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*{{Determinator}}: Doesn't matter if they're a villain or a hero, all the characters run on this trope. Although, there are some special mentions:
**Vegeta is one of the most standout examples. The guy can take a beating and still get up to fight, while trash talking the entire time. In the Saiyan Saga alone he was hit with a X4 Kaioken Kamehameha combo after getting the stuffing beating out of him with a Kaioken X3. Then, he get smack head on with a Spirit Bomb that sent him soaring into the air for several minutes before landing. He still had enough energy to walk and nearly kills an unconscious Gohan before being slash in the back by Yajirobe. He then fights Gohan who turned into a Great Ape, even cutting his tail, before Gohan landed on him, crushing him. Even then, he had enough strength to call his space pod and crawl into it. Krillin outright asked at one point if Vegeta was immortal.
**You have to hand it to Frieza, despite being extremely stupid. He still wants to keep fighting Goku even if he lost half his body and one of his arms. Even after the epic beatdown on Namek, he still came back for revenge after being turned into a cyborg. [[{{Deconstruction}} This cost him his life]].
**Goku, being the hero, runs on willpower. He will keep fighting even if you break all his limbs, or bones for that matter, and heavily outclass him. He's such a determinator that his own heart restarted itself after he was beating to death by King Piccolo. He also took a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from Frieza for several episodes while using a Kaioken X20, charging a Spirit Bomb, and becoming a Super Saiyan that caused everyone else to faint their first time. His determinator status was [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]] in the fight with Android 19 where he refused to stop fighting although he knew something was wrong with his body. Vegeta of all people called him out on this.
**Vegeta is one of the most standout examples. The guy can take a beating and still get up to fight, while trash talking the entire time. In the Saiyan Saga alone he was hit with a X4 Kaioken Kamehameha combo after getting the stuffing beating out of him with a Kaioken X3. Then, he get smack head on with a Spirit Bomb that sent him soaring into the air for several minutes before landing. He still had enough energy to walk and nearly kills an unconscious Gohan before being slash in the back by Yajirobe. He then fights Gohan who turned into a Great Ape, even cutting his tail, before Gohan landed on him, crushing him. Even then, he had enough strength to call his space pod and crawl into it. Krillin outright asked at one point if Vegeta was immortal.
**You have to hand it to Frieza, despite being extremely stupid. He still wants to keep fighting Goku even if he lost half his body and one of his arms. Even after the epic beatdown on Namek, he still came back for revenge after being turned into a cyborg. [[{{Deconstruction}} This cost him his life]].
**Goku, being the hero, runs on willpower. He will keep fighting even if you break all his limbs, or bones for that matter, and heavily outclass him. He's such a determinator that his own heart restarted itself after he was beating to death by King Piccolo. He also took a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from Frieza for several episodes while using a Kaioken X20, charging a Spirit Bomb, and becoming a Super Saiyan that caused everyone else to faint their first time. His determinator status was [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]] in the fight with Android 19 where he refused to stop fighting although he knew something was wrong with his body. Vegeta of all people called him out on this.
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* TheAce: Goku to the point he boarders on being a CrutchCharacter. He learns techniques with a glance and within a few years his martial art skills surpasses all his masters, and of wins the World Martial Arts Tournament before he turned 20 becoming the WorldsStrongestMan. Then he finds out ''why'' he's able to do all those things when it's revealed he's a [[HumanAliens Saiyan]], a powerful warrior race. Even that doesn't fully make it a JustifiedTrope when he defeats members of his race considered to be elites, one being outright royalty, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu defeats and/or kills seemingly invincible aliens, monsters, and demons]] and achieves virtually ''all'' the available Super Saiyan transformations. Not bad for someone considered a "low-class soldier".
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* TheAce: Goku to the point he boarders on being a CrutchCharacter. He learns techniques with a glance and within a few years his martial art skills surpasses all his masters, and of wins the World Martial Arts Tournament before he turned 20 becoming the WorldsStrongestMan. Then he finds out ''why'' he's able to do all those things when it's revealed he's a [[HumanAliens Saiyan]], a powerful warrior race. Even that doesn't fully make it a JustifiedTrope when he defeats members of his race considered to be elites, one being outright royalty, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu defeats and/or kills seemingly invincible aliens, monsters, and demons]] and achieves virtually ''all'' the available Super Saiyan transformations. Not bad for someone considered a "low-class soldier".
**Near the end, you almost feel sorry for Zarbon. First, Frieza got on him for not making sure Vegeta was dead because he refused to search for the body because it fall into a lake. Then, one of Frieza's henchmen screwed up and killed a Namek who knew where Vegeta hidden a Dragon Ball. After said henchman is killed, Frieza tells Zarbon he's next if Vegeta's is dead (the exact opposite of what he was chewed out for earlier). When Zarbon finds Vegeta still alive he brings him back to be healed just enough to be interrogated. Once again, one of the henchmen screwed up and allowed Vegeta to trick them into fully healing him. Vegeta breaks free, was stronger than ever, and steals Frieza's Dragon Balls and Zarbon is blamed for the entire incident. He's given one hour to find Vegeta and the Dragon Balls or he will be killed. He is eventually killed by Vegeta because Frieza's men messed up and he took the fall.
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** Zangya may have been ruthless, but still, seeing her in her last seconds of life betrayed and mercilessly murdered by her own leader Boyack, a lot of fans feel sorry for her.
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** Despite Dabura being the demon king who killed Kibito and turned Piccolo and Krillin into stone, you have to feel sorry for the guy when he was turned into a cookie and eating by Buu. Especially since he was under mind-control, even if he was already evil, and was nothing but loyal to Babidi and was actually trying to save his master from Buu, who he knew would eventually betray Babidi.
** Played straight with Buu, starts off as {{obliviously evil}} till he [[HeelFaceDoorSlam almost became good before some gunmen forced him to regain his evil desires]], and ends up becoming even more monstrous than before.
** Played straight with Buu, starts off as {{obliviously evil}} till he [[HeelFaceDoorSlam almost became good before some gunmen forced him to regain his evil desires]], and ends up becoming even more monstrous than before.
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** Despite Dabura being the demon king Demon King who killed Kibito and Kibito, turned Piccolo and Krillin into stone, and helped Babidi set Buu free, you have to feel sorry for the guy when he was turned into a cookie and eating by Buu. Especially since he was under mind-control, even if he was already evil, and was nothing but loyal to Babidi Babidi, and was actually trying to save his master from Buu, who he knew would eventually betray Babidi.
**Played straight with Fat Buu, starts off as {{obliviously evil}} till he [[HeelFaceDoorSlam almost became good before some gunmen forced him to regain his evil desires]], and ends up becoming even more monstrous than before.
**
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** Zangya may have been ruthless, but still, seeing her in her last seconds of life betrayed and mercilessly murdered by her own leader Boyack, a lot of fans feel sorry for her.
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**Vegeta didn't care that Raditz was killed, seeing him as a weakling who deserves his fate, and murdered Nappa himself for being injured, despite Nappa being completely loyal to him to the bitter end.
**Frieza regularly murders his own men for minor offensives (like cowering before him) and blame others for his own mistakes.
**Gero tries to bully Android 17 and 18 by threatening to shut them down. Despite the two being much stronger than him. [[BullyingTheDragon This didn't end well for him]].
**Babidi is by far the ''worst'' boss in the [[UpToEleven entire]] series. He mercilessly have Spopovich and Yamu killed, despite them succeeded at their mission to collect energy. Once Buu was reawakening, he saw no problem with Dabura being killed, despite him being his most loyal servant and was the one who came up with the plan to revive Buu. Finally, he bullied and demeaned Buu, threatening to seal him again for disobeying. [[BullyingTheDragon Much like the Gero's example, that last one bites him in the butt]].
**Frieza regularly murders his own men for minor offensives (like cowering before him) and blame others for his own mistakes.
**Gero tries to bully Android 17 and 18 by threatening to shut them down. Despite the two being much stronger than him. [[BullyingTheDragon This didn't end well for him]].
**Babidi is by far the ''worst'' boss in the [[UpToEleven entire]] series. He mercilessly have Spopovich and Yamu killed, despite them succeeded at their mission to collect energy. Once Buu was reawakening, he saw no problem with Dabura being killed, despite him being his most loyal servant and was the one who came up with the plan to revive Buu. Finally, he bullied and demeaned Buu, threatening to seal him again for disobeying. [[BullyingTheDragon Much like the Gero's example, that last one bites him in the butt]].
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* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: Many of the major villains:
** The Saiyans were built to be nearly unstoppable with the weakest of them easily beating the strongest warriors on Earth. After Nappa was killed, Vegeta became the bar to surpass and took a heroic effort to defeat.
** Frieza was feared by King Kai himself and even Vegeta had to swallow his pride when dealing with him. Both King Kai and Vegeta called Frieza unbeatable and the only way to have any chance against him was to become an immortal. Instead, it took the legendary Super Saiyan to defeat Frieza.
** Cell was created to be the ultimate weapon, made from the cells of the greatest fighters in the universe. The Japanese text went as far as to call him the God of Destruction. He was brought down by Gohan who reached Super Saiyan 2.
** Buu, an EldritchAbomination so fearsome that he killed the gods of the Dragon World. Buu didn't just destroy planets, he destroyed galaxies. It took the power of an entire planet to kill him.
** The series is rife with this after Freeza. Later {{Big Bad}}s have the ability to regenerate from the smallest of pieces.
** Goku himself falls into this in the Androids/Cell Sage. Given all the androids Dr. Gero built, even turning himself into one, and the creation of Cell, he wanted to create a monster that would completely surpass Goku and kill him. [[{{Understatement}} Seems Goku left a very strong impression when he destroyed the Red Ribbon Army]]. In either case, Cell achieved Gero's dream, both surpassing Goku in power and killing him.
** The Saiyans were built to be nearly unstoppable with the weakest of them easily beating the strongest warriors on Earth. After Nappa was killed, Vegeta became the bar to surpass and took a heroic effort to defeat.
** Frieza was feared by King Kai himself and even Vegeta had to swallow his pride when dealing with him. Both King Kai and Vegeta called Frieza unbeatable and the only way to have any chance against him was to become an immortal. Instead, it took the legendary Super Saiyan to defeat Frieza.
** Cell was created to be the ultimate weapon, made from the cells of the greatest fighters in the universe. The Japanese text went as far as to call him the God of Destruction. He was brought down by Gohan who reached Super Saiyan 2.
** Buu, an EldritchAbomination so fearsome that he killed the gods of the Dragon World. Buu didn't just destroy planets, he destroyed galaxies. It took the power of an entire planet to kill him.
** The series is rife with this after Freeza. Later {{Big Bad}}s have the ability to regenerate from the smallest of pieces.
** Goku himself falls into this in the Androids/Cell Sage. Given all the androids Dr. Gero built, even turning himself into one, and the creation of Cell, he wanted to create a monster that would completely surpass Goku and kill him. [[{{Understatement}} Seems Goku left a very strong impression when he destroyed the Red Ribbon Army]]. In either case, Cell achieved Gero's dream, both surpassing Goku in power and killing him.
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* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: Many DefeatingTheUndefeatable:
**Many of the major villains:
** *** The Saiyans were built to be nearly unstoppable with the weakest of them easily beating the strongest warriors on Earth.Earth. Nappa by himself wiped out half the cast without taking any major injury. After Nappa was killed, Vegeta became the bar to surpass and took a heroic effort to defeat.
** *** Frieza was feared by King Kai himself and even Vegeta had to swallow his pride when dealing with him. Both King Kai and Vegeta called Frieza unbeatable and the only way to have any chance against him was to become an immortal. Instead, it took the legendary Super Saiyan to defeat Frieza.
** *** Cell was created to be the ultimate weapon, UltimateLifeForm made from the cells of the greatest fighters in the universe. He could regenerate FromASingleCell, grow stronger from near death like a Saiyan, and could live anywhere like Frieza. The Japanese Japanese's text went as far as to call him the God of Destruction.Destruction upon reaching his Perfect Form. He was brought down by Gohan who reached Super Saiyan 2.
** *** Majin Buu, an EldritchAbomination so fearsome that he killed the gods of the Dragon World. World and made the above mention Cell looked like a wimp even in his weakest form. Buu didn't just destroy planets, he destroyed galaxies. galaxies and remained the strongest thing in existence for billions of years. He could also regenerate from vapors, making him nearly impossible to kill. It took the power of an entire planet to kill finally put an end to him.
** The series is rife with this after Freeza. Later {{Big Bad}}s have the ability to regenerate from the smallest of pieces.
** Goku himself falls into this in the Androids/Cell Sage. Given all the androids Dr. Gero built, even turning himself into one, and the creation of Cell, he wanted to create a monster that would completely surpass Goku and kill him. [[{{Understatement}} Seems Goku left a very strong impression when he destroyed the Red Ribbon Army]]. In either case, Cell achieved Gero's dream, both surpassing Goku in power and killing him.him, although that last part was willing on Goku's end.
**Many of the major villains:
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** To Future Trunks, the [[HeroKiller androids]], specially 17 and 18. They turned his world into hell and killed everyone he loves except for his mother.
** Cell became this to the Earth after he started making cities disappear and announce the Cell Games.
** Cell became this to the Earth after he started making cities disappear and announce the Cell Games.
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** To Future Trunks, the [[HeroKiller androids]], specially [[TeensAreMonsters 17 and 18.18]]. They turned his world into hell and killed everyone he loves except for his mother.
** Cell became this to the Earth after he started making cities disappear andannounce announcing the Cell Games.
** Cell became this to the Earth after he started making cities disappear and
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** Before Buu, there was Dabura. Unlike Buu he was loyal to Babidi to a fault and it was his idea to turn Vegeta against his friends that allowed Buu to be freed.
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** Before Buu, there was Dabura. Unlike Buu Buu, he was loyal to Babidi to a fault and it was his idea to turn Vegeta against his friends that allowed Buu to be freed.
**Goku to Dr. Gero also counts since he built the super powerful androids and the [[UltimateLifeForm bio-android Cell]] just to kill him.
