bomb that would kill all the humans on Earth, and only the humans. When Jaco was explaining about the Saiyans he said that an extinction bomb had no effect of them, meaning they couldn't develop a virus that would wipe them out, despite making a virus that could kill humans. Meaning that Goku could be immune to most Earth-borne viruses. Not to say that there's no crossovers like how there are viruses that can infect multiple species.
    • It's implied that he may have gotten the virus from Yardrat. The indigenous aliens there nursed him back to health, so they no doubt were exposed to his open wounds from his fight with Frieza and he was in turn exposed to a virus that Yardrati were either immune to or knew how to fight. In fact, what's to say that the methods they used to heal him - methods almost certainly devised with Yardrati physiology in mind, were exactly the thing that made him sick?
      • Which, if true, this would make Goku Patient Zero for a virus that would go on to kill humans for 2 decades before a cure was found. Meaning Goku unintentionally kills some of the people that he tries so hard to protect.
  • According to Akira Toriyama after the Cell saga, Android 17 got married had/adopted kids and worked on a nature preserve stopping poachers and that's adorable. So what happened to that loving family of his when he became evil and is more than willing to kill his own niece and sister?
    • The same author also said that GT is a What If? universe, and even stated outright that due to the revelations and the level of power displayed in Super, GT has almost become an Alternate Universe. So, nothing.
    • Alternative universes still exist though, 17 would have still become a ranger and very likely had a family. That said, his family wasn't anywhere near him when the Super 17 fusion happen, so they'd probably be upset about losing a father/husband, but would not be harmed by him.
    • OK but if he adopted/conceived a child with a woman he married then where are they in super it's also kind of disturbing that he keeps cell jr captive as mascots even though they are in theory cell's children with his sister
  • Were it not for Goku, Gohan, or Future Trunks, the universe would easily have become an example of a Cosmic Horror Story. Think about it - you've got the Saiyans, which are capable of killing thousands without breaking a sweat, a conglomerate of immensely powerful aliens who employ the Saiyans that kill native populations for real estate purposes, an Android that is even more powerful than that, and you've got an Ax-Crazy, Omnicidal Maniac obsessed with destroying planets that ate a god. The kicker is that militias of the world are shown being completely inneffective against these threats.
    • Even the galactic police are incapable of dealing with these monsters. Let this sink in for a minute: Before Frieza blew up Planet Vegeta, a highly advanced civilization tried to wipe out the Saiyans with a biological weapon because they were deemed too dangerous to live. The Saiyans gave the bio-weapon a No-Sell, and the Saiyans in question were downright WEAK in comparison to these monsters, with even King Vegeta and his royal guard being effortlessly defeated by first-form Frieza.
      • Of course, the fact that a biological weapon explicitly intended to cause extinctions couldn't wipe out the Saiyans, but a virus that Goku came down with could kill even a Super Saiyan, makes you wonder just what that virus is. Maybe the Androids weren't really the ones responsible for nearly wiping out humanity in Trunk's time, but rather that virus that killed Goku.
      • They do mention having created a cure for that virus in Trunk's time, which is why Trunks was able to give him such a cure in the first place, so it probably was a dangerous virus that killed a lot of people if they bothered to go out of their way make a cure for it while a bunch of omnicidal androids were running around destroying entire cities. I'd say it's very likely that Saiyans long since developed some sort of super artificial immune system to protect their warriors and infants from most diseases they could potentially come across, as they would have been pretty useless for conquering planets otherwise. Perhaps it needs to be renewed every few years or something, thus Goku still gets infected with the heart virus and subsequently killed by it while the Saiyans back then would have still "had their shots" as it were, thus the extinction virus was useless.
  • Remember that Cell came from the future where he killed Trunks in his time? As of Dragon Ball Super, there is literally no one who could stop Goku Black on his genocidal quest of "justice" in the timeline. But the upside is that Babidi and Dabura are screwed if they encountered him. Had Future Trunks not known about Cell and trained enough to kill him in his time, he wouldn't have stopped Babidi and Dabura considering what happened afterwards.
  • Fusion is a bit a fridge horror depending on the circumstances. Now with Vegito, Gogeta, and Gotenks the merges are depicted as harmonious. The Fused being in those cases view themselves as a separate entity from the original fusees. However, when Shin and Kibito fused as well as Shin's ancestor Kai and the witch it wasn't harmonious. Kibitoshin is essentially a taller Shin (with Kibito's long white hairstyle) and the Elder Kai is simply that. What happened to Kibito and the witch?
    • For Old Kai we aren't really shown what he or was like before their fusion, the 2 before and after fusing could be barely any different people for all we know. As for Kibito, from what we see of him it seems like he's pretty much Supreme Kai's sycophantic yes man, he does whatever Supreme Kai wants without question, so the idea that after being fused that Kibito would be taking anywhere near as much control over the fused body that Supreme Kai does is pretty ridiculous. In short, Kibito's probably still there, but he's content letting the Supreme Kai call the shots. It's probably the same reason why Kibito Kai doesn't use the fusion voice either, it's anyone's guess why Old Kai doesn't.
