Headscratchers / Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods

The Five Saiyans

• The heroes in this movie realize in order to unlock Goku's Super Saiyan God potential, they would need five additional Saiyans to channel their energy to Goku. This ends up being Vegeta, Trunks, Goten, Gohan, and... Gohan and Videl's unborn child (Pan). This bothers me for several reasons:

1. Isn't it massively irresponsible for Videl to agree to an energy-transfer from an unborn, quarter-Saiyan child that is barely developed? Videl is unreasonably comfortable with this, given that no one has heard of this technique and it's their first child.
2. Even if it wasn't a life-threatening procedure, don't the Saiyans have to willingly give up their energy? I'm fairly certain that children in that-early stages of pregnancy don't have that kind of decision-making skills.
3. Barring that, how much could an unborn, quarter-Saiyan child donate anyway? Would that really be enough to tip the Super-Saiyan God transformation scale?

• Call me crazy, but it seems like Tarble, Vegeta's younger brother, would make a much, much better choice for the transfer. Goku could have instant-transmissioned to Tarble's planet and said, "Hey, there's this really-powerful guy, Beerus the Destroyer, who says he'll destroy our entire planet, your big brother, and your only nephew if you don't help me become a Super-Saiyan God. Could you spare like five minutes to help us do that please?" Tarble wouldn't have to do any actual fighting, and I doubt an unborn child would have more Ki than an adult Saiyan, even one closer to Radditz in terms of power. Or is Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! in an Alternate Continuity to Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods?
  • I dont think the power level of the five really mattered, it seemed like it was using a different sort of energy, like how fusions between two people create a greater increase than just the combined power level or how a small amount of energy from a single planet could create a spirit bomb capable of killing someone way stronger than a single plant etc. It was more to do with the ritual and the purity than the power levels, thats presumable why the ancient saiyens couldnt just do it using more than five, maybe it just didnt work that way.
    • Looking back on the requirements to attain SSJ God and what seems like Beerus' misunderstanding of Saiyan's pride and generally actual Saiyan nature (desire to be stronger) and pride. It could have nothing to do with power at all, but the actual act of 5 individual Saiyans willing giving their power to a 6th instead of trying to do it individually.
  • Also, no one knew where Tarble is. When Bulma ask about him, Vegeta says he's on some remote planet somewhere. Goku's Instant Transmission is not unlimited. If he can't feel a person's power, he cannot teleport to them. For example, he couldn't find New Namek on his own. He had to have King Kai tell him in which direct to look. Goku searching randomly wouldn't have found Tarble. And if the planet is too far away, Goku can't feel the people's power. This is brought up in Resurration 'F where all Goku's friends had to raise their powers so Goku can sense them because he was on the other side of the universe. Them using Pan was a last resort, otherwise Beerus would have destroy the planet, killing Pan before she's even born.
  • The idea behind Pan giving up the 'energy' (which is explicitly not ki) is probably simple: Videl was concentrating on giving her's, and her body reacted by doing the same with Pan's, since at that point her unborn daughter is still connected to her body and a legitimate source to draw upon. And because Pan, while unborn, is a separate entity, it counted as two separate energies or something similar.

The dinosaurs

• Why didn't Beerus destroy Earth when the dinosaurs annoyed him?
  • Maybe he considered that the Earth was still too young to merit destroying. Or that even with his Hair-Trigger Temper, he realized that they're still "dumb" animals. It's slightly understandable to get mad at sentient beings with a culture since they should have manners. And if nothing else Beerus does hold manners and respect in high regard.
  • Since it's obviously implying that it was Beerus not a meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs he simply didn't hit the planet hard enough for no immediately obvious reason. Heck maybe he was considerably weaker 65 million years ago, or maybe he had a Frieza moment where he miscalculated (then was too lazy to care about doing further damage).
• If Beerus wiped out the dinosaurs, why are there still dinosaurs roaming the planet in the present day? Is he just that lazy?
  • Easiest answer? Some kid who thought dinosaurs were cool gathered the Dragon Balls.
  • If he was serious, then perhaps he caused the extinction level event, yet somehow a few survived. Or possibly he was confusing it with something else, which isn't impossible. Either way, saying he caused their extinction was part of the joke; even if he claims it, we know it's not true anyway.
  • Or Beerus only wiped out a particular species or group of dinosaurs that were rude to him, and others survived elsewhere. A mass extinction of one group of dinos would clear the way for others to become dominant.
  • Alternative theory: Beerus is not good at his job.

Majin Boo's Reputation?