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* FantasticRacism: Freeza's fear-driven extermination of "the Saiyan-monkeys." The Saiyans themselves were, as a rule, disdainful of anyone who isn't a Saiyan.
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* FantasticRacism: Freeza's FantasticRacism:
**Freeza's fear-driven extermination of "the Saiyan-monkeys." The Saiyans themselves were, as a rule, disdainful of anyone who isn't aSaiyan.Saiyan.
**The androids from Future Trunks' timeline. They despised humans and see them as little more than their playthings.
**Freeza's fear-driven extermination of "the Saiyan-monkeys." The Saiyans themselves were, as a rule, disdainful of anyone who isn't a
**The androids from Future Trunks' timeline. They despised humans and see them as little more than their playthings.
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* {{Filler}}: DBZ is one of the most notorious of all anime series for this, including not just adding extra arcs, but stretching out battles because the manga hadn't concluded them yet. And we mean ''stretching them out''. An example is the Frieza Saga. There's Namek's Destruction. Five minutes to go, Frieza says. Five Episodes later - "...Two more minutes!..." Two Episodes later - "Only one minute to go!...". ''Two more episodes'' later — Frieza's defeated. One episode later — Finally the planet goes Kaboom...and Goku escapes. '''Ten Full Episodes'''.
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* {{Filler}}: DBZ is one of the most notorious of all anime series for this, including not just adding extra arcs, but this by stretching out battles because the manga hadn't concluded them yet. And we mean ''stretching them out''. An example is the Frieza Saga. There's Namek's Destruction. Five minutes to go, Frieza says. Five Episodes later - "...Two more minutes!..." Two Episodes later - "Only one minute to go!...". ''Two more episodes'' later — Frieza's defeated. One episode later — Finally the planet goes Kaboom...and Goku escapes. '''Ten Full Episodes'''. Interestedly, despite stretching out fights, unlike most modern anime there's only one filler arc, the Garlic Jr. Saga.
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** Goku as far as Freeza and Gero are concerned.
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** Goku as far as Freeza and Gero are concerned. Frieza didn't even know Goku existed until he flew into his face and the Red Ribbon Army saw Goku as just a kid until he started taking down their commanders one by one.
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** Gohan to Cell. Went from JustAKid to the android, to putting the fear of god into him.
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** Gohan to Cell. Went from JustAKid to the android, to putting the fear of god into him.him.
**Cell himself, at least on Earth. He wasn't on the heroes' radar at all until he started to suck up cities. Even seven years after his death, he's well remembered and feared. {{Subverted}} with the rest of the universe who never heard of Cell and still used Frieza as the benchmark for the TheDreaded.
**Cell himself, at least on Earth. He wasn't on the heroes' radar at all until he started to suck up cities. Even seven years after his death, he's well remembered and feared. {{Subverted}} with the rest of the universe who never heard of Cell and still used Frieza as the benchmark for the TheDreaded.
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* TheAce: Goku to the point he boarders on being a CrutchCharacter. He learns techniques with a glance and within a few years his martial art skills surpasses all his masters, and of wins the World Martial Arts Tournament before he turned 20 becoming the WorldsStrongestMan. Then he finds out ''why'' he's able to do all those things when it's revealed he's a [[HumanAliens Saiyan]], a powerful warrior race. Even that doesn't fully make it a JustifiedTrope when he defeats members of his race considered to be elites, one being outright royalty, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu defeats and/or kills seemingly invincible aliens, monsters, and demons]] and achieves virtually ''all'' the available Super Saiyan transformations. Not bad for someone considered a "low-class soldier".
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* TheAce: Goku to the point he boarders on being a CrutchCharacter. He learns techniques with a glance and within a few years his martial art skills surpasses all his masters, and of wins the World Martial Arts Tournament before he turned 20 becoming the WorldsStrongestMan. Then he finds out ''why'' he's able to do all those things when it's revealed he's a [[HumanAliens Saiyan]], a powerful warrior race. Even that doesn't fully make it a JustifiedTrope when he defeats members of his race considered to be elites, one being outright royalty, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu defeats and/or kills seemingly invincible aliens, monsters, and demons]] and achieves virtually ''all'' the available Super Saiyan transformations. Not bad for someone considered a "low-class soldier".
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*TheAce: Goku to the point he boarders on being a CrutchCharacter. He learns techniques with a glance and within a few years his martial art skills surpasses all his masters, and of wins the World Martial Arts Tournament before he turned 20 becoming the WorldsStrongestMan. Then he finds out ''why'' he's able to do all those things when it's revealed he's a [[HumanAliens Saiyan]], a powerful warrior race. Even that doesn't fully make it a JustifiedTrope when he defeats members of his race considered to be elites, one being outright royalty, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu defeats and/or kills seemingly invincible aliens, monsters, and demons]] and achieves virtually ''all'' the available Super Saiyan transformations. Not bad for someone considered a "low-class soldier".
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** Humans are not bizarre biologically, but they are apparently the only race in the entire cosmos which has learned on their own to sense power levels naturally and conceal theirs if they desire. Other races can learn this, but none have managed this without humans (directly or otherwise) teaching them.
*{{Deathworld}}: In the Future Timeline the androids and Cell turned the Earth into this.
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---> Grandpa Gohan (after accidentally ripping off Goku's tail): Goku, does your backside still hurt?
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*EarthIsABattlefield: Out of the four sagas in ''Dragon Ball Z'', three of them takes place on Earth. The Buu Saga is an extreme case after all the humans get wiped out and major chucks of the planet is destroyed. Of course, that is before Kid Buu blows up the entire planet, moving the location of the final battle.
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** The end of the Frieza Sage. Frieza has been defeated, the Namekians have been saved from extinction, and all the warriors who fall during the Saiyan Sage have been revived. Unfortunately, Namek has been destroyed, Nail is forever fused with Piccolo, Goku is somewhere in space, and Gohan had to say goodbye to Denda.
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** The end of the Frieza Sage. Frieza has been defeated, the Namekians have been saved from extinction, and all the warriors who fall during the Saiyan Sage have been revived. Unfortunately, Namek has been destroyed, Nail is forever fused with Piccolo, Goku is somewhere in space, the Eldest Namek passed away, and Gohan had to say goodbye to Denda.
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** The main timeline isn't completely happy either. The androids have either been reformed or killed, but Goku still died and decides to stay dead for everyone's protection, given Gero his victory from Hell. Kami is also gone forever, merged back into Piccolo becoming the Nameless Namek.
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** The main timeline isn't completely happy either. The androids have either been reformed or killed, but Goku still died and decides to stay dead for everyone's protection, given Gero his victory from Hell. Kami is also gone forever, merged back into with Piccolo becoming to become the Nameless Namek.Namek, and Android 16, one of the most noble characters in the series, is KilledOffForReal.
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* EurekaMoment: Vegeta gets one during the final battle against Buu. When Goku doesn't have the energy to push the Spirit Bomb to destroy Buu, Vegeta tries to get Mr. Satan to talk the people of Earth into giving more energy, and Mr. Satan refuses, because it would probably kill them (as they had already donated their energy to form the Spirit Bomb in the first place). Vegeta angrily points out that if it wasn't for his plan to use the Namekian Dragon Balls to wish back Earth and its people, they'd all still be dead... and then Vegeta realizes that they still have a wish left, which they use to restore Goku's energy.
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** Ironically, Goku in the early series gave this to Yamcha using his Jan Ken Fist (otherwise known as "Rock, Paper, Scissors Attack") Goku delivers a "Rock" (a punch), which Yamcha blocks, delivers the "Scissors" (eye poke) to his eyes, then finished it off with "Paper" (a slap) that knocked him away.
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** Ironically, Goku in the early series gave this one of these to Yamcha using his Jan Ken Fist (otherwise known as "Rock, Paper, Scissors Attack") Goku delivers a "Rock" (a punch), which Yamcha blocks, delivers the "Scissors" (eye poke) to his eyes, then finished it off with "Paper" (a slap) that knocked him away.
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Do not revert this edit again. Also, deleted because it\'s not an example of the trope.
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* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: Chi-Chi is the queen of this trope. After the Saiyan Saga, Chi-Chi is the only one who protests when it comes to Gohan traveling to Namek to bring Piccolo back to life. This trope is subverted later in the series when she protests against Gohan fighting, and both sides are correct. As [[SkewedPriorities unreasonable as her priorities can be]] when it comes to [[EducationMama Gohan's education,]] she is almost never shown in the right, despite having legitimate points.
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*DeaderThanDead
**If a character is killed and they are already dead, then they are wiped from all existence. This is part of the reason why Goku didn't want Vegeta (who was dead at the time) fighting Kid Buu.
**Android 16 couldn't be revived even with the Dragon Balls since he was an android and never really alive to begin with.
**Super Buu is destroyed after the part of him that embodied the traits of the Kais (Fat Buu) was removed, leaving only the original Kid Buu. Then Kid Buu himself was wiped out and reincarnated as a human Uub. Even if Uub and Fat Buu merged, the result would not be Super Buu.
**If a character is killed and they are already dead, then they are wiped from all existence. This is part of the reason why Goku didn't want Vegeta (who was dead at the time) fighting Kid Buu.
**Android 16 couldn't be revived even with the Dragon Balls since he was an android and never really alive to begin with.
**Super Buu is destroyed after the part of him that embodied the traits of the Kais (Fat Buu) was removed, leaving only the original Kid Buu. Then Kid Buu himself was wiped out and reincarnated as a human Uub. Even if Uub and Fat Buu merged, the result would not be Super Buu.
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*BackupFromOtherworld
**Goku at the end of the Cell Sage is the TropeNamer when he assists Gohan in delivering a superpowered [[KamehameHadoken Kamehameha Wave.]]
**A couple even more direct examples occur in the Buu Saga, where first Goku (still dead from the aforementioned example) helps take on the various villains of the arc before he has to return to the Afterlife, and then later, when the previously-deceased Vegeta is allowed to return to Earth to help fight Buu after his HeroicSacrifice didn't finish the monster off.
**In ''Bojack Unbound'', Goku teleports himself out of the Otherworld for an instant and punches Bojack in the face to save Gohan.
**This may of happen in the second coming of Broly movie if you believe it was actually Goku helping his sons and not an illusion created by the Dragon Balls.
**Goku at the end of the Cell Sage is the TropeNamer when he assists Gohan in delivering a superpowered [[KamehameHadoken Kamehameha Wave.]]
**A couple even more direct examples occur in the Buu Saga, where first Goku (still dead from the aforementioned example) helps take on the various villains of the arc before he has to return to the Afterlife, and then later, when the previously-deceased Vegeta is allowed to return to Earth to help fight Buu after his HeroicSacrifice didn't finish the monster off.
**In ''Bojack Unbound'', Goku teleports himself out of the Otherworld for an instant and punches Bojack in the face to save Gohan.
**This may of happen in the second coming of Broly movie if you believe it was actually Goku helping his sons and not an illusion created by the Dragon Balls.
*BequeathedPower: The Namekian Grand Elder was approaching the end of his life for the final time and before he passed away he gave his status as the Grand Elder to Moori, meaning the Namekian Dragon Balls were tied to the latter's life.
*BetterToDieThanBeKilled
**Frieza appears to do this when he fires a blast meant to destroy Namak. This ends up being subverted since Frieza can survive in space, which Goku can't.
**PlayedStraight with Cell. After fully realizing that the can't beat Gohan, he settles with self-destruction and taking the entire planet with him.
**Frieza appears to do this when he fires a blast meant to destroy Namak. This ends up being subverted since Frieza can survive in space, which Goku can't.
**PlayedStraight with Cell. After fully realizing that the can't beat Gohan, he settles with self-destruction and taking the entire planet with him.
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* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: Chi-Chi is the queen of this trope. After the Saiyan Saga, Chi-Chi is the only one who protests when it comes to Gohan traveling to Namek to bring Piccolo back to life. This trope is subverted later in the series when she protests against Gohan fighting, and both sides are correct. As [[SkewedPriorities unreasonable as her priorities can be]] when it comes to [[EducationMama Gohan's education,]] she is almost never shown in the right, despite having legitimate points.
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* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: Chi-Chi is the queen of this trope. After the Saiyan Saga, Chi-Chi is the only one who protests when it comes to Gohan traveling to Namek to bring Piccolo back to life. This trope is subverted later in the series when she protests against Gohan fighting, and both sides are correct. As [[SkewedPriorities unreasonable as her priorities can be]] when it comes to [[EducationMama Gohan's education,]] she is almost never shown in the right, despite having legitimate points.
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** Dr. Gero. No one fault sorry when 17 stomp on his decapitated head.
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** Dr. Gero. No one fault felt sorry when 17 stomp on his decapitated head.
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*DramaticIrony:
**Through most of the Buu Sage most of the characters thought Gohan was dead. Therefore Goten and Trunks were the last line of defense against Buu. We the audience knew from the start that Gohan was hurt, but still alive and later training with the Supreme Kai.
**The people on Earth believe that Mr. Satan is the strongest man in the world and that he killed Cell. We know that isn't the case at all and chuckle when Vidal talks about how Gohan couldn't beat her dad or Satan being dismissive of the form champion, Goku. During the tournament Krillin really wanted to see this irony play out.
**Through most of the Buu Sage most of the characters thought Gohan was dead. Therefore Goten and Trunks were the last line of defense against Buu. We the audience knew from the start that Gohan was hurt, but still alive and later training with the Supreme Kai.
**The people on Earth believe that Mr. Satan is the strongest man in the world and that he killed Cell. We know that isn't the case at all and chuckle when Vidal talks about how Gohan couldn't beat her dad or Satan being dismissive of the form champion, Goku. During the tournament Krillin really wanted to see this irony play out.
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** Cell does this to Gohan during the Cell Games. Gohan was about evenly matched again Cell, but was holding back because he didn't want to kill Cell and warned him what would happen if he got angry. Not heeding the warning, Cell kept pressing Gohan's BerserkButton so he'd unleash his hidden power and become a WorthyOpponent. Cell [[{{Understatement}} underestimated]] just how worthy he'd be.