      • Makes sense, IIRC Kibito Kai is occasionally referred to as the Supreme Kai as well. It might just be Kibito's humility. Though it's strange that the two fused Kaioushin in the show are both depicted as dominant fusees.
      • It's entirely possible that because the Kais are so high above their fuse partners, that they ended up the dominant one in the mix.
  • There is a problem from a Filler where Buu (after killing everyone on Earth and destroying the planet) also destroyed at least one other planet with intelligent life on it. Later, they wish Earth back into existence and then revive every good person killed by Buu. Fridge Horror when you realize all those Aliens who were brought back to life... only to be floating in space to die horribly again.
    • Furthermore, there are all those islands Cell blew up when looking for 18. When the people inhabiting those islands were revived, they'd just reappear in the middle of the ocean, and presumably drown.
    • When the others gathered the Dragon Balls after the Cell Games, they wished for everyone killed by Cell to come back to life... leaving all those killed before by Vegeta and Dr. Gero dead.
      • Though it might be debatable thanks to Fridge Brilliance. One of the wishes was to bring back those killed by Frieza and his men. Vegeta happened to be working with Frieza when he was killing people.
      • Dragon Ball Z Abridged took this and ran with it, bringing Nappa back into the mix. If true, then the reason Nappa wasn't revived by the wish was because he WAS one of Frieza's men and therefore, didn't count when one of Frieza's men (Vegeta) killed him. Vegeta would be resurrected because he was no longer Frieza's guy when the wish was made, making this possible Fridge Brilliance.
      • And thanks to more filler, it immediately jumps back into Fridge Horror. Assuming the "Vegeta was working for Frieza" technicality counts, that would include all of the Arlians, who had their planet destroyed by him, and would also theoretically revive in space's vaccum and end up dying again.
  • Some of the OVA movies are set in an alternate timeline, where Goku got to the battle with Vegeta and Nappa earlier so that none of the Z-Fighters died, and therefore they never made the trip to Namek. This means that nobody was around to stop Frieza, who presumably wiped out the remaining Namekians.
    • But if none of the Z-Fighters died, they would have no reason to plan a trip to Namek, meaning Frieza never overheard their plans to go, meaning he never went there, either.
      • Actually, remember that when Raditz and Goku are killed by Piccolo, Piccolo tells a dying Raditz about the Dragon Balls. This is when Vegeta and Nappa (and Frieza) hear about the Earth's Dragon Balls. Despite the audience learning of Planet Namek having Dragon Balls during the Vegeta and Nappa fight, it's entirely possible that Frieza's intelligence knew of Planet Namek having Dragon Balls (after all, Vegeta had to learn of it from somewhere, too). So it's still all Raditz's fault.
    • Still leaves Frieza with his galaxy-spanning empire where he's free to kill and destroy anyone he comes across, and might end up on Namek eventually anyway.
      • In all likelihood he'd just wipe them all out and not be able to summon Porunga since he can't speak Namekian, or slay Guru and render the balls inert. And of course Beerus would still decide to make Frieza his next target.
      • Actually, no. Frieza likely would've never gone to Namek. Remember, while Vegeta had heard of "wish granting balls of Namek", they had no idea the dragon balls were the same thing. Vegeta worked that out himself, and the only reason Frieza went to Namek was because he heard Vegeta's theory through the scouter and Vegeta was about to destroy the Earth. However, the Fridge Horror remains because that just means Frieza would've went to Earth instead and there's no telling how that would've gone. Goku might've still been injured, they might not have had Vegeta as an ally, and all the extra boosts Goku got (from training in space and coming near death on Namek) wouldn't have happened either.
  • Boss Rabbit was left on the moon after he was defeated. A little later Roshi blows up the moon, presumably with the rabbit still living on it.
  • What if Cell's lucky regeneration from his own self-destruction... Really wasn't luck? What if his self-destruction was actually designed to allow him to survive it? It's definitely possible if the intelligent computer had managed to get all of attributes to make use of it (Frieza's survivability, Piccolo's regeneration, the Saiyan zenkai...) and it wouldn't even be far-fetched if Doctor Gero did indeed want to have Cell blow up planets as a post-Goku goal, like Cell seems to think. Cell calling himself lucky for it could very well be a case of simply not knowing he can kill himself and revive for free (similar to how he seemed shocked Piccolo could regenerate at first, before doing it himself).If he was indeed designed to survive blowing himself up, then just imagine him blowing up planet after planet and getting a zenkai boost every. Single. Time... Doctor Gero might have created something with more potential than either Gohan or Buu...
  • The Capsules. Ranging from practical (cars and house), to threatening (Launch being able to carry an entire armory of guns in her POCKET) to more horrific things like being able to hide dead bodies inside capsules (as Bulma does to Krillin after his first death, and later Master Roshi and Chiaotzu. If Bulma can easily place Krillin's body in a freezer capsule, turn the freezer into a capsule with HIM inside, you have to wonder how many potential unsolved murders there are. Presumably you could hide LIVING people inside a capsule. If not by simply pressing the button with them inside while they're alive, killing them, placing the body in a capsule, shrinking the capsule, and then resurrecting them with the Dragon Balls, without taking the body out. Given the accessibility of capsules in-universe, this could be done just about ANY DAY of the week.