• So after watching Resurrection F we learn that Frieza was also fully aware of Maijin Buu's existence (maybe not the full extent that Pure (Kid) Buu turned into the big softy we currently have) to the point that he was warned to never go up against him. So to the universe as a whole Beerus and Buu had very similar reputations has forces of destruction. But how come Beerus didn't recognize Majin Boo for who he is? Now I'm not saying it would have changed the outcome of Buu hoarding the pudding, but maybe the interaction would have been different, like Beerus acknowledging Buu's strength and giving him 5 seconds to hand over the pudding. And then going berserk.
  • You have to remember that Buu as an entity has existence for billions of years. Even his rage against the heavens that killed all the Supreme Kais except one happened millions of years ago. It is fully possible that Beerus knows of Buu, but have no clue what he looks like. Even Babidi, the son of the person who summoned Buu to be his servant, says he doesn't know what Buu looks like and only the Supreme Kai knows. He also wouldn't recognized Buu's energy since Mr. Buu is mostly good when Majin Buu is known as a creature of almost pure evil.
• Why does Beerus rant about mortals not sharing their pudding when the one who wouldn't share was Buu? Buu isn't a mortal, or at least not as mortal as the others.
  • If we look to Dragon Ball Super the answer may be that human or in this case mortal is a blanket term for anybody who is not a God. We've yet to see Beerus spend much time with Dende but he probably only counts the Kais as anything but mortals.
• Speaking of Buu, why didn't he just use Chocolate Beam on a rock to create some extra pudding for Beerus and Whis? Conflict avoided.
  • Buu is an idiot and in his defense incredibly strong. To the best of his knowledge he's either the second behind Gohan or the fourth behind Gohan, Vegeta, and Goku most powerful being in the entire universe. Since you can't sense God Ki unless you have God Ki (and even then Beerus wasn't powered up) he had no way of knowing that the pecking order had just shifted.

Miscellaneous

• If this movie takes place in the continuity of the original manga, why are the designs more like that of the anime? Specifically, why is Bulma's hair not lavender like it is in the manga? Why do Piccolo and Dende have five digits on their hands when Namekians in the manga are usually drawn with four?
  • While the manga and the anime follow the same overall story, some details are different between them, with many examples throughout DB, DBZ, and DB:Super showcasing this. As a relevant example from the latter, Goku absorbs godhood into his body just like in this movie, while in the manga version Super Saiyan God is it's own accessible transformation instead of a temporary form, albeit after the Battle of Gods storyline. Though unlike DB and DBZ, Super is Anime First so the manga isn't the source material; just a different version of how thing could've gone.
• When Shenron is telling the story of the Super Saiyan God, he states that it occurred on Planet Vegeta. He also implies that it happened so long ago as to have faded into a forgotten legend. Shouldn't he have said that it happened on Planet Sadala, since that is where the Saiyans originated? Planet Vegeta used to be Planet Plant, and it was renamed Planet Vegeta when Vegeta I led the Saiyans in conquering it and was crowned King Vegeta. If the Super Saiyan God first appeared in the time when Prince Vegeta's father was alive, you'd think the legend wouldn't fade away so easily, even if it only lasted for five minutes. Despite this, Vegeta has clearly never heard of that legend before, so it probably should've occurred on Planet Sadala, long before his father became the king.
  • Since the planet was destroyed when Vegeta was still a child, it's possible that Vegeta just hadn't learned of the legend yet. He would have, had King Vegeta survived and imparted the wisdom and knowledge, but the obliteration of the planet would have removed any records of such an event.
• Why was everyone so nonchalant about the Pilaf Gang's hostage situation? Yes, guns are basically peashooters to someone like Trunks, but the Pilaf Gang don't know that, and Trunks should realize that Mai, who he had never met before, pointed a real gun to his head and was serious about threatening his life. For that matter, Gohan is also very lenient on them when he realizes that Mai's gun is real, and no one ever questions why this little girl has a firearm. We don't even see them take it away from her. It's still dangerous to let a child have a gun even if it's out of ammo and many of the guests are immune to bullets.
  • In Gohan's case, he was pretty tipsy at the time.
  • And in Trunks' case, even if he realized it, why would be worried? He's a prideful character, and he knows he can easily catch/deflect bullets (which he can); that much means he has no legitimate reason to worry.
• If Goku had arrived at Bulma's party via Instant Transmission, early enough even to see Vegeta's bingo dance, how did nobody manage to sense his ki? Yeah, he could have brought his power level down to a sufficiently low point for the mortals, but would it be low enough to prevent Beerus or Whis from sensing him?

Goku needing a lesson

• Why does Goku need to be taught the Always Someone Better Aesop, again? He wasn't that bothered by being stronger than him in the past. In the Saiyan Saga he admitted that Vegeta was the better fighter, and by the end of both the Cell and the Buu Saga, Gohan was stronger than him and it didn't bother him, in fact Goku was proud to see his son surpass him. Not to mention the respective Big Bad of both Sagas was more powerful than him and it only seemed to bother Goku by virtue of the villain destroying the Earth, not because he was upset about someone being stronger than him.
  • I don't think Battle of Gods was really about teaching the Always Someone Better Aesop. It incorporated it, sure, but Always Someone Better applies to literally every single arc of the series, and Battle of Gods didn't really focus on it that much.

Nadolny vs. Clinkenbeard

• Why did the English dub use Stephanie Nadlony archive recordings instead of Colleen Clinkendbeard to voice young Goku and Gohan? Was the latter too busy to voice the young father and son?