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** Cell does a verity of this to Gohan during the Cell Games. Gohan was about evenly matched again against Cell, but was holding back because he didn't actually want to kill Cell and warned him what would happen if he got angry. Not heeding the warning, Cell kept pressing Gohan's BerserkButton so he'd unleash his hidden power and become a WorthyOpponent. Cell [[{{Understatement}} underestimated]] just how worthy he'd be.
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*BullyingADragon
**Cell does this to Gohan during the Cell Games. Gohan was about evenly matched again Cell, but was holding back because he didn't want to kill Cell and warned him what would happen if he got angry. Not heeding the warning, Cell kept pressing Gohan's BerserkButton so he'd unleash his hidden power and become a WorthyOpponent. Cell [[{{Understatement}} underestimated]] just how worthy he'd be.
**Unlike his father who favored the carrot (cake), Babidi preferred to use the stick in controlling Buu. Whenever Buu showed some disobedience, Babidi would threaten to reseal him. This continued until Goku scolded Buu for letting such a weak coward order him around and Babidi shortly found himself lacking a head.
**Then there's Dr. Gero having repeatedly insulted and berated 17 and 18 who were rebellious teenagers before he forcibly turned them into cyborgs. Cyborgs who were far stronger than him, mind you. What happened to him was inevitable.
**Cell does this to Gohan during the Cell Games. Gohan was about evenly matched again Cell, but was holding back because he didn't want to kill Cell and warned him what would happen if he got angry. Not heeding the warning, Cell kept pressing Gohan's BerserkButton so he'd unleash his hidden power and become a WorthyOpponent. Cell [[{{Understatement}} underestimated]] just how worthy he'd be.
**Unlike his father who favored the carrot (cake), Babidi preferred to use the stick in controlling Buu. Whenever Buu showed some disobedience, Babidi would threaten to reseal him. This continued until Goku scolded Buu for letting such a weak coward order him around and Babidi shortly found himself lacking a head.
**Then there's Dr. Gero having repeatedly insulted and berated 17 and 18 who were rebellious teenagers before he forcibly turned them into cyborgs. Cyborgs who were far stronger than him, mind you. What happened to him was inevitable.
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** Despite Dabura being the demon king who killed Kibito and turned Piccolo and Krillin into stone, you have to feel sorry for the guy when he was turned into a cookie and eating by Buu. Especially since he was under mind-control, even if he was already evil, and was nothing but loyal to Babibi and was actually trying to save his master from Buu, who he knew would eventually betray Babibi.
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** Despite Dabura being the demon king who killed Kibito and turned Piccolo and Krillin into stone, you have to feel sorry for the guy when he was turned into a cookie and eating by Buu. Especially since he was under mind-control, even if he was already evil, and was nothing but loyal to Babibi Babidi and was actually trying to save his master from Buu, who he knew would eventually betray Babibi.Babidi.
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* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: PlayedStraight except with Babibi, who is extremely weak himself and depends on those he enslaves to fight.
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* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: PlayedStraight except with Babibi, Babidi, who is extremely weak himself and depends on those he enslaves to fight.
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** Chibi Trunks also moons and flips off Broly in DBZ Movie # 11
** Roshi to Broly in the first Broly movie
** Roshi to Broly in the first Broly movie
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**This trope is the entire reason why Vegetto de-fused once he entered Buu's guts. He outclassed him so much that the fight wouldn't have had ANY tension whatsoever if Vegetto finished it.
**This is also the same reason why Gohan, Goten, and Trunks were killed by Buu when he destroyed the Earth while they were still unconscious. Gohan and Gotenks would have given Kid Buu more of a fight than Vegeta and together with Goku could have perhaps killed him. This is lampshaded as Goku suggests bringing them to help to destroy Buu after they are revived, but Vegeta refuses [[HonorBeforeReason because he wants the people of Earth to protect themselves for once.]]
*DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu
** Roshi mocked and made fun of Broly in the first Broly movie.
** Chibi Trunksalso moons and flips off Broly in DBZ Movie # 11
** Roshi to Broly in the first Broly movie11.
**This is also the same reason why Gohan, Goten, and Trunks were killed by Buu when he destroyed the Earth while they were still unconscious. Gohan and Gotenks would have given Kid Buu more of a fight than Vegeta and together with Goku could have perhaps killed him. This is lampshaded as Goku suggests bringing them to help to destroy Buu after they are revived, but Vegeta refuses [[HonorBeforeReason because he wants the people of Earth to protect themselves for once.]]
*DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu
** Roshi mocked and made fun of Broly in the first Broly movie.
** Chibi Trunks
** Roshi to Broly in the first Broly movie
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* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: Chi-Chi is the queen of this trope. After the Saiyan Saga, Chi-Chi is the only one who protests when it comes to Gohan traveling to Namek to bring Piccolo back to life. This trope is subverted later in the series when she protests against Gohan fighting, and both sides are correct. As [[SkewedPriorities unreasonable as her priorities can be]] when it comes to [[EducationMama Gohan's education,]] she is almost never shown in the right, despite having legitimate points.
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*DarkestHour: After so many close calls, Kid Buu does what no other villain was able to do, destroy the Earth. Along with its destruction the Dragon Balls are destroyed and Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Piccolo, Tien, and Chiaotzu are also killed. Things were bleak before, but this is the series low point.
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*EarlyBirdCameo: Thanks to the SpoilerOpening of the Ocean dub the North America audiences got glimpses of Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta and Trunks who wouldn't appear until many, many episodes later. Cyborg Frieza is also briefly seen.
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* Expy: Most of Freeza's minons get one apiece in movies and anime fillers
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* Expy: {{Expy}}: Most of Freeza's minons get one apiece in movies and anime fillers
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*CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass
**Every male Son family member have spades of this trope. They are all an easy going group who are innocent and a little naive. However, hurt or kill someone they care about and prepare to have your butt handed to you on a platter. Pray they beat you up quickly instead of dragging out your suffering.
**Gotenks, the fusion of Trunks and Goten. While he gains both of their powers combined, he also happens to gain only (and I mean ONLY) their worst characteristics: Trunks' rebellion and mischievous personality, and Goten's childish and stubborn personality. Immediately after their first correct fusion, they rush off to face Majin Buu despite having never trained, so needless to say, they got their asses handed to them. Next, they fuse as Super Saiyans and Gotenks spends so much time showing off that his fusion wears off just as he's about to battle. Throughout his battle with Super Buu, the latter intentionally humiliates the boy at every turn, pretending to take effect only to quickly recover, and even taking out a soda at one point. All of Gotenks' techniques are designed solely to be flashy, and while a couple are by coincidence also legitimately dangerous most are just a complete waste of time. It isn't until Gotenks[[spoiler: [[TheReveal reveals he can go SSJ3]] and]] finds out Buu [[spoiler: killed both his mothers]] when Gotenks officially [[BerserkButton loses it and kicks some ass]]. [[spoiler: Too bad the fusion wears off soon afterward]].
**Majin Buu, specially Fat and Super Buu. One may look like a pink-blob who has an obsession with candy and the mental function of a five years old, but when it comes to get down and dirty, he can grind you into dust before turning you into candy and eating you. With Super Buu, he only appears mildly smarter than Fat Buu and talks like a caveman, but he's by far one of the most cunning villains in the series, outsmarting [[SmartGuy Piccolo]], coming up with back-ups to his plans, and never holding the VillainBall.
**Every male Son family member have spades of this trope. They are all an easy going group who are innocent and a little naive. However, hurt or kill someone they care about and prepare to have your butt handed to you on a platter. Pray they beat you up quickly instead of dragging out your suffering.
**Gotenks, the fusion of Trunks and Goten. While he gains both of their powers combined, he also happens to gain only (and I mean ONLY) their worst characteristics: Trunks' rebellion and mischievous personality, and Goten's childish and stubborn personality. Immediately after their first correct fusion, they rush off to face Majin Buu despite having never trained, so needless to say, they got their asses handed to them. Next, they fuse as Super Saiyans and Gotenks spends so much time showing off that his fusion wears off just as he's about to battle. Throughout his battle with Super Buu, the latter intentionally humiliates the boy at every turn, pretending to take effect only to quickly recover, and even taking out a soda at one point. All of Gotenks' techniques are designed solely to be flashy, and while a couple are by coincidence also legitimately dangerous most are just a complete waste of time. It isn't until Gotenks[[spoiler: [[TheReveal reveals he can go SSJ3]] and]] finds out Buu [[spoiler: killed both his mothers]] when Gotenks officially [[BerserkButton loses it and kicks some ass]]. [[spoiler: Too bad the fusion wears off soon afterward]].
**Majin Buu, specially Fat and Super Buu. One may look like a pink-blob who has an obsession with candy and the mental function of a five years old, but when it comes to get down and dirty, he can grind you into dust before turning you into candy and eating you. With Super Buu, he only appears mildly smarter than Fat Buu and talks like a caveman, but he's by far one of the most cunning villains in the series, outsmarting [[SmartGuy Piccolo]], coming up with back-ups to his plans, and never holding the VillainBall.
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**Despite Dabura being the demon king who killed Kibito and turned Piccolo and Krillin into stone, you have to feel sorry for the guy when he was turned into a cookie and eating by Buu. Especially since he was under mind-control, even if he was already evil, and was nothing but loyal to Babibi and was actually trying to save his master from Buu, who he knew would eventually betray Babibi.
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**Dr. Gero. No one fault sorry when 17 stomp on his decapitated head.
**Buu smashing Badibi's skull in. Despite Buu going on a rampaged afterwards, no one regretted his death.
**Buu smashing Badibi's skull in. Despite Buu going on a rampaged afterwards, no one regretted his death.
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**Despite the huge power different, Yajirobe was able to cut Vegeta's tail with his sword.
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** King Piccolo threatens to destroy every city on Earth at random.
** The Saiyans frequently wipe out lifeforms on a planet so it can be traded. Goku was sent to Earth for one of these missions before bumping his head.
** The Saiyans frequently wipe out lifeforms on a planet so it can be traded. Goku was sent to Earth for one of these missions before bumping his head.
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** King Piccolo threatens threatened to destroy every a city on Earth at random.
random once a year.
** The Saiyans frequently wipe out lifeforms on a planet so it can be traded. Goku was sent to Earth for one of these missions before bumping his head. Although Goku was actually sent to Earth to protect him from Frieza.
** The Saiyans frequently wipe out lifeforms on a planet so it can be traded. Goku was sent to Earth for one of these missions before bumping his head. Although Goku was actually sent to Earth to protect him from Frieza.
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** The Namek Elder and the father of Kami/Piccolo were the only survivors of a storm on Namek some centuries before the Frieza saga. Over the course of it, Vegeta and Frieza wipe out all Namekians (then numbering in the hundreds), apart from Piccolo and Nail, before Frieza completely obliterates the planet.
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** The Namek Elder and the father of Kami/Piccolo were the only survivors of a storm on Namek some centuries before the Frieza saga. Saga. Over the course of it, Vegeta and Frieza wipe out all the Namekians (then numbering in the hundreds), apart from Piccolo and Nail, before Frieza completely obliterates the planet.
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**Nappa, after being paralyze by Goku, was killed when Vegeta threw him into the air and was slowly vaporize by his energy blast, all while Vegeta lick his lips in dark satisfaction.
**Guldo was decapitated by Vegeta before having his head destroyed.
**Guldo was decapitated by Vegeta before having his head destroyed.
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** The assistant of the guy who shot Bee. His death is by far one of the worst deaths in the show's history. Buu turns himself into ooze and forces himself down the man's throat and expands inside him till he explodes.
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**Those killed by Buu by being turned into food. They are still able to think and realize what is happening to them, but they can't move or do anything to save themselves. Worse still when they are slowly eating or in Chi-Chi's case stepped on.
** The assistant of the guy who shot Bee. His death is by far one of the worst deaths in the show's history. Buu turns himself into ooze and forces himself down the man's throat and expands inside him till he explodes.
** The assistant of the guy who shot Bee. His death is by far one of the worst deaths in the show's history. Buu turns himself into ooze and forces himself down the man's throat and expands inside him till he explodes.
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* CruelMercy: Goku tried to invoke this on Frieza, finding keeping him alive with his pride torn apart was a worst punishment than killing him. Frieza didn't take this well.
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* CruelMercy: Goku tried to invoke this on Frieza, finding keeping him alive with his pride torn apart was a worst punishment than killing him. Frieza didn't take this well. well.
*CruelAndUnusualDeath: Given the DeathIsCheap nature of the series, it doesn't shy away from given these types of deaths to both the heroes and the villains:
**When Frieza murders Krillin he captures him inside a beam that entered his chest and controls his movements with his finger. He lift Krillin into the air and made his chest inflate and eventually explode. Frieza then gleefully threatens to do the same to Gohan, crossing the line that sends [[PapaWolf Goku]] into becoming a Super Saiyan.
**Frieza's own [[KarmicDeath death]] isn't pretty. He was cut in half lengthwise, sliced into itty bitty pieces, and then blasted into oblivion. Justified though but sheesh.
**The people killed by Cell in his imperfect form. He stuck his needle-like tail into their bodies and slowly sucked them dry until only their cloths remained. All the while the person is screaming in pain.
**Androids 17 and 18 were sucked down whole by Cell after he expanded his tail.
**Cell's death consists of being blown apart cell by cell until his body vaporized. Again [[FromASingleCell justified]] but still.
**The assistant of the guy who shot Bee. His death is by far one of the worst deaths in the show's history. Buu turns himself into ooze and forces himself down the man's throat and expands inside him till he explodes.
**Spopovitch's death was especially gruesome. After Babidi no longer had any use for him he cast a spell on Spopovitch that caused his body to graphically swell up until he splattered apart. His distorted screams and gurgles of agony only made it worse.