    • Let's also consider the thought that not only could the capsules hold a living person, but multiple people. One person could carry an entire gang of armed soldiers into any place they want.
    • What would happen if someone ate a capsule?
  • In the Buu saga, Videl accidentally kicked an opponent's head so hard it snapped his neck. Now remember she's on the weak end of the cast, with even the little kids far exceeding her power. You start to realize just how much power these characters have and are holding back.
    • This isn't as much of a shock when you remember that most of the characters have been able to cause an Earth-Shattering Kaboom three arcs ago.
      • It actually is more of a shock, as Videl, being on the weak end, gives the point of reference. Readers/Viewers take the Earth-Shattering Kaboom level of power for granted due to being exposed to a cast that can do that.
  • The filler before the Cell Games seem like Heartwarming Moments... until you realize that Goku's putting the entire fate of the world on his own son, who a) might not be able to gather up enough energy to destroy Cell, and b) might not even want to fight Cell!! This, after he told everyone that even he would be utterly destroyed by Cell! He was really, really lucky Gohan was able to do both (a) and (b) otherwise the world would have been really, really screwed.
    • Goku already knew long before they ever even fought that he was no match for Cell, otherwise Goku probably would have just beaten Cell himself and called it a day. His Batman Gambit with Gohan was just a last ditch effort to win.
    • But it was still reckless. How did he think Gohan could defeat Cell?
    • Goku was expecting Gohan to go berserk like he always did when he got angry in the past and attack until Cell stopped moving. Goku implied going into the Room of Spirit and Time a second time wouldn't have given them the same results as their first trip, which explains why Vegeta and Trunks were still weaker than Goku and Gohan after their second trip into the room. Goku's plan is still reckless, but there was some logic to his reasoning.
    • Goku knew that Gohan was powerful enough to beat Cell (see when Gohan snaps when Raditz attacks and his power level exceeds Raditz's own), it was just a matter of getting him to draw it out, which Gohan very nearly failed to do, and he nearly paid for it with his life (Gohan's inner power is seemingly awakened not by his own peril, but by the peril facing his friends and family, which explains why Cell nearly crushing him was not nearly effective as Cell going after the only friends he's ever known). When Piccolo points out that Gohan is NOT the Blood Knight that the full-blooded Saiyans are, Goku suitably has a My God, What Have I Done? moment as he's watching Cell beat Gohan to death.
    • If you go back and watch the episode in which Gohan becomes a Super Saiyan, Goku is going far too easy on Gohan, and not truly pushing his limits. When Gohan calls him out on this and demands that Goku test his limits, Goku obliges and Gohan becomes a Super Saiyan as a result. In Goku's mind (remember, Goku's not the most responsible parent), he is fulfilling Gohan's wish to be tested by letting him take on Cell alone. When you combine this though with the fact that, as far as Goku knows, Gohan's going to hit rage mode at any second, his decision makes a bit more sense.
      • Also, people seem to forget that before that, Goku always saw Gohan eager to fight. He screams at his mom to let him go to Namek, constantly put himself in danger to fight on Namek, and was even eager to train to fight the Androids. People are quick to call Goku a bad parent for not knowing his son, but he honestly had no reason to believe otherwise.
  • Goku begged Krillin to let Vegeta escape the Earth. Depending on which version you're watching, he did this either (1) because he is good-hearted and wasn't willing to let Krillin kill a helpless, defeated opponent; or (2) because he is so psychopathically self-absorbed that he was willing to jeopardize the lives of billions of people just so he could have the excitement of a rematch. Either way, he is essentially an accessory to genocide, given what Vegeta does on the planet Namek.
    • Well, in his defense, he didn't know about Namek then, but you're right. Him letting Vegeta go effectively signed the potential death certificate of countless billions. Good thing Vegeta had a change of heart near the end of the Namek saga (well, after he had helped to commit genocide, that is)
    • Even worse is that Vegeta recovered much sooner than Goku did thanks to the advanced medical equipment Vegeta had access to then. Vegeta was going to head right back to Earth until he heard Frieza went to Namek. If Frieza didn't learn about the Dragon Balls, Goku would've doomed the Earth.
    • Not necessarily. It took Vegeta about a month to reached the planet where he healed. So, it would take him another month to get back to Earth. He got to Namek so fast because the planet he was on was only a few hours away. By then, Goku would have healed and would have started training for Vegeta's return, they knew he would be back. Goku would have most likely done his training using the spaceship's gravity device, much like what he did on his way to Namek and he would have more than six days to grind, making him stronger than he was when he arrived on Namek. So, if anything, Vegata would have been the one most likely killed.
  • When you really think about it, Goku (by Saiyan standards) is retarded.
    • Well, hitting your soft, squishy baby head on something hard tends to have long-term effects well into adulthood.
    • Consider how Goku is a tactical genius, despite being retarded and/or brain-damaged by Saiyan standards. Imagine what he'd be like if he wasn't. (Yes, I know that it's entirely because he hit his head that he became kind-hearted enough to be pure good and unlock the power of the Super Saiyan. Just hypothesize about what he'd be like if he hadn't hit his head, but unlocked all the forms he gets in the series anyways. He'd pretty much be unstoppable.)
      • Being pure hearted had nothing to do with becoming a super saiyan. That's some dub crap. Also, Goku is a classic case of a savant. A serious head injury hinders him in day to day life, but gives him unmatched talent within a single, specific area (in his case, fighting). Had Goku not hit his head, he probably would have never been more than an average saiyan. Unless his brother is a good indication of his potential, in which case he'd be a low end elite.
      • Um No, it was in the original text in both the manga and the anime that a pure-heart was needed to become a Super Saiyan along with immense anger. It wasn't something the dub made up. There is also no evidence of Goku being a savant since he can function in everyday life like anyone else, but chose not to because he's content and sees no need to live like a regular person. He can learn fast, not just fighting, and understand the basic concept of social acceptance, like wearing cloths in public. Goku would still be a brilliant fighter with or without his head injury, but he may not have the pure heart needed to be a Super Saiyan, unless he's like Vegeta and has a heart of pure evil.
      • Actually, he cannot function in everyday life. He is shown repeatedly attempting to, only to fail. Consider every single farming scene in Dragon Ball Super, where Goku tries to be a functional member of society (albeit just for Chichi's sake) and consistently fails.
      • Yes, but that was because he was bored and lazy. He intentionally performed his job as poorly as possible because it didn't interest him in the slightest. Remember back in Dragon Ball, Roshi had him plowing fields with his hands which he excelled at. Yet here he is years later using a tractor? Yeah, right. That's just lazy, Goku. Heck, even if you count the filler, Goku was capable of adapting to society. There was that episode where Goku failed his driving test, yet in the Cell Saga, we see Goku successfully driving a motor vehicle. So he's clearly capable of learning. He just isn't very book smart and isn't interested in trying unless he actually finds a reason to apply himself. Supposedly he finally learns to drive so that he and his family can enjoy something as simple as a country ride together without drawing attention to themselves. (Can Chi Chi even fly?)
  • In the Buu arc the Supreme Kai casually explains that all the Supreme Kais could easily kill Frieza. This means that he not only knew who Frieza was, but how powerful he was. Basically, he allowed Frieza to destroy and enslave planets and races, fully aware that he could have stopped all of this, but decided not to do anything. The Supreme Kais did actually try to stop Buu, who was destroying the universe. Buu traveled to Other World in the anime and fought and killed the Kais. This means that the noble Kais only actually fought Buu to save their own skin and that they don't care about the mortal world at all. It would explain why the last Supreme Kai left Frieza do 'whatever he liked.'
    • Almost makes you want to root for Buu, if he hadn't gone and destroyed the Earth first.
      • I always assumed the Kais operated under a policy of non-interference unless the fate of reality itself/the whole universe was at stake. With power like theirs, which is equally on the same level as Cell saga Gohan, they could quite accidentally cause more damage then they could prevent by descending from Otherworld to fight Freiza.
    • Battle of Gods explains why the last Supreme Kai did not get involved: the Supreme Kais are gods of creation. Keeping in mind this, the last Supreme Kai being the least experienced one who was still learning the ropes when the others were slaughtered, and Beerus having destroyed who knows how many worlds just before that, he was simply too overworked recreating planets across the universe to come down for anything less than Majin Buu being brought back.
    • Super confirms the non-interference policy: the Supreme Kais' role is to create worlds and mortal races and nudge them toward development without direct interference beyond training, with only the Gods of Destruction being allowed to destroy mortals. And with Shin being Incompletely Trained he had no idea he was supposed to sick Beerus on Frieza-or even that he actually existed and wasn't just rumors.
  • Spopovich beating Videl to a pulp is bad enough on its own, but then you remember Gohan's traumatic childhood. He was probably having flashbacks to Nappa killing his friends. In light of that, it's a wonder he was able to contain his anger long enough to stop the match, rather than just going Super Saiyan 2 and killing Spopovich on the spot.
    • On the topic of Gohan's traumatic childhood, Frieza's 2nd Form was about to kill Gohan in a similar way to how Spopovich was about to kill Videl (crushing their skull), so Gohan must have remembered that and wondered how that was like...
  • Also on the topic of Spopovich, what would've happened if the Z-Fighters decided to take a break from the World Tournament (or if Videl never told Gohan)? Spopovich and Yamu would've murdered at least a few people (unless if they were up against the Supreme Kai or Kibito). What if the tournament pairings were different? Imagine if Hercule/Mr. Satan was up against Spopovich... not only would he have been exposed as a fraud... he probably wouldn't have lived to feel the humiliation.