**Super Buu had his personality erased from existence after Vegeta ripped Fat Buu from his cocoon.
**Kid Buu, much like Cell, was blown apart down to his atoms. It was the [[FromASingleCell only way to kill him]].
*CruelAndUnusualDeath: Given the DeathIsCheap nature of the series, it doesn't shy away from given these types of deaths to both the heroes and the villains:
**When Frieza murders Krillin he captures him inside a beam that entered his chest and controls his movements with his finger. He lift Krillin into the air and made his chest inflate and eventually explode. Frieza then gleefully threatens to do the same to Gohan, crossing the line that sends [[PapaWolf Goku]] into becoming a Super Saiyan.
**Frieza's own [[KarmicDeath death]] isn't pretty. He was cut in half lengthwise, sliced into itty bitty pieces, and then blasted into oblivion. Justified though but sheesh.
**The people killed by Cell in his imperfect form. He stuck his needle-like tail into their bodies and slowly sucked them dry until only their cloths remained. All the while the person is screaming in pain.
**Androids 17 and 18 were sucked down whole by Cell after he expanded his tail.
**Cell's death consists of being blown apart cell by cell until his body vaporized. Again [[FromASingleCell justified]] but still.
**The assistant of the guy who shot Bee. His death is by far one of the worst deaths in the show's history. Buu turns himself into ooze and forces himself down the man's throat and expands inside him till he explodes.
**Spopovitch's death was especially gruesome. After Babidi no longer had any use for him he cast a spell on Spopovitch that caused his body to graphically swell up until he splattered apart. His distorted screams and gurgles of agony only made it worse.
**Super Buu had his personality erased from existence after Vegeta ripped Fat Buu from his cocoon.
**Kid Buu, much like Cell, was blown apart down to his atoms. It was the [[FromASingleCell only way to kill him]].
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* AliensAreBastards: Most aliens in the show. The Namakians are the only real benevolence race who are introduce to. Goku is an exception to the Saiyans.
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* AliensAreBastards: Most aliens in the show. The Namakians are the only real benevolence race who are introduce to. Goku is an exception to the Saiyans. Saiyans.
*AlienBlood
**Namekians like Piccolo and Nail bleed purple blood.
**Most villains bled purple (e.g. Cell and Buu) or dark red (e.g. Frieza), but occasionally you'd see something weirder. For instance, Zarbon (one of Frieza's henchmen) bled dark blue, which was also reflected in his skin color.
**On a side note, there was at least one instance of a retconned blood color: Piccolo's blood was red in an early DBZ episode, censored to light green in the dub. It later became purple and was no longer censored.
*AlienBlood
**Namekians like Piccolo and Nail bleed purple blood.
**Most villains bled purple (e.g. Cell and Buu) or dark red (e.g. Frieza), but occasionally you'd see something weirder. For instance, Zarbon (one of Frieza's henchmen) bled dark blue, which was also reflected in his skin color.
**On a side note, there was at least one instance of a retconned blood color: Piccolo's blood was red in an early DBZ episode, censored to light green in the dub. It later became purple and was no longer censored.
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*FacePalmOfDoom
**Broly absolutely loves these, often looking like he is crushing people's skulls in.
**Goku does the top of the head variation during his fight with Kid Buu. He combines it with a ki attack that goes right through the Planet of the Kais.
**Broly absolutely loves these, often looking like he is crushing people's skulls in.
**Goku does the top of the head variation during his fight with Kid Buu. He combines it with a ki attack that goes right through the Planet of the Kais.
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* AbsurdlySharpBlade:
** Subverted by the Z Sword. Everyone thinks that it's unbreakable and [[AbsurdlySharpBlade stupidly sharp]], but it's not, though the material it was pitted against ''was'' ridiculously sturdy.
** Played with when King Cold believed that Trunks only managed to kill Frieza because of his sword (which probably does qualify for this). Amused, Trunks decided to let Cold test this theory and gives him the sword, knowing that Cold would attempt to kill him with it. When Cold uses the sword, Trunks [[BarehandedBladeBlock stops the blade with his hand]] and kills Cold with a ki blast to the heart.
* [[AbsurdlyYouthfulMother Absurdly Youthful Father]]: Looks like nobody ever ages here:
** Averted in the final chapter/episode which is set some 10 years after Buu is defeated where everyone (bar Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Piccolo) has aged as you'd expect (and they have the excuse of being aliens or half breeds with longer life spans)
** Goku is particularly guilty of this trope, due to being ''dead'' for eight years.[[note]]One year in the Saiyan Saga and the seven years between the Cell and Buu Sagas.[[/note]]
* {{Acrofatic}}: Fat Majin Buu and Dodoria, as well as Yajirobe.
* ActionBomb
** Chiaotzu and Vegeta tried exploding to defeat their opponent (resulting in a huge TearJerker for the former), and Cell actually killed Goku doing it.
** Most, if not all, of Dr. Gero's Androids incorporated very powerful self-destruct devices. 17 and 18's are removed by Shenron on a wish from Krillin, while 16's is removed by Bulma. The problem is that she doesn't make him aware of that either, so 16 attempts to use his now nonfunctioning self-destruct mechanism against Cell. When it fails, Cell blast him into pieces, [[FromASingleCell not that the bomb would've helped anyway according to him.]]
** The Saibamen used by Nappa and Vegeta in the first saga, which is how Yamcha died.
* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: When Trunks recounts why he came back in time, and you get a feeling of the despair he must feel being the only defense for all the people against the Androids who have ravaged the entire world, leaving only a handful of people behind.
* ActingUnnatural: Frog Ginyu was trying to steal one of the Dragon Balls. When Gohan spots him, he starts leaning against the ball and whistling nonchalantly, which only makes him more suspicious because he's a frog.
* AdaptationDistillation: ''Anime/DragonBallKai'', in recutting the ''Dragon Ball Z'' anime to match more closely to the manga original.
** There is an inherent problem with translating directly from the manga page, which the original anime did. Primarily showing an explosion on the comic page takes up one panel with a half-second glance while it takes 90 seconds of the anime to animate (to say nothing of {{talking is a free action}}). To fit one manga into a half-hour show meant that there was plenty of {{padding}} and reaction shots. ''Kai'' is cutting that down ''to a third'' of its original length and thereby allowing for a swift watch almost equal to reading the manga.
* AdaptationDyeJob:
** Bulma, and her daughter, Bra.
** This happens a lot since Toriyama tends to color characters' outfits or aesthetics differently, every now and then. You have two choices: A) Assume this was on purpose, thus [[CharacterDevelopment making the characters less static]], or B) It wasn't on purpose, and Toei just had to [[LimitedWardrobe settle on a color for Bulma's hair, Piccolo's arms, training gis, etc...]]
** A particularly notable example is Vegeta; in his first appearances in the anime, he looked like [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Vegeta_First.PNG this]]; as soon as he got to Earth, however, his armor was the blue-and-white color scheme we're used to and his hair had become black... which extends {{ret|con}}roactively to events that take place well before his first appearance, up to and including [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/dragonball/images/1/12/Chibivegeta_nappa1.jpg childhood]]. No explanation has ever been given, but it seems to have been a mistake on the animators' part. The mistake was corrected in the remake, ''Dragon Ball Kai''.
* AdaptationExpansion: While the anime contains a lot of {{filler}}, it also contains a great deal of expansion of the story arcs, often for the purpose of developing the characters. The most positive version of this was the Saiyan Saga, which showed us the year that passed before the Saiyans arrived, as far as fleshing out Gohan's training and Piccolo's {{heel face turn}} as a result of his time with Gohan. Toriyama himself was also indirectly involved with some of the filler, with the anime's producers developing it based off of his suggestions.
** As well as giving some actual screentime to, Tenshinhan, Yamcha, and Chaotzu before the Nappa fight. The latter three heroes also got a well-deserved moment of awesome when they thrashed the Ginyu Force as part of the training they received from Kaio-sama.
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Several, due to how the anime was ridiculously close to the manga at almost all times. One particularly jarring example though, happens in a filler scene at the end of the Freeza saga: [[spoiler:After Namek has exploded, Vegeta realizes that, now that both Goku and Freeza are dead, he's the strongest fighter in the universe, and is now free to take over the world. Gohan attempts to stop him, and the two have a brief fight which ends with Vegeta being stopped by Piccolo from delivering the final blow, before he flies off on his own. This entire scene is [[{{Retcon}} never mentioned again]], and it completely contradicts his motivations in the very next episode, where he is back with the rest of the group, completely calm, and shown to actually ''want'' Goku brought back to life so that he may fight him again and prove that he is the better fighter. Heck, he's actually the one to give them the suggestion for how to revive him!]]
** There's also a very significant difference between the manga and anime versions of Namek's explosion. In the manga, Goku is shown flying towards Freeza's ship with several Ginyu pods in sight. He finds the ship useless, flies up and says Namek's about to blow (and the view shifts to King Kai). In the anime, Goku is helplessly raging above the ship while we actually see the planet go up in smoke and supposedly take him with it without much doubt. Since we actually ''see'' his onscreen death in the anime, his later explanation that he "found a pod, jumped in, hit the button and made it out of there" is certainly in line with the manga. As for the anime version, it's utter {{canon discontinuity}}[=/=]{{retcon}}[=/=]{{ass pull}} [[invoked]] considering how far they went to show him dying.
** One of the more infamous examples occurs in a filler episode of the Red Ribbon Army Saga. In this episode, Dr. Flappe is credited as the creator of Android 8. Years later during ''Dragon Ball Z'', Dr. Gero is revealed as the true creator of the androids. [[AllThereInTheManual A later guide book]] would {{handwave}} this by saying Dr. Flappe and Gero were partners on the android project.
* AdaptiveAbility: Saiyans, Cell, and other villains to extreme degrees..
* {{Adorkable}}: 16-year-old Gohan. Studious, sweet, socially awkward, and has a love of superheroes while failing to realize that the only person who thinks Great Saiyaman is cool is his 7-year-old brother.
** Goku, Yamcha, Krillin (growing up with someone as goofy as Son Goku really rubs off on you), Goten and every lovable and goofy member of the Ginyu force is a rare evil example.
* AdultFear:
** In the Saiyan Saga, Chi-Chi having no idea where Gohan was for a long period of time and having no way to contact him.
** Also, Goku and the others (Krillin, Bulma, and Master Roshi) watching Gohan (as a 4 year old) getting kidnapped by Raditz.
* AfraidOfNeedles: Goku (anime only).
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: Young Gohan is patted on the head quite frequently, even by ''Vegeta''.
* TheAgeless: Master Roshi and Fortuneteller Baba, both having drank from the Fountain of Youth.
* AlasPoorVillain:
** Vegeta's death after Frieza gives him a no holds barred beatdown. Vegeta has been despicable for sixty-something episodes, and has just killed a village full of cute alien children and their big brothers. You'd expect a character of this type to die in a spectacular explosion, then never be seen again. But instead, after Frieza gets impatient and shoots him for describing Goku as a Super-Saiyan, we get Vegeta's lengthy final speech about his genuinely horrendous childhood, and see Vegeta crying as he begs Goku to kill Frieza and avenge their people, before breathing his last in a BigSleep from his terrible injuries (like almost everyone in the series, he gets better).
** Zangya may have been ruthless, but still, seeing her in her last seconds of life betrayed and mercilessly murdered by her own leader Boyack, a lot of fans feel sorry for her.
** Subverted with Frieza's death. A few minutes before his death, he is split in two parts by a reverse attack. He is dying and asks Goku for mercy. Although Goku was aware of all of the horrible things Frieza did, he still manages to show some sympathy and gives Frieza some of his energy. However, Frieza immediately used it to try to kill Goku (again), which fails. Even ''then'' Goku is visibly shaken and reeling after having to kill Frieza, although more out of pitying Frieza's self-destructive foolishness than any sympathy for the bastard.
** Played straight with Buu, starts off as {{obliviously evil}} till he [[HeelFaceDoorSlam almost became good before some gunmen forced him to regain his evil desires]], and ends up becoming even more monstrous than before.
** [[spoiler:Smitty. Unlike his boss, he did have redeeming qualities and gave off a {{punch clock villain}} vibe in his hesitance to shoot an unarmed man. It's implied in the original Japanese audio that he only followed Van Zant's insane rampages because he's Zant's butler. The fact that his end at Super Buu's hands was [[NightmareFuel one of the most horrifying in the series]] didn't exactly help either.]]
* AlienAmongUs: Every other character, mainly Goku, Piccolo and Vegeta.
* AliensAreBastards: Most aliens in the show. The Namakians are the only real benevolence race who are introduce to. Goku is an exception to the Saiyans.
* AlienInvasion
** Goku's arrival on Earth was supposed to be an alien invasion/genocide until he hit his head and forgotten his mission. However, we learned later that he was really sent to Earth for his own protection.
** Raditz invaded years later and was killed by Piccolo and [[HeroicSacrifice Goku]]. A year after that, Vegeta and Nappa invaded the earth and destroyed a city immediately. Unlike Raditz, who was looking for his brother Kakarot/Goku, Vegeta and Nappa just wanted to find the [[MacGuffin Dragon Balls]]. Although, they did plan to destroy all life on the planet and sell it once they gained immorality.
** After hearing from the Dragon Balls, Freeza and his minions invaded Namek and stole the balls in a very brutal way. They killed almost every Namekian - some of them were killed by Vegeta, the Grand Elder died of old age, but his death was accelerated by Freeza's invasion, and Nail being the only survivor ([[DeathIsCheap all of them were revived, anyway]]). Except for the Namekians killed by Vegeta, since he was not one of Frieze's men, and Nail fused with Piccolo so he all by ceased to exist. The Grand Elder also died permanently not long after his revival.
** A year later Frieza came to Earth with his father, planning to kill all the earthling as revenge towards Goku. He was stopped by Future Trunks.
** The alien wizard Babidi and his minions, a couple of whom are also aliens, sneak onto Earth to retrieve and revive Babidi's father's LivingWeapon Majin Buu.