  • Gohan. No, seriously, Gohan is fridge horror embodied. It had been made extremely clear from the get go that he had this deep, untapped power hidden within him that is unleashed when he's in a fit of pure, unadulterated rage. When he finally became a SS2, he becomes cold and borderline psychotic, wanting to torture Cell For the Evulz instead of just finishing him off. Ask yourself this, what would happen had Babadi found this in Gohan and decided to extract that out along with a power-up? An evil Majin Gohan with all his untapped rage hidden with him would have been absolutely terrifying. We're lucky it was Vegeta that became Majin...
    • Except that Gohan still didn't have any evil in his heart. Sure, Gohan was psychotic at the time; but a mental imbalance does not prove one is evil. Vegeta had evil in his heart because all of the cruel acts he did for sport and the thrill of the hunt as he called it, and he did it for pleasure. Gohan, on the other hand, was blinded by rage towards Cell- since his super saiyan 2 form was triggered by his sheer emotional distress, and in the heat of his emotions, he fought Cell in what he felt was the most cathartic way; by making him suffer. This was much like how Goku wanted to slaughter Freiza when he first became a Super Saiyan.
    • He's not evil, but remember, Babidi can take the slightest drop of darkness within someone's heart and make that person a slave. Although perhaps Gohan would've been more difficult to control than Vegeta (or even Piccolo) a Majin Gohan would certainly be a much more major threat given that- as stated above- he's mentally unstable. Spopovitch and Yamu weren't technically "evil" when they were controlled, Babidi just chose to exploit that one dark aspect of their hearts (Spopovitch's jealousy of Mr. Satan for example) and if he can take something as petty as jealousy and make a murderous servant out of it, then I'm pretty sure Gohan had potential to be a villain as well.
      • Gohan could ride the flying nimbus which specifically requires a pure heart. There isn't even a drop of bad in his blood. Majin Gohan would have been horrifying though.
      • In this setting, "Pure" does not mean "good". Pure good can exist, but pure means "unclouded". Goku is mostly good, but not pure good. He's capable of being selfish and vindictive. What he isn't is inherently malicious, deceptive, indecisive or self questioning. He's good because he doesn't seek to cause harm he himself wouldn't find deserving in reversal, but he's pure just through consistency with lack of ulterior motives. Pure Is Not Good explains more.
      • What Gohan is, given a certain definition of the word, is just. It is not the purity that leaves Gohan's heart as a SSJ2 - it's the mercy. Gohan didn't want to inflict suffering on Cell for suffering's sake. He wanted to inflict it on Cell because Cell had inflicted suffering on his friends. Given the power gap between many of the Z-Fighters and the Cell Jrs, the Cell Jrs. could have easily just killed most of them - but Cell instead had them hold back enough so that Gohan could listen to them suffering. So Gohan, when pushed beyond the breaking point, had an equal payment in mind when dealing with Cell. An eye for an eye, so to speak.
      • Also keep in mind Babadi didn't immediately identify Vegeta as a viable target until Dabura pointed out, and even he did not immediately realize it. It is entirely possible Gohan's capacity for cruelty if angered enough would also make him a target, assuming of course said tendency wasn't driven out of him from the trauma of his father's death. And it definitely would have been harder to find, much less exploit, than Vegeta's purely selfish and resentful desire to be evil again.
  • Dogs don't have a very long lifespan, so what will Good Buu do when Bee dies? How will he react?
    • Assuming Bee died a natural death, and Buu still has Hercule, I imagine he'd just go through the usual grieving process anyone would when losing a pet. What made him snap the first time was (a) he had Evil Buu inside him and (b) it was the sudden bombardment of cruelty from, surprisingly, regular humans who attacked them twice, nearly killing both Bee and Hercule in the process.
  • In Satan City, crime is apparently so rampant that Videl, a teenage girl, is called in because she's very good at martial arts. And while this could be just for plot convenience, Gohan comes across a crime almost every time he goes to school!
    • Given that everyone in that verse has access to capsule that can contain an entire armory, machinery able to blow up town, and an exoskeleton that would make a Terminator blush and can basically become a space marine on super space steroids just by working out and meditating, it's actually more surprising that we don't see MORE crime, especially since the world army got slaughtered by Cell.
      • The soldiers were brought back to life. Their equipment however... Well, let's just hope they had spares laying around or could manufacture replacements quickly.
  • From an outsider's perspective, it would look like Gohan had gotten Stockholm Syndrome after the Saiyan Saga. He was kidnapped by someone everyone knew to be evil, with the intention of using him to conquer the world. But a year later, Gohan comes back and tells everyone that he's now a good guy, and he wants to risk his life to go into space just to bring him back to life, without any evidence to confirm that Piccolo is good. No wonder Chi-Chi didn't want Gohan leaving!
    • However, Krillin saw Piccolo die a Heroic Sacrifice and cementing his Heel–Face Turn, so he could vouch for Gohan if no one believed him. Granted, they'll just think Piccolo only saved him because he was useful to Piccolo's 'world domination' plan.
    • From what we, the audience, knows of the story, it's more likely that Piccolo had Lima Syndrome and had a legitimate Heel–Face Turn. From the Z-Fighters perspective, Piccolo's training WAS essential for Gohan's survival AND Gohan's involvement prevented Krillin from being killed (as well as the rest of the planet for that matter), so it's understandable that the Z-fighters would want to revive Piccolo as well out of gratitude, even if his initial intentions weren't pure. Plus, sacrificing his life for his "pawn" wasn't very out-of-character for Piccolo in the eyes of the Z-Fighters and showed them that Piccolo had changed for the better. Given that Gohan had no intention of carrying on Piccolo's "world domination" plan after the latter's death, it's also clear that he didn't taint the kid's mind. Even if Gohan was the stronger of the two, Piccolo's plan to save Gohan obviously wasn't to have Gohan finish his evil plan. Given ALL of that, their willingness to revive him makes sense especially since it's later confirmed by Grand Kai that Piccolo was deemed good enough to be allowed to train with him which is, by definition, a privilege that isn't given to those whose ultimate intentions are evil. Finally, it would be a HUGE stretch to consider the idea that Piccolo was planning to be resurrected by the Namakian Dragon Balls because of how much a Gambit Roulette that would be. If that was the idea, it would have been easier to just let Gohan get killed so that Piccolo could resurrect Gohan with the Earth's Dragon Balls. All that being said, when Piccolo later claims that his plan to conquer the world in the Cell Saga instantly convinces Yamcha that he's a snake. It COULD be conceivable that people would see this claim as proof that Piccolo was only pretending to be an ally to lull them into a false sense of security, but then again, if that was true then Piccolo wouldn't have been: 1) deemed good by King Yemma, 2) he would have betrayed the group earlier, and 3) he definitely isn't stupid enough to start screaming about his true traitorous intentions. Krillin, correctly, prostrates that Piccolo is just invasive and hostile because he realizes that Piccolo just can't admit that he needs Kami's help.
  • Roshi's perverted antics on Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z are played out for laughs, but then you stop and realize that this guy would secretly peep on your wife or teen daughter while she is showering in his house. He doesn't mind groping his ex-students' wives, Chi-Chi and Android 18. Plus, some of the females he flirted with were around 16.
  • The manga states that Android 17 and 18 do not age. Since both are married and have families, this means that they will have no choice but to watch their loved ones grow old and die before them.
    • Some sources state that they do age, but very slowly, which means that they will survive their partners, their children and grandchildren before they finally die. Either way, very sad. This becomes apparent in GT, where Krillin, now in his fifties, has gone visibly gray, while 18, aside from a hairstyle change ostensibly done with the purpose of making her look more 'mature', hardly looks any different.
  • Much of Gohan's screaming when he turned into an SSJ2, was more painful than primal or powerful like his father would have sounded. This was because the scream was the last of his childhood innocence trying and failing to hold back his rage before letting go letting a more cold-hearted bloodthirsty side out.
    • Also, it's probable that he's feeling pain from suddenly unleashing a LOT more Ki than he'd ever used consciously, to the extent that it's causing physical backlash that hurts him.
  • It occurred to me recently that a major theme of the show is actually summed up when Mr. Popo tells Yamcha that he should learn "that you are weak." Humility is the key to getting stronger. People who won't admit that they're not the best and ask for help can't advance. Vegeta is the prime example of this: a prodigy who constantly lags behind Goku because he won't ask anyone to teach him, while Goku picks up knowledge and technique from everyone he meets. This is especially brilliant when you realize that if Vegeta had asked Goku to teach him instant transmission then the final flash against perfect cell probably would have killed him.
  • The characters often opt for the Dragon Balls after cleaning up whatever mess the Big Bad had caused, namely a death toll. However, remember that one little rule they had where someone can't be brought back more than once? It'd suck for someone to be brought back during, say, the Sayian attack and then killed during Cell's or Buu's... And while the Namekian Balls can bring people an infinite amount of times, it can only bring back people one at a time, three max before the balls become inactive for 130 days. Needless to say, some people can be staying dead for quite some time.
    • Dende did upgrade the dragon balls to the point of eliminating the one year time limit for wishing people back, it's safe to say that he also removed the 'once per person' limit.
  • One of Bulma's friends is Jaco, the Galactic Patrolman, whose job includes preventing any manipulation of time. While he's willing to bend the rules to save people (such as using an imperfect time machine to slow time for what someone inside the machine feels like 50 seconds so he'll be able to reach a falling spaceship, save the crew and kick it away where its explosion won't kill anyone), time travel is well beyond what he's allowed to tolerate. What's going to happen in the timelines where Future Trunks and Cell hail from when Jaco shows up?
    • Asking Jaco about this will net this response, given that while it may be in his jurisdiction, he doesn't have the capacity to actually enforce it.
    Jaco: My official response is I didn't see anything.
  • The character Beerus seems terrifying if you think about it. You have to walk on eggshells around this guy. If he dislikes an alien's food, his planet gets blown up.