** This scenario happened in some of the {{Non Serial Movie}}s, most notable are the invader groups of Tarles and Lord Slug. The former almost dried off the entire earth with a WorldTree, and the latter had actually a real army and he froze the planet by darkening the sky with black clouds.
** Paragas and his army invaded some planets, his son [[OmnicidalManiac Broly]] destroyed them anyway.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Inversion: it took Dr. Gero 16 androids to finally get any that were evil. Then they killed him [[KarmicDeath because they were too evil]]. It's also implied that there was resentment from before they were converted
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Bulma was infatuated with Yamcha early on when he was an arrogant rogue, then when he somewhat settled down, she decided that Vegeta (whom she fell in love with) who is as bad as it gets, tickled her fancy.
** And in the meantime, she also had the hots for General Blue and Zarbon.
** Subverted when she first saw Goku as an adult, who she also had the hots for, and Goku is as good a guy as it gets... only for him to get engaged on the same day with Chi-Chi.
* AllThereInTheManual: Most of the new information after Dragon Ball Z ended comes from varies interviews with Akira Toriyama.
* AlmightyIdiot: Kid Buu. While other iterations of Buu may qualify, Kid Buu stands out in that he's the only one unable to communicate outside of psychotic fits of laughter, and fighting style is way more wild and unpredictable than his previous forms.
* AlmightyMom: Chi-Chi's willingness and ability to tell off absolutely everyone is a {{running gag}}, up [[TearJerker until she tries it on]] [[OmnicidalManiac Majin Buu]].
** Chi-Chi in ''general''. Let's not forget that, until #18 gets her upgrade (or, if we're going by natural ability, Videl) Chi-Chi is the ''strongest woman on the planet''. No wonder Goku likes her.
* AlternateContinuity: The {{non serial movie}}s of the original ''Dragon Ball'' series are direct retellings of earlier sagas distilled into movie format, entirely incompatible with the manga and anime series. The 10th anniversary special, ''The Path to Power'' is another continuity retelling Goku's origins with the Red Ribbon Army and Muscle Tower.
** The movies are parodied amazingly during an in universe movie screened at the World Martial Arts Tournament which focuses on Mr. Satan defeating Cell. It even begins with Toei Pictures' trademark intro screen which involves waves crashing against rocks, and has the names of series staff (written in romaji) as an EasterEgg in the credits.
** And then there's the [[WhatIf what if?]] situations in the video games and the alternate timelines that Trunks, the Androids, and Cell come from.
** The overall canon of ''[[Manga/DoctorSlump Dr. Slump]]'' and ''Neko Majin'' is also unknown as the crossover with ''Dr. Slump'' was mostly used to promote ''Dragon Ball''. In the case of ''Neko Majin'', it is a parody of ''Dragon Ball'' that got brought into the franchise solely because Vegeta, Buu, and Goku appeared in the last three chapters, when the two series had no real connections before.
* AlternateTimeline: The Android / Cell Saga involves at least three separate timelines: the main series, Trunks' BadFuture, and a slightly-less BadFuture where Trunks managed to beat the Androids, only for Cell to kill him and steal his time machine.
* [[AmericanKirbyIsHardcore American DBZ Is Metal]]: In the Japanese version of the original series, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHnfX1RmZX8 Chala Head Chala]] was used as the opening. In the Ocean Dub originally made during the 90s, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP75aZvWVdw Rock The Dragon]] was used.
* AndIMustScream:
** [[spoiler:Piccolo tries to inflict this to Super Buu by destroying the door to the [[YearInsideHourOutside Hyperbolic Time Chamber]]. Apparently Buu has a grasp of this, and quite fittingly screams his way out.]]
** [[spoiler:Gohan sealing Garlic Jr. in the Dead Zone also qualifies.]]
** [[spoiler:Also the likely fate of anyone who falls victim to the Evil Containment Wave, being trapped in an otherwise empty container until someone opens it back up.]]
* AndTheAdventureContinues: The manga ending is very non-conclusive and almost feels like the beginning of a new story until it just abruptly ends. Completely intentional on Toriyama's part. The movie ''Battle of Gods'' also contains several hints of greater things to come [[spoiler:what with Beers never unleashing his full power, Goku losing the final battle, and the mention of Whis being even more powerful and the mention that the universe Goku and his friends live in is only one out of twelve parallel universes.]]
* AnimationBump: The anime was animated almost directly from Toriyama's manga drawings, and, as a result, frames and images that come directly from the manga are noticeably more detailed than other frames. In ''Kai'', the designs of the characters during the opening, ending and mid-episode interludes all contain ''much'' higher quality.
* APlanetNamedZok: Most notably Namek.
* ApocalypseHow:
** Future Trunks went back in time to prevent the world being wasted by Androids, after the Z Fighters were killed and Goku died of an alien heart disease.
** King Piccolo threatens to destroy every city on Earth at random.
** The Saiyans frequently wipe out lifeforms on a planet so it can be traded. Goku was sent to Earth for one of these missions before bumping his head.
** Shortly after landing on Earth, Nappa levels a city.
** The Namek Elder and the father of Kami/Piccolo were the only survivors of a storm on Namek some centuries before the Frieza saga. Over the course of it, Vegeta and Frieza wipe out all Namekians (then numbering in the hundreds), apart from Piccolo and Nail, before Frieza completely obliterates the planet.
** After already wiping out entire cities by absorbing the life energy of humans, as well as blowing up several islands in the search for Android 18, at one point, Cell threatens to take down the entire solar system.
** Majin Buu makes quick work of planets (though in his "fat" form, he mostly limits his devastation to humans on Earth, and "Super Buu" has a human extinction attack move), and after learning instant transmission, could wipe out all life in the "universe"(It should be noted that the main Dragon Ball universe only consists of four galaxies). The ultimate one is when while fighting Vegetto, he goes even further to threaten a multi-dimensional collapse when he suffers an epic {{villainous breakdown}}.
* ArmorIsUseless
** Everybody who wore armor either got rid of it or [[CharacterDeath died]]. Or as often as not, [[DeathIsCheap both]]. However, this isn't due to the uselessness of armor (which was used quite often by even the protagonists) but due to the fact that they eventually got to the point that their superpowers outstripped their armor's ability to protect. It's also explained in some of the earlier seasons, as most characters wore armor or clothing that was weighted for training purposes, and after removing it they become much faster.
** One notable aversion is after Goku's first battle with Vegeta. When Vegeta recovers from his injuries, the doctor reveals that the only reason he's still alive is because his armor protected him from being crushed by Gohan.
* ArtifactTitle:
** After the Frieza saga, the titular Dragon Balls are nothing more than a ResetButton, and collecting them is barely an inconvenience. None of the action or plot revolves around them anymore.
** Subverted during the climax of the Buu saga. The Namekian Dragon Balls had already been gathered by the time Dende and the Kais arrived, but their usage is instrumental in saving the day and helping Goku to kill Buu once and for all.
* ArtisticAge: Gohan during the Cell Games fits Type 1, while little Goku in the original ''Dragon Ball'' goes in Type 2.
* AscendedExtra: Gohan and Videl's classmates, Sharpener and Erasa, are among the main group in ''Z''[='=]s second Japanese opening despite having very little screentime in the actual show.
* AscendedMeme: The infamous "over 9000" joke was well known enough for the writers of the English dub of Dragon Ball Kai to make a nod to it. The funimation and uncuts dub of Kai feature Vegeta saying "It's over 8,000!" in a slightly agitated voice, then growling. In the Nickelodeon version of Kai, Vegeta screams the line "It's over 9,000!" like in the Ocean dub.
** In later dubs of the Buu saga,the joke was referenced again. There is a scene where Trunks is seen doing push-ups on one finger before he gets tired and takes a break. In the original Japanese version, he is just grunting from the strain, but in the English version, he counts each push-up and decides to stop after doing 9,001 (over 9,000).
** One of Vegeta's stock images from promotional material for Dragon Ball Kai shows him in the "over 9,000" pose where he leans forward and smashes his scouter in rage.
** When Panini recreated the Dragon Ball Z trading card game in 2014, a card called "It's over 9,000!" was printed. The card itself was a joke as it doesn't really help the person who uses it.
* AssholeVictim:
** Freeza's genocide of the Saiyans was pretty bad, and Bardock's attempt to save them all and rebel against Freeza's empire was, without a doubt, heroic. However, the Saiyans themselves were violent, arrogant, blood-thirsty creatures who probably would have gone out and destroyed worlds ''anyway'' if they attained spacefaring technology, even if Frieza wasn't in power--they already committed genocide themselves against the Tuffles on their home planet before they ever made contact with Frieza's organization.
** Battle of Gods reveals that there were good Saiyans, but they were killed when they rebelled against their evil counterparts.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: PlayedStraight except with Babibi, who is extremely weak himself and depends on those he enslaves to fight.
* AssKickingPose: Frequently. Parodied by the Ginyu Force members, whose poses are anything ''but'' asskicking.
** The same applies for Gohan as the "Great Saiyaman".
* AssimilationBackfire:
** Buu tries to absorb Vegetto, but the absorption fails and Vegetto (now split into Vegeta and Goku) releases all the victims Buu had absorbed previously.
** The Supreme Kais weakened Kid Buu into Buff Buu and finally Fat Buu when he tried absorbing them. It seems inconsistent considering how high their power-levels are, but its explained that because they are pure good, and Buu pure evil, the two forces diffused each other.
* AttackTheTail
** Saiyans' tails are their weak point. If you hold onto their tails, they are in so much pain it immobilizes them (e.g., Goku, Gohan, and Raditz). Subverted later, when it turns out that Vegeta and Nappa don't have this shortcoming (because of their training). When the Z Fighters made a break for their tails, it ended up backfiring because it didn't immobilize the Saiyans like they expected, leaving them open targets. Played straight later, though, when Yajirobe cuts off Vegeta's tail to return him to human form after he'd transformed into his Great Ape form.
** Goku managed to overcome this weakness long before Vegeta was introduced. It's odd how Krillin didn't remember this when he faced them. Then again, Raditz was unable to figure out how to overcome this problem, despite being much stronger than Goku at the time (and after ostensibly being in contact with Vegeta and Nappa for the last several years), so it would make sense why Piccolo, at the very least, would think the strategy had a chance of working.
** In a more amusing case, when Gohan was left in the wilderness to fend for himself he was occasionally hunted by a tyrannosaur, which he managed to fend off by removing the end of its tail. After he had taken a few levels in badass, he turned the tables (or the tails) by chasing the poor dinosaur and cutting steaks off its tail for his dinner.
* {{Autodoc}}: The healing tanks used by Freeza's forces.
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** The third stage of the original Super Saiyan form (also known as "Ultra Super Saiyan", gives a huge boost in power, supposedly as much as a Super Saiyan 2. Unfortunately all the muscles that come with it drastically decrease speed, making it practically impossible to actually hit your opponent. Goku and Vegeta both realized that the second form was useless due to the loss of speed, and Cell calls out Trunks for using such a foolish technique.
** This becomes an {{ironic echo}} when Cell bulks up massively in his fight with [=SSJ2=] Gohan. To top it all off, Trunks lampshades this as Gohan is dodging everything Cell throws at him, remarking that Cell could probably put the hurt on Gohan if he ever managed to hit him.
** The Spirit Bomb. Considering it takes a long time to gather enough energy to use and that Goku is left defenseless while doing so, it is difficult to use in live combat. Usually, live bait is used to help him. It was used three different times.
*** Vegeta: [[spoiler:He gets hit with it, but by the next episode he's up and kicking ass again. It takes Gohan falling on him (while transformed) to finally get Vegeta to say "No mas."]]. The rest is history.
*** Freeza: [[spoiler:He also gets hit with a massive one. However, it does little more than cut his tail in half and hurt his left eye. He gets up, shoots Piccolo through his lungs and kills Krillin in the span of about two minutes]]. Although if that hadn't happened, we wouldn't have [[spoiler:Super Saiyan Goku]].
*** Buu: [[spoiler:It's finally decided that ''this'' is the ''only'' way he's going to be defeated. Goku positions himself and the designated live bait (Vegeta, Fat Buu, and Mr. Satan) proceed to keep Kid Buu busy. Goku finally unleashes it but somehow Buu is ''still'' able to fight it off and Goku doesn't have any strength left to force it with his own ki. The final wish is to restore Goku's strength and he finally manages to put it away with a blast of his own helping it along]].
** The Super Saiyan 3 form can also be regarded as this, as it gives the user incredible power, but at the expense of so much energy that on two occasions it leads to the user running out of juice at a critical moment.
** The full powered form of Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon takes a full 5 minutes to power up. He only uses it once against Raditz before using a weaker, but faster version of it throughout the series. Fortunately by that point his PowerCreep has made up for the difference.
** The non-Potara Fusion: The silliness of the dance aside, it leaves performers vulnerable to incoming attacks. If it's done incorrectly (and in the heat of a battle, a screw-up is nigh-inevitable) leaves the newly created warrior hideously deformed and unable to do ''anything'' worthwhile, making them a liability. If it is done correctly, the incredibly powerful fused warrior has all of ''thirty minutes'' to defeat or disable his opponent before the effects wear off.
** WorfOfGod is that all forms of Super Saiyan beyond the first level are this. According to Toriyama, after the fight with Beerus, Goku realized that mastering Super Saiyan level 1 would raise his level more than going to level 2 and 3 since those would sap his strength.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis
** How Vegeta learned how to sense ''Ki'', which took most of the cast months and for Goku years.
** Buu learned the Kamehameha by watching Goku do it once. He also learned one of Vegeta's techniques this way.
** This is how Goku learned almost all of his fighting techniques with the Spirit Bomb and Kaioken being the noticeably exceptions.
* AxCrazy:
** Majin Buu is this taken to OmnicidalManiac extremes. Every time he transforms into a new form, he becomes progressively more evil and psychopathic to the point where he just blows up planets without a second thought. While his Power Level in his final form is the subject of much debate among Dragon Ball fans, everyone can agree that said form was definitely the most Ax Crazy. To put it in perspective, the first thing he did after reverting to Kid Buu was try to blow up the planet. When he was foiled, he just made the next shot ten times bigger so he wouldn't miss.