  • Goku and Chi-Chi's marriage is kinda disturbing and depressing at the same time. According to Akira, Goku only see his wife and his sons as his companions. Chi-Chi is possibly married to a guy who doesn't love her romantically. Goku only married her because of a promise he made. He does seem to care about her, but it seems more like a friendship type of love.
  • Buu giving sight to Tommy the blind kid is heartwarming and all, but slight thing about the blind at birth types who are given sight. They tend to go mad. Yeah, Dragon Ball Online may have said he had came out okay, but how canon is that anyway?
  • According to Goku in the lead-up to the Universal Survival arc of Super, Good Buu was able to increase his power massively just by training for two hours. The Majins' potential for growth is possibly greater than even Frieza's, but Good Buu has no drive. Which begs the question: considering that he's immoral, intelligent, and actually does desire to get stronger, how powerful could Super Buu have potentially become if he won in the Buu arc?
  • The series mostly averts Muscles Are Meaningless... but two noticeable exceptions are Androids 17 and 18. Why is this Fridge Horror? Because Gero probably chose subjects with small slender frames so that they could fit inside of Cell.
    • Dr. Gero didn't select Lapis and Lazuli to become his subjects because he had the creation of Cell in mind. He most likely selected them because they were runaways and would not be missed if they disappeared. When their rebellious attitude became too much for Gero and he shut them down before the events of the Cell saga, that's when Gero started to consider incorporating them into something bigger.
  • In the filler Garlic Jr. saga, the supporting cast gets brain-washed by inhaling his Black Water Mist. It's played mostly for laughs, but when you think about it, it's kind of messed up how Gohan's own mom tries to kill him and how Roshi was probably going to rape Krillin's at-the-time girlfriend (the fog is said to "release all the malicious desires that a person hides within").
  • In the category of "Glossed over but really disturbing if you think about it too hard": Android 18's reproductive organs were left intact by Dr. Gero, which is what enabled her to conceive and bear a child by Krillin later. This almost seems like an oversight if you want to turn a human being into an inhuman killing machine that obeys your every order. Hormones (whether estrogen or testosterone) can drive behavior, thereby introducing a variable that would not be entirely predictable. Unless Gero thought that 18 losing her free will but retaining her biological femininity would be useful. Gero, after all, had lost a son (the model for Android 16), presumably to a wife who was also long dead. The potential theories for this range at their tamest from Gero, being versed in DNA splicing, wanted to experiment with create Designer Babies through IVF with 18's still-viable womb as the incubator. At their darkest... well, exactly what you might be thinking.
    • Probably Gero thought it'd be useful for further research on making an Android capable of reproduction. Android 21 is based on Gero's wife, who's likely dead by present day, and there's a popular theory that #13 is based on Gero in his youth. There's the possibility that Gero intended to use #13, #21, and possibly #16 (who's based on Gero's son) to restart his family once he killed Goku, and only put himself in #20 to buy some time to finish the project, having the intent of transferring himself to #13 once he was done (also, #13 had the ability to absorb other Androids, so if #13 really is Young Gero, Gero probably intended #13 to absorb #20). Which leads to a big Cry for the Devil since Gero's main goal outside of killing Goku and continuing the Red Ribbon Army's work was to get back his family, but it's not as obvious because he's blinded by his hatred of Goku.
  • For Videl, her fight with Spopovich was just dreadful. Imagine this: You're an exceptional martial artist just like your dad, and this awkward kid who just transferred to your high-school teaches you how to tap into your ki. Ki that gives you superhuman strength, speed, and durability. Ki that makes you stronger than you've ever been before. The euphoria is irresistible, and you even snap a guy's neck on accident with a weak kick. You're pumped up for your first real fight... Then you get stomped to a leaking pulp by Chad Mc-Muscle-Mass. He beats you, but prevents a ring-out just to torture you more. All the power you felt before and you can't even save yourself. All you can do is cry for help. and the fandom wonders why Videl doesn't fight anymore. She's suffering from major PTSD.
  • Vegeta's dying speech as given in the old dub carries some terrifying implications for how Frieza selects his elite soldiers. He forced a young Vegeta to work for him under pain of his father's death, killed his father anyway, and spent the following years molding and corrupting Vegeta into a walking WMD. Vegeta begs Goku not to let Frieza "do it to anybody else", implying that he knows for certain that Frieza will repeat the process on another prospective soldier because he's done this before—destroying everything in the lives of his elite until there's nothing left for them to fight for but him, then essentially brainwashing them into not wanting to fight for anything else. Really makes you wonder about the higher-ranked mooks encountered in that arc...
  • It's unlikely that Idasam was considered a good enough person to be revived by Porunga after she put all of West City in danger by telling Babidi Trunks' address, meaning Idasa and Ikose would be left without a mother.
  • By the time he was in his Perfect form, Cell was already stronger than any of the Z-Fighters and it took SSJ2 Gohan to take him down; and like Frieza, he's never trained a day in his life. He also has Frieza genes and thus his potential, combined with potential from the cells inherited from other Z-Fighters. Thought Golden Frieza was powerful? Imagine what Cell could become if he trained for four months. Hell, even if he trained during the nine-day wait for the Cell games(or just decided to call things off so he could reach his potential)? Like with Frieza, the universe is really lucky Pride is his Fatal Flaw.