** Any character who has had an extreme VillainousBreakdown. Frieza and Cell as examples.
** Vegeta in his ''majin state''.
** Van Zant, who is a twisted and despicable man who enjoys killing innocent people.
* BackFromTheDead: The single most-granted wish from the eternal dragon in the series. [[DeathIsCheap So much, that is it is the one of things that the series is known for.]] And it's taken UpToEleven compared to the original series.
* BackToBackBadasses: Muten Roshi and the Crane Hermit fighting Piccolo's forces in Roshi's flashback.
* BackupTwin: After Namek is destroyed in the titanic battle between Goku and Frieza, they manage to find a new planet that looks ''exactly'' like Namek did for the now-homeless Namekians to live on.
* {{Badass}}:
** Each one of the main heroes and main villains are pretty badass.
** Pikkon from the Other World is probably, one of the biggest secondary badasses in the franchise. He defeated Frieza, Cell, and King Cold on his own. And then almost defeated ''Goku'' in the Other World.
* BadassAdorable: Goku and pretty much everybody related to him except Bardock and Raditz.
* BadassArmy: Both the Saiyajin and Freeza's army. To put this in perspective, these are groups that only consider a small handful of fighters enough to wipe out the populace of civilized planet. Raditz, who is only considered a common soldier, [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] Goku and Piccolo, who were both [[PersonOfMassDestruction persons of mass destruction]] at that point in the series.
* BadassFamily:
** The Son Family (Bardock, Goku, Gohan, Goten). Their overall strength, and most importantly the way they retain their kindness and positive values so they don't misuse their powers, are admirable.
** The Brief family, but they eventually reach critical wimpy levels by ''GT'', where Trunks is girlier than Pan and Bra combined (good thing it's not considered canon).
* BadassGrandpa:
** Subverted with Muten Roshi as the main cast have far surpassed him by ''Z''. 5 years prior to the start of the series Kami was the third strongest being on earth but is also soon left in the dust
** Dr. Gero plays this straight.
** Goku technically becomes one in the epilogue to ''Z'', after Gohan and Videl have Pan. To a lesser extent, Hercule, as well.
%% * BadassMustache: Mr. Satan.
%% ** Nappa as well.
%% ** Dr. Gero's invincible android mustache.
%% ** Don't forget Vegeta's [[PornStache pornstache]] in ''GT''.
* BadassNormal: Mr. Satan and Yajirobe are the only fighters with no grasp of ki.
** Yajirobe fights an enraged kid Goku to a standstill, single-handedly kills one of Piccolo Daimaou's minions in a single strike, and manages to cut Oozaru Vegeta's tail off when Gohan and Krillin failed to.
** Mr. Satan is actually a skilled martial artist and very strong to boot, it's just easy to forget that seeing as the story is about [[OverShadowedByAwesome Goku and his pals]] and his status as a ButtMonkey. ''Despite'' the fact that Buu could kill him several million times over, he chose to face him. After multiple, comedic failed attempts at killing him, he eventually befriends him, teaches him that [[KungPow killing is wrong]] and, because [[ChildrenAreInnocent Buu didn't know any better beforehand]], Buu swears off killing at the request of his new friend. Of course [[FromBadToWorse something goes wrong...]]
*** Gohan notes that Videl (an ordinary high school girl) is probably stronger than her father, before he starts teaching her how to control her ki making her truly badass.
** In the manga, by the time the Buu arc kicks in, Krillin is acknowledged as the most powerful human being in the world. While he is fairly superpowered at this point, it's all just because of [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower rigorous training]]. Of course, all characters that are still relevant by then are hundreds of times stronger than he is.
** Colonel Silver of the Red Ribbon army is probably the most triumphant villain example. By real world standards he was strong, fast, skilled and cunning - his only mistake was going up against a Saiyan.
* BadBoss: All the villains in ''Z'', no exceptions.
* BadFuture: There are four alternate timelines of them in the ''Dragon Ball'' universe. One of which Future Trunks is KilledOffForReal.
* TheBadGuyWins: The Cell Saga. No really. Even though Dr. Gero can only watch his triumph from Hell, he is the ''only'' villain in the entire ''Dragon Ball'' franchise to have got ''exactly'' what he wanted; the death of Son Goku at the hands of his creations.
* BarbieDollAnatomy: Subverted in ''Kai''. Due to the show airing on a morning timeslot, they had to censor baby Goku's penis and balls, but did so through {{scenery censor}}.
* BarredFromTheAfterlife: Being killed by a demon does this. Goku and Raditz actually being able to make it to the after life was the first indicator of Piccolo's impending heel face turn.
* BashBrothers: Trunks and Goten. Even Goku and Vegeta to an extent in parts of Z.
* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: Certain aliens are able to survive without air. Saiyans aren't one of them. Doesn't stop Bardock from flying into space to confront Freeza and speak to him, too.
** In some filler episodes, Vegeta is seen flying between planets without a spaceship or any apparent breathing apparatus.
** Also when Vegeta blows up the planet Arlia in a filler episode, he and Nappa hang out in space just standing in their open pods.
** Freeza survives in space with half his body and head missing. This is suggested a trait of his species. [[MeaningfulName Cell]], with Freeza's cells, can also survive in space.
** Broly is strongly implied to have this ability as well.
** Vegeta and Bardock didn't "breathe in space" for long. It's probable that the Saiyans cannot actually survive in space, but their superior physical abilities and ki powers grant them the ability to withstand vacuum exposure for a limited amount of time.
* BattleAura:
** Features [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience distinctive colors]] for different characters and situations. For example, most of the [=Z=] Fighters have blue auras, while most of Frieza's forces have purple, the Super Saiyans and Cell have golden auras and Buu has a pink aura.
** In the early days, the auras had a zen-like majesty to them and indicated an incredibly powerful or skilled opponent; as the series went on, the auras became more prevalent as mostly-realistic martial arts gave way to beam-spamming fistfights.
** The battle auras seen in the anime escalate to the point that the color of the world around the aura itself begins to change, and the display of this increases to signify how powerful that person is.
* BattleStrip
** The series mostly uses ClothingDamage as an excuse to get its male leads naked, but there are a few occasions where the heroes take off their clothes before battle.
** One such occasion is the fight with Raditz both Goku and Piccolo were wearing weighted clothes, and stripping increased their power levels.
* BeamOfEnlightenment: Often used when characters come to a discovery.
** Especially when the Z Fighters find out that a fight is going downhill for a comrade.
* BeamOWar : This series is likely the {{trope codifier}}. And like most tropes, it's taken {{up to eleven}} compared to ''Dragon Ball''. For example, the Goku vs. Vegeta and Cell vs. Gohan are among the most stand out examples in the series.
* [[BecomeARealBoy Become Real People]]: Subverted. Krillin tries to use the Dragon Balls to wish Androids 17 and 18 fully human, but this is beyond the dragon's power. He settles on removing the bombs inside their bodies instead. 17 and 18 are actually augmented humans who are still able to have children.
* BefriendingTheEnemy: Hercule (Or Mr.Satan depending on which version you watch) knowing he can't beat him in a fight befriends the ObliviouslyEvil Majin Buu, and eventually makes him realize that turning people into candy and eating them is wrong. [[spoiler: This resolution doesn't last long though as Majin Buu's [[LiteralSplitPersonality evil side]] splits from the original Majin Buu and becomes the new villain]].
** Done by Gohan as part of Piccolo's redemption (something that was started by Goku 6 years earlier)
* BerserkButton: [[BerserkButton/DragonBall Has its own page.]]
* BerserkerTears
** Gohan has a variant of this after breaking through the Super Saiyan 2 barrier. What makes it so powerful is the implication that Gohan understands the kind of line he just stepped over to go this far (that his childhood innocence is lost). The implication is backed up by the [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown horrific brutality]] he attacks with in the next episode.
** Also happens to Trunks in the Future timeline, who cries tears of rage at [[spoiler: Future Gohan's death at the hands of the Androids]] as he finally breaks the Super Saiyan barrier.
* BetterThanNew:
** Goku and Vegeta frequently sustain life-threatening injuries, only to quickly come back stronger than before they were injured (and remain stronger going forward). This is one of the Saiyan race's inherent abilities. This is shown at one point by Vegeta ordering Krillin to blow a hole in his chest so he can be healed and become stronger. While he doesn't become as strong as he'd have wished, he still gets a huge power boost. Referred to by {{fan|on}}s as a Zenkai, this ability is the first part of why the Saiyans are able to become so unconscionably powerful. It also explains [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower the power of training being so exponential for them]].
** Now when the heroes die they go and train with King Kai and become exponentially stronger
** Cell, bearing Saiyan genes, ends up regenerating into Super Perfect Cell after his own self-destruction, with enough of a power increase to turn what was a CurbStompBattle for Gohan into a nearly-hopeless struggle for the fate of the entire universe.
* BewareTheNiceOnes:
** Gohan is polite, kind and will avoid fighting if possible. But he also has a tendency to snap and release incredible power whenever his friends and family are threatened.
** This trope can apply to almost everyone in the Son's family. They're all good nature people, but ''don't'' make them angry.
* BeyondTheImpossible:
** The Supreme Kai thinks this when he finds out how powerful the earth Saiyans are. To explain: this guy is the series' equivalent of {{God}} and yet his power level is nothing compared to them.
** Vegeta becomes obsessed with surpassing the Super Sayian state which most see as crazy (except for Goku) and is eventually achieved by Gohan and later Goku and Vegeta. Goku then later one ups this by revealing [=SSJ3=] which the others think must be a bluff
** Special honors to Vegetto who is the only character to retain ''all his power'' and gain an even greater speed advantage due to his size after being turned [[NiceJobFixingItVillain into a coffee flavored jawbreaker by Buu.]] This was supposed to make him helpless and harmless like it did everyone else. If anything this is where Buu gets his worst and most embarrassing beating.
* BigBadEnsemble: Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, Buu, and a few others thrown in-between.
* BigEater:
** All the Saiyans, with Goku being the most notable and a trope codifer for {{shonen}} heroes with this trait.
** Even the humans after long bouts of training.
** Majin Buu's appetite for sweets can't be matched by any Saiyan in their dreams.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** Piccolo pulls this off for Gohan in nearly every ''DBZ'' movie before the post-Cell timeskip.
** In situations where Piccolo isn't around in the movies, Krillin takes up the reins in more than one case. The first time he saves Gohan while [[LampshadeHanging dressed up like Piccolo to point out how often that situation happens,]] the second time he shows up out of nowhere to rescue his wife, though he is nowhere near strong enough to totally avoid the danger.
** The rest of the cast getting {{curb|StompBattle}}stomped by the villains mercilessly for a few episodes only for Goku to show up at the last second and save everyone often curbstomping the villains in return happens so often in both the Anime and the movies you could make a drinking game out of it.
* BigGood: King Kai in the Saiyan and Frieza sagas, he shares it with Kami in the Cell Sagas [[FusionDance before he re-merged with Piccolo]]. Dende tries to fill his shoes but notes that he finds it difficult
** Supreme Kai in the first half of the Buu saga, then Old Kai in the second half.
** Goku acts this way towards Goten and Trunks, and even uses this as his reason to Piccolo why he didn't go all out. Notably Kami had tried to get Goku to take over from him at the end of [[Anime/DragonBall]] but Goku refused
* BishonenLine:
** Freeza: small horned tailed imp -> larger {{Satan}}ic form -> Xenomorph like form -> streamlined white being. In interviews, Toriyama stated that he did this on purpose to subvert the viewers' expectation that "more powerful" always meant "bigger and more muscular".
** Cell: Insect like MonstrousHumanoid -> larger and midway HumanoidAbomination -> gray skinned human like creature in bug suit.
** Buu starts out as an over weight pink humanoid, which separates into a malnourished grey form, before turning into the muscular Super Buu. With each Z fighter he absorbs he gets further and further into Uncanny Valley with a longer head tail and more lean and muscular each time. His final form looks like a pissed off teenager and is the strongest of all
** Inverted by Zarbon, who is normally a PrettyBoy but turns into a hulking monster who's a lot tougher and faster.
* BirthdayEpisode: The filler episode called "Memories of Gohan."
* BittersweetEnding:
** The Saiyan Sage. The Saiyans have been defeated, but almost all of Earth's warriors are dead and those left alive are badly injured, the Dragon Balls are gone forever because Kami died, and Vegeta is still alive and promise to return for revenge.
** The end of the Frieza Sage. Frieza has been defeated, the Namekians have been saved from extinction, and all the warriors who fall during the Saiyan Sage have been revived. Unfortunately, Namek has been destroyed, Nail is forever fused with Piccolo, Goku is somewhere in space, and Gohan had to say goodbye to Denda.
** The future Perfect Cell came from. Sure, Trunks the last Z Fighter is dead, but so are all the Androids. Cell has gone back to the past, which means the people of his present aren't subject to him, and Earth is so ravaged and devoid of all its powerful people that there would be absolutely no point for Babidi to revive Majin Buu, and absolutely no one to give him the energy he would need to do so anyway.
** The world Future Trunks returns to after the events of the Cell Sage. The androids are finally dead and Cell has been defeated too. However, Trunks is the only living warrior left and there are no Dragon Balls to revive anyone who has been killed.
** The main timeline isn't completely happy either. The androids have either been reformed or killed, but Goku still died and decides to stay dead for everyone's protection, given Gero his victory from Hell. Kami is also gone forever, merged back into Piccolo becoming the Nameless Namek.
** The tv special ''The History of Trunks'' counts as well. Trunks gets beaten badly by the Androids, apologizes to Bulma, and agrees to go back in time. [[spoiler:And he eventually destroys the Androids of his time and also the Cell of his time.]]
** ''Bardock, Father of Goku'', despite Bardock's heroic effects he is killed along with most of the Saiyans by Frieza. Before he died, however, Bardock foresaw his son confronting Frieza given him comfort that he would someday be avenge.
** The bonus chapter ''Dragon Ball Minus''. Gina and Bardock successfully send their son into space where Frieza wouldn't find him. They are killed a month later by Frieza and Goku will never know what they did for him, thinking he was sent to Earth to conquer it.
* BilingualBonus:
** Shen Long is Chinese for "Dragon God." The names of almost all his alien characters - along with Bulma's family and Piccolo and his minions - are straight English or derived from it. And apparently according to Toriyama, Vegeta and Trunks use English for their attack names because he thought it sounded "more alien."
** In the [=FUNimation=] dub, Majin Buu mispronounces "Saiyan" as "Saiya-jin" once.
** In the Italian translation the characters names are extremely similar to food. Radish: radice (root), Vegeta: vegetale (vegetable), Kakarot: carota (carrot). And lots of other Sayans. Piccolo has his named changed to ''Junior'' (because piccolo means "small/junior" in Italian, and [[RuleOfCool that's not that cool]]).
* BizarreAlienBiology
** The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Saiyans]] are HumanAliens who are insanely aggressive and love to fight, have tails, and can transform into [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever giant apes]] in the light of the full moon if they still have their tails. Not to mention if they are put close to death and recover, they increase in strength exponentially. Despite this, they can interbreed with humans.
** Piccolo's race, the Namekians, are apparently modeled after slugs. They have visible musculature, the ability to regrow pretty much anything so long as their head is intact (Piccolo once regenerated from being [[LiterallyShatteredLives broken into pieces]] as a [[TakenForGranite statue]]), and green skin (the muscles are pink, though). They also reproduce asexually and are universally male.
** Then there's Frieza's race. They can survive the vacuum of space, are naturally so powerful they can casually destroy planets, can shapeshift to limit their power so as not to destroy their surroundings, and are durable enough to survive the destruction of an entire planet ''while'' grievously wounded, and survive in space without any kind of sustenance for at least a ''year''.
** Tien's race is another one. They can split and create extra bodies, grow extra arms, the ability to look in multiple directions at the same time.
** Humans are not bizarre biologically, but they are apparently the only race in the entire cosmos which has learned on their own to sense power levels naturally and conceal theirs if they desire. Other races can learn this, but none have managed this without humans (directly or otherwise) teaching them.
** Majin Buu is not only immune to cyanide, but actually likes the taste of it.
* BlastingTime: All over the place, specifically the Spirit Bomb.
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: While debatable in [[AntiHero Vegeta]]'s case, most of the Z fighters are really good and nice guys. Moreover, enemies are evil, crazy and monstrous sociopaths willing to destroy worlds.
* BlackEyesOfEvil/BlackEyesOfCrazy: Super Buu and Kid Buu respectively
* BlindAndTheBeast: Buu meets a blind kid.
* BlockingStopsAllDamage:
** Subverted when Tien blocks a punch from Nappa; Nappa takes a part of Tien's arm off.
** Played straight and deconstructed with force fields which are stated to be able to block all damage but usually drain more stamina than just tanking the blows or dodging and are only used sparingly as a result
%%* BlondGuysAreEvil: Van Zant.
* BlondesAreEvil:
** Android 18 in Future Trunks' timeline, whose purpose is to kill all humans. Unlike in the present time, she never goes into any redemption due to Krillin's death.
** Van Zant, the serial-killer human who shot Buu's dog and then Mr. Satan causing Buu to release the evil within him and eventually transform into the more powerful and cruel Super Buu.
* BloodKnight:
** The Saiyans are an entire race of them. Even Goku is such a gigantic blood knight that, while about to slam a spirit bomb into Majin Buu to finally kill him, he explicitly says he wants him to reincarnate just so he can fight him again!
** Cell, having Saiyan cells, loved the thrill of fighting, and even held a tournament, the Cell Games, just so he could fight Earth's strongest. Although, he isn't too fond of fighting stronger enemies; witness his reaction to being on the wrong end of a CurbStompBattle by Gohan.
** Super Buu wants to fight and to be the strongest (to the point where he has a VillainousBreakdown). Kid Buu on the other hand just fights and kills [[ForTheEvulz because he can]] and Fat Buu is just doing what he's told.
** Tien is one of the few human BloodKnights. He lives for battle and trains as much as any Saiyan. He is also one of the first to jump into a fight, even if he is badly overpowered.
** Broly is one, complimenting the efforts of the [=Z=] Fighters for fighting him and later licking his blood when Goku hits him.
** Janemba, who laughs when Vegeta manages to break his sword.
* BloodierAndGorier: Moreso than most of Dragon Ball up till the Piccolo arc.
* BloodUpgrade
** Vegeta's response to Goku drawing blood on him during their first major battle was an attempt to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy the entire damned planet]], leading to a spectacular BeamOWar between him and Goku.
--> "[[Anime/DragonBallKai Blood!]] ''My noble blood'', spilled by the sheer luck of such - such trash?! No, I will not allow this to stand....I CANNOT ALLOW THIS TO STAND! YOUR INSOLENCE JUST COST YOU THIS WORLD! '''I'LL BLOW IT ALL TO PIECES, AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME!!!'''"
** It shows up again when Trunks attacks Vegeta to stop him from interfering in the fight against Cell. He's initially just stunned that Trunks followed through, but once he sees blood on his glove he becomes furious.
* BodyguardingABadass: Kibito to Supreme Kai in the Buu Saga.
* BodyHorror: Anything involving Buu: when Majin Buu enters Vegitto's body through his mouth to take control of his body, Vegitto's muscles become grotesquely enormous. Then Buu enters a gunman's mouth, the man's body growing to monstrously obese proportions and finally explode.
* BoobsOfSteel: Pretty much inverted completely. The female fighters (Eighteen, Videl, etc.) tend to be modestly endowed, while the non-fighters (such as Bulma) are fairly stacked.
* BoringInsult: [=SSJ=] Goku's final insult to Freeza is to declare that he's no longer a challenge and it's not even worth Goku's time to finish the fight. Freeza reacts poorly.
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: In the Namek Saga, Chi-Chi and Gohan have an argument when Gohan wants to go to Namek. Chi-Chi made a good point when she said that Gohan should be having fun as a kid instead of trying to be an adult, and Gohan also had a point since his priority was {{serious business}}.
* {{Bowdlerise}}:
** In the first dub, having to meet Saban's standards and practices for syndicated kids' shows, the villains were always threatening to blast people into [[NeverSayDie another dimension]], scenes of wanton destruction accompanied by throwaway lines implying [[BlatantLies nobody got hurt]], and Tien says that ''his arm can grow back'' after Nappa breaks it off. The second dub reduced this, allowing death and even kept small amounts of blood.
** Also, in the scene when Vegeta turns into a giant ape via full moon in front of Goku, leading him to the sad truth, the first dub becomes more of a {{blatant lie|s}}: [[spoiler:Goku claims that Vegeta was the giant ape who had killed Grandpa Gohan, when in reality it was ''freaking Giant Ape Goku himself'' (!) who committed the AccidentalMurder of Grandpa Gohan, and Vegeta had nothing to do with it. It seems that this dub, in an attempt to stop kids from committing more violence after watching the show, completely negated Goku's SelfMadeOrphan trope and turned it into his "NeverMyFault" situation.]]
** Also, in the first dub, extra objects are written to cover all nudity, both front and back. The only thing that was different is Recoome's buttocks. While the first dub had a black strip of clothing covering his butt in a few episodes, the cloth strip is missing in the second dub. [[spoiler:And this was shortly before Vegeta used the CoupDeGrace to finish off Recoome.]]
* BrainlessBeauty: Krillin's once-girlfriend Maron during the Garlic Jr. arc.
* BrawlerLock: Goku does this with Freeza, Cell, and Vegeta. The former two during their respective arcs, and the latter during the Buu arc.
* BreakTheCutie:
** Mostly Gohan, but Goten and Pan aren't exactly left out. Another example occurs late in ''Z'' with [[spoiler:the Supreme Kai's comrades/TrueCompanions getting taken out by Buu, and his mentor is killed right in front of him.]]
** Chaozu's merciless wrecking at the hands of Nappa, followed by a tearful farewell and a kamikaze explosion. [[SenselessSacrifice Which was pointless.]]
** Future Trunks also has this moment when [[spoiler:all of the Z-fighters except Gohan die, and even more so [[SacrificialLion when Gohan dies.]]]]
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Not as prominent as ''Dragon Ball'', but there are still are some instances that stand out.
** One that stuck in the anime: Gohan addresses the audience near the start of the Buu arc that Krillin grew his hair out after quitting fighting.
** During the Majin Buu arc, Krillin notices that the author is cheating by recycling panels (to be exact, Goten and Trunks's fusion training sequence is reused over and over) and Toriyama himself pops out behind him to apologize.
* BreakTheHaughty:
** One of the most common trends involving Vegeta. He spends large parts of the storyline reveling in his own egotism and power, only allowing his opponents to manipulate his arrogance and humiliate him. Due to stubbornness, his haughtiness broken several times before the lesson actually sinks in. It takes realizing that his actions have possibly doomed everyone he cares about for him to actually start to become truly humble. Somewhat.
** Also happens to Gotenks, who has something like Vegeta's arrogance mixed in with a childish bravado and {{jerkass}}ery. He means well, but he's too caught up in how magnificent he thinks he is to listen to other people or act wisely. Minutes after his first appearance, this results in him being outsmarted by Majin Buu, beaten to a pulp, and then forced to watch helplessly as an army is slaughtered while he can't do a thing. It hits hard, but doesn't sink in.
* BrickBreak: A running gag for Mr. Satan. At least twice he failed to break the last brick at the bottom.
* BrickJoke[=/=]CallForward[=/=]{{Foreshadowing}}:
** Early on (in Volume 2 of ''Dragon Ball''), Oolong comments that Goku's amazing qualities have to be due to him being an alien. Later on, during the Red Ribbon saga, Major Metallitron scans Goku. In a corner, it says that he's not human and it doesn't know what he is. During the beginning of ''DBZ'', it is revealed that Goku is a Saiyan.
** Very early on in the series, Goku, Bulma, and Oolong run into the Boss Rabbit Gang. After Goku beats up two of the grunts, they call in their boss who threatens to turn them all into carrots. Later in ''DBZ'', we learn Goku's Saiyan name is based off the word "Carrot." Maybe Toriyama is an unreliable source of information?
%% * BumblingDad: Goku, Mr. Satan, & Krillin.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: The Ginyu Force. Frieza hires them as enforcers to take out Vegeta and retrieve the Dragon Balls. After seeing their entrance, full of ridiculous camp, dumb poses, and ''flowers'', you may think he's made a huge mistake. Until you watch ''one'' member of the team beat ''Vegeta'' like he was nothing, without ever dropping the camp.-
* BusFullOfInnocents:
** Goku and Piccolo save a bus full of children in episode 125.
** Imperfect Cell stops and and absorbs an entire bus full of rugby players in one episode, and when Vegeta fights Android 18 he inadvertantly blows up a truck full of paperclips.
* ButtMonkey: Yamcha, Krilin and Gotenks. Even Goku at times. Frieza, King Cold and Cell became this in Hell.
** ''Mr. Satan'' takes the cake here, [[AmusingInjuries for being injured in just about any conceivable manner.]] It's usually the only reason for his existence. [[IronButtMonkey He could very well upgrade his status]], as being the only character never to die against Cell and Buu is an achievement no one else can boast of. Even his injuries are gone the next time he appears in a shot.
* ByronicHero: Various, but the most prominent are probably Piccolo and Vegeta. Vegeta is notable, because he is basically Goku's opposite.
* CallBack: Much like its predecessor, the series often has nods to events portrayed earlier in the series:
** The Buu Arc is a throwback to the gag-heavy atmosphere of Toriyama's earlier works.
** [[https://twitter.com/SchaefDogg/status/312718345977876480/photo/1 Some of the shots of Gohan vs. Super Buu]] mirror Goku and Vegeta's first fight.
** Gohan winds up sprawled on top of Vegeta after saving him from Cell, in the same position as at the end of the Saiyan saga after the two nearly killed one another, as if to highlight how far the characters have come since then.
* CallingYourAttacks:
** Played straight most of the time. Future Trunks averts this - he's ''silent'' during his initial fight aside from normal speech. In at least some cases, it seems to be necessary. Captain Ginyu's body switching attack apparently doesn't work unless he can actually vocalize the "CHANGE NOW!"
** Good {{aver|tedTrope}}sion from Goku: he used Kamehameha quickly, without calling it, to block a mouth blast from Nappa. It's the only time he's ever used it without calling it.
* CameBackStrong: When the heroes die they train with King Kai in grueling conditions and so when they are wished back to life they are a lot tougher.
* CantCatchUp: It doesn't matter how much ass the cast of ''Dragon Ball'' kicked in the original series. In this series, nearly everybody has a hard time keeping up with the Saiyans. By the end of the series, even the final BigBad Super Buu is desperately trying to play catchup with the Saiyans. Gohan was able to effortlessly defeat Super Buu without the need (or ability) to transform. Later, when Buu had absorbed Gohan and obtained his power, he was easily beaten by the original Super Saiyan form of Vegetto, who was probably capable of at least one and probably two more levels of Super Saiyan transformations on top of that. The only reason there was any tension at all for the final battle against Kid Buu was that Goku and Vegeta didn't want to fuse again on ''principle''.
* CardCarryingVillain: Frieza, Cell and Buu. Frieza, especially takes it to very dark extremes
** The Saiyans in general are this, being planet destroying barbarians.
** Broly in this exchange:
-->'''Piccolo''': He's a monster!
-->'''Broly''': Monster? Wrong, I'm the devil!
* CastFromHitPoints: Both the Tri-beam attack which actually kills Tien once through overuse and the Super Saiyan 3 form, which burns through the 24 hours of extra life Baba was able to grant Goku in mere minutes.
* CavalierCompetitor: Android 17 and Cell, the latter until he starts to lose.
* CerebusSyndrome: Stating with the Saiyan saga, it's no longer the sweet story of ''Dragon Ball'' and much more graphic.