    • Cell has techniques, but not power. He had to gain that by draining people and absorbing androids. Still, a Cell dedicated to training could likely achieve something similar to Frieza's golden form. It may take him longer, probably on a timescale much closer to the Saiyans, but considering unlike the Saiyans and Frieza, Cell can regenerate and multiform, he could shorten the gap a little.
    • It's also extremely fortunate Gohan managed to completely obliterate him when he did. It's all but spelled out that Cell also had access to the Saiyans' Zenkai boost, given his ability to return in a more powerful version of his Perfect form without the presence of Android 18 inside him. Imagine if he had been able to avert complete destruction and regenerate a second time. With Gohan totally spent, the planet would have been completely screwed.

     Fridge Logic 
  • Raditz's stated purpose for being on Earth is bring Goku back with him. Uh, how was Goku even supposed to leave with him in that space pod that was just big enough for Raditz by himself?
    • Raditz was probably banking on Goku's pod still being intact and space-worthy after so many years. Dr. Briefs was able to locate and repair it (though an anime filler bit had the original pod project an image of the moon, causing Gohan to go Great Ape during the training with Piccolo).
  • Burter, of the Ginyu Force, has the claim to fame of being the fastest being in the universe, and is utterly shocked when Goku completely outclasses him in terms of speed. Problem being that the initial claim is complete nonsense. Ginyu himself is able to hold his own with Goku putting considerably more effort into it than he did with Burter, showing that he was faster than his subordinate. And of course, Frieza is faster by far. The fact that Burter makes the assertion could be seen as sad posturing (an explanation DBZ Abridged seems to go with), but the fact that he's so shocked by Goku's speed when by all rights he should know that being faster than him is in no way, shape, or form a physical impossibility pushes the issue onto this page.
    • Burter doesn't think being faster than him is impossible, it seems more that Burter is shocked that a mere Saiyan could be faster than him more than anything. He's never met a Saiyan that was anywhere CLOSE to his level of power until that point not to mention one that was far more powerful than him, so he denies that it could even be possible despite the evidence literally standing right in front of him. Even so, Burter is still far stronger and faster than most anybody he would have come across beside Ginyu and Frieza so it's not an entirely ridiculous claim to make.
    • Besides that, no one he faces would KNOW that there are faster guys out there unless they needed to get directly involved, so it could just be an intimidation tactic. Given how childish the Ginyu Force is in general, this makes sense.
    • Also, Goku hasn't met Burter. It's possible that his "fastest in the universe" claim is more an intimidation/provocation tactic more than anything else.
  • When Goku teleports Dende to Earth, he briefly stops by planet Kai before making his way back to Earth. Remember that planet Kai has much denser gravity than Earth (and presumably Namek, as Bulma, Gohan, and Krillin didn't feel any strain). Considering a warrior like Goku was nearly pulverised the first time he arrived on that planet, how did a child with no combat experience not feel the pressure?
    • Goku was not "almost pulverized", he merely had difficulty walking and standing. And the series has shown that using ki makes you stronger. Since Dende can fly (and thus use ki)...
    • Dende's also had a power-up from Guru.
  • Vegeta's motivation for getting the Dragon Balls was immortality, something that obviously played a huge role in the Saiyan and Frieza sagas. But then comes the Cell Saga, with Vegeta hanging around on Earth while it has Dragon Balls for years, makin' Trunks with the woman who invented the Dragon Radar, and he never thought to try for immortality again?
    • In addition to the Dragon Balls is at least one other Saiyan who would A. object to Vegeta going for immortality, and B. can beat up Vegeta and keep him from getting the Dragon Balls.
    • Remember, he only wanted the Dragon Balls + Immortality Wish for the chance that he'll eventually defeat Frieza in battle. When Frieza died, Vegeta no longer saw any reason to go after the Dragon Balls.
    • Can the Dragon Balls even GRANT immortality? The characters all seem to assume that they can, but Dragon Balls can't grant wishes that are beyond the power of their creator, and both Kami and the Grand Elder are mortal (indeed, both are slowly dying of old age). Vegeta didn't know about the limits when he came up with his plan (and the other characters heard about it from him and may have assumed he knew what he was talking about), so his plan might have been doomed from the start.
    • Garlic Jr. gained immortality from the Dragon Balls. That is probably canon.
    • Garlic Jr is not in continuity, but the dragons can outlive the creators of dragon balls, so maybe.
  • Mr. Satan/Hercule is known for constantly - on world-wide TV, no less - denouncing Cell and the Z-Fighters' abilities as parlour tricks. Not merely smack talking, but actually claiming that they're frauds. So... he's famous for defeating a weakling? You can make the argument that this stopped people from panicking, but that clearly wasn't his initial goal. Wouldn't it be more in-character for him to talk up how powerful and dangerous Cell is to make himself seem tougher?
    • That talk is probably as much to try to convince himself that he's The Strongest Man on the Planet.

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