* CharacterDevelopment:
** In the beginning of ''Dragon Ball'', Goku literally had no idea what boobs were (he thought Bulma had a butt on her chest). Near the end of the Majin Buu saga, Goku is literally using Bulma's breasts as a bargaining chip to get Old Kaio-shin to go along with their use of the Dragon Balls (to the ire of Vegeta, who suggested that Goku offer his own wife's breasts instead).
** Also Gohan becoming less of a whiny, spoiled brat and becoming a MartialPacifist.
** Vegeta who eventually comes to terms that he [[CantCatchUp can't catch up]] to Goku.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower
** All living things have ''ki'' as a sort of mystical lifeforce. Apparently with training you can make your ''ki'' pool larger and stronger and learn how to channel it into [[KiAttacks shooting energy beams]], flying, being bulletproof, telepathic, and have SuperStrength that'd make them outright near ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' level. You'd still not really be much of a match for most androids and aliens, but still.
** Being an alien (Saiyan) seems to give you the highest ki "potential", but then the human members gain strength far surpassing what is possible (although they're still extremely weak in comparison to said aliens).
** Although, considering that it is outright stated that ki use literally causes the user to become stronger, more resilient and faster, and that most ordinary humans are ignorant of the EXISTENCE of ki, never mind how to use it, it's unclear whether it qualifies as this trope. In Dragon Ball those who know of its use are mostly human martial arts masters, though; it's only later on that aliens like the Saiyans who have a natural affinity for ki utilisation are introduced, although even some Saiyans like Vegeta were unable to use skills like Ki Sense until meeting the Z Fighters of Earth.
* ChekhovsGun:
** The Spirit Bomb. Goku learns it in the Saiyan Saga, and it does alright. Nothing to write home about, really, but it did send Vegeta running. Frieza just shrugged it off, so it didn't seem like a big deal. Then, 10-12 in-universe years later in the Buu Saga, Goku uses one to ''completely eradicate'' his opponent, an unstoppable being of literal pure evil that once came back from being turned into so much smoke.
** To a degree, Goku showing Goten and Trunks how to become a Super Saiyan 3 in the Buu Saga.
** The artificial moon that Vegeta created to turn Oozaru during his fight with Goku in the Saiyan saga winds up playing a significant part in his eventual downfall.
* ChekhovsSkill:
** That weird language Shen ([[spoiler:Kami]]) and Piccolo were speaking in the 23rd Tenka'ichi Budokai? It's actually Namekian, the language of their native planet and Bulma learned to activate the starship that Kami came from to travel to Namek, with Krillin and Gohan, and is needed to use the Namekian Dragon Balls and make wishes to the Namekian Dragon God, Porunga. In a [[Awesome/DragonBall spectacular]] instance of a MeaninglessVillainVictory, Freeza found the latter out the hard way.
** Uranai Baba reveals that she can bring the dead to the world of the living for 24 hours at a time in the Red Ribbon arc. About ten real world years later in the Buu arc (approx. 25 years in-universe), this becomes a plot point as she allows Goku to spend 24 hours with his family, [[spoiler:and then ''again'' to allow Vegeta to fight Buu again]].
** The Shunkan Idou ("Instant Transmission") technique that Goku learned in Yardrat. He demonstrated it to his friends in the beginning of the Android/Cell arc, and would use it [[spoiler:to make an HeroicSacrifice and the save the world from Cell's SuicideAttack]].
* ChewingTheScenery: Vegeta, at least in the various English dubs.
** He also completely masticates everything that surrounds him in the Latin-American dub. His performances as a LargeHam DeadpanSnarker are some of the most hilarious highlights of the series in this version.
* TheChewToy: Supreme Kai, in spades. His introduction is very impressive, but it doesn't last long - most of his contribution to Majin Buu Saga is driven by plan after plan to save the universe that goes horribly wrong in some way or another, while constantly humiliating or injuring him, beginning with him having no idea how outclassed he is. He quickly becomes more of a joke than a revered character, and then just when his last plan goes belly up, his ancestor shows up to save the day and calls him a "shoe shine boy" rather than a hero. Kai simply responds with all the pathetically sad disappointment of a child being told he can't measure up by his father. While the rest of the characters respect him, it seems the universe hates him... which is ironic, given that he's the highest form of god there is.
%% * TheChick: Bulma or Pan, depending on the era.
* {{Chickification}}: Videl's case is unsurprising. She's a {{badass normal}} who is certainly strong but is hopelessly outclassed by the impossibly powerful beings surrounding her. The fact she goes from being on top of the world to being insignificant over the course of a few weeks can't possibly be good for her confidence.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Goku, which causes him to go out of his way to help people - in combination with his SpiritedCompetitor personality (which often drives him to seek out new and interesting challenges) this tends to lead him into bigger and more interesting adventures... and as the series goes on leads to him missing a lot of time with his family. Lampshaded by Chi-Chi at the end of the Buu saga.
--> Chi-Chi: "Can't he stop saving things just for one day so we can be together as a family?"
** He ends up passing this tendency on to Gohan, who can never stand by knowing someone's in danger without rushing in to help - occasionally accompanied by UnstoppableRage. This is a major reason beyond adopting his Great Saiyaman persona.
* ClothingDamage
** Clothing damage is more or less a given in every fight and nearly random in exposure area. Recoome's chest and butt are exposed by a blast from Vegeta, Goku's shirt is stripped off by a fireball launched by Vegeta.... well, the important thing is that someone's shirt gets torn off, at least. In fact, Goku's shirt gets torn so much that you can gauge where in the fight you are by it — if it's still there, and the enemy looks dead, it isn't over yet. Apparently, aliens are immortal unless Goku is topless.
** In any fight involving fighters with Saiyan armour, the plates extending out over the shoulder or forming a sort of skirt around the waist ''always'' get broken off. At the beginning of the Cell saga the only character who still wears the stuff is Vegeta, and it no longer features shoulders pads or the skirt stuff (which TheOtherWiki tells me are called Faulds in European armour and Tare in Japanese armour).
** 18 gets her clothes torn up when fighting Vegeta, but gets a new set later.
** Also, Videl gets her clothes torn up when fighting Spopovitch.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Bulma's parents. Bulma herself sometimes skirts on this from time to time.
* ColdBloodedTorture: This is one of Frieza's main methods of fighting. Kid Buu seems to do this during his fight with Vegeta.
* CombatPragmatist:
** Averted in most of the cases. Generally both the Saiyans, their friends and their enemies are more interested in a "fair fight against worthy opponents" than winning. They always give them enough time to transform, sometimes giving them hours to get there or find their final powerup.
** Played straight with Future Trunks. Having lived in a horrible future, he has no interest in fighting but only in winning. In the fights he barely gives his foes time to realise how outclassed they are, killing them the first opportunity he gets in every case. He is the only one to even carry a weapon in a life/death/fate of the world fight.
** Goku has been known not to always fight fair. He plotted to grab Raditz's tail and have Piccolo shot him while he's vulnerable. He escaped from being strangled by Frieza by biting the latter's tail. He also bites Kid Buu when he was fighting him as a Super Saiyan 3, but this time it was mostly played for comedy (Kid Buu bites him back). He also bit King Piccolo's thumb in their first fight. Not to mention shooting Vegeta in the eye when he was a Great Ape. Invokes during his fight with Recoome where he defeats Recoome with ''a single elbow to the stomach'', but did it '''while Recoome was powering up to perform a technique'''. Goku even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this after the fight is over:
--->'''Goku''': "I saw an opening that screamed ''attack''... so I did."
** Vegeta can also fall into this. He threw sand in Zarbon's eyes to temporarily blind him, after which he punched him in the back, breaking his armor. Vegeta defeated Guldo when the latter was distracted with attempting to kill Krilin and Gohan. Guldo blamed Vegeta of cheating, but Vegeta has a proper response:
--->'''Vegeta''': There's no such thing as fair or unfair in battle. There is only victory or, in your case, defeat.
** Krillin, initially. It's about the only thing he could do to keep in the frontlines linger than any of the other humans in Z. Notably, however, he never employed the solar flare/destructo disk combo that could've probably killed any major villain up until Cell.
* CombinedEnergyAttack: The Spirit Bomb.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
--> '''Vegeta''': Fuse with you?! I'd rather die!
--> '''Goku''': (sighing) Vegeta, you're already dead.
* CompressedHair: When Goku's in the hospital recovering from his injuries after the battle against the Saiyans, his head is bandaged despite his impressive AnimeHair.
* ConfusionFu
** Majin Buu, especially in his basic or Kid Buu form. The dialogue implies that this isn't the strongest form of Buu, but ends up being the most dangerous because there is no reason to his behavior. Of course, the fact that he's [[AxCrazy violently insane]] also helps.
** Before anyone knows who he is, Cell pulls a couple of these on Piccolo, Trunks and the others. Since he has the cells of all of the strongest fighters, he knows almost all of their attacks, many of which are unique to them. He also have the auras of the many different fighters he's built from, which is why it felt like there are two Piccolos, Frieza was alive, and Goku was on the battlefield despite being bedridden. He abuses this to get the upper hand on Piccolo whilst in his Imperfect Form. Piccolo at this point is considerably stronger than Cell, but Cell then performs a Kamehameha, which shocks Piccolo enough to allow Cell to grab him. When Trunks and Krillin show up, he then uses Solar Flare to escape.
* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Before they go extinct, they Saiyans are a fairly powerful race. After Freeza kills them, the surviving members start growing exponentially in power until they're the most powerful beings in the universe.
* ConvenientDecoyCat: Krillin, Gohan and Dende are trying to hide from Vegeta, who just learned to detect ki. When he sensed Dende's small ki, a dolphin jumps off the water, leading him to think that was the ki he sensed and leave.
* CoolStarship:
** Frieza's got one. So does Cooler.
** Dr. Briefs tries to give one to Goku (so he can go to Namek), even though he only needs a bare-bones transport.
* CrapsackWorld:
** Namek after Frieza showed up (and in the past, as the backstory also tells of weird weather patterns on Namek that killed many or drove them off, which was the main reason Kami was sent to Earth)
** Played straight with the world of the timeline Future Trunks came from. There are no magic balls in that one.
* CruelMercy: Goku tried to invoke this on Frieza, finding keeping him alive with his pride torn apart was a worst punishment than killing him. Frieza didn't take this well.
* CurbStompBattle:
** Most of Goku's {{Big Damn Hero|es}}[=/=]LookWhatICanDoNow moments in the series are like this, most notably when he came back from the dead to pummel Nappa after he killed Piccolo and nearly killed Krillin and Gohan, and later when he showed up and beat Recoome in a single blow after Recoome had hammered Vegeta, Gohan, and Krillin for the last three episodes.
** Vegeta also gets plenty of these, notably his fights against Guldo, Jeice, Frieza's best EliteMooks, Android #19, Cell (which is reversed once he allows Cell to reach "perfect" form), and Pui Pui. Especially Pui Pui. That last one was in ten times Earth's gravity, and Vegeta didn't even have to go Super Saiyan to beat him.
** The last leg of Goku and Frieza's battle was a curb-stomp battle. Goku managed to be far more powerful due to his transformation while Frieza was getting weaker. In addition Goku scared Frieza so badly that when he faces Trunks and Trunks transforms into a Super Saiyan Frieza has what can best be described as a panic attack.
** Trunks coming to Earth from the future and utterly destroying former BigBad Freeza in ''one episode''. It previously took Goku & co. an entire saga of fighting him, whittling his body down to nothing, and then ensuring his death by allowing a ''whole planet to explode'', only to watch in horror as he was resurrected by his even more powerful father via robotic technology! After all of that, there's no argument that Frieza had this trope coming to him.
** There's also the very beginning of Super Saiyan 2 Gohan fighting Cell—Gohan only landed two punches (and a kamehameha) on Cell, but they were so insanely damaging that they forced him out of his final form. For that matter, even though Cell was much stronger after he blew himself up and killed Goku, essentially becoming Super Saiyan 2 himself, he would likely still have had no chance of defeating Gohan if ONLY Vegeta's actions didn't result in getting Gohan severely damaged before the final showdown.
** Majin Buu makes quick work of both Gohan and the Supreme Kai immediately after getting released from his pod, and it's TERRIFYING. After serving as the Deuteragonist of the series up until then (even finishing off Perfect Cell as a kid), Gohan gets momentarily knocked out by Buu in [[OneHitKO ONE HIT]]. Supreme Kai can only stall for a time before Buu cripples him, and when Gohan tries to help (in full Super Saiyan 2 form), Buu unleashes an energy wave that engulfs Gohan completely (eliciting a piercing scream from him), and depleting his life force so much that Vegeta, Piccolo, and Goku all assumed that he had been killed. Gohan spends the next half dozen episodes laying unconscious in a forest, with only Kibito and the Supreme Kai's healing powers saving him from death.
** Vegito (the fused form of Goku and Vegeta) versus Buu after having absorbed a powered-up Gohan, Piccolo, Trunks and Goten definitely counts. A fight between the two most powerful characters in the entire Dragonball canon...and the former makes the latter look like a total pansy.
%% * CuteBruiser: Pan, Videl, [=ChiChi=], Trunks, Gohan, Goten, Goku (Dragon Ball and GT).
* CuteIsEvil: Fat Buu, before his HeelFaceTurn. And Kid Buu.
* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Both the Kaioken and the Spirit Bomb can kill the wielder (the Spirit Bomb can destroy the world if Goku's not careful).
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Dragon Ball Z'' wants you to know it's darkier and edgier than its predecessor, doing so by killing someone off on-screen in the first six minutes. While it was only a farmer who's been shown for about two minutes, it's far earlier than the first on-screen death in ''Dragon Ball'' (a random store owner during the Red Ribbon Army arc). And the dark tone increases further as each of the main arcs (Saiyan, Frieza, Androids, Cell, Majin Buu) pass.
** The Tree of Might movie.
** Future Trunks's timeline is DarkerAndEdgier than the main timeline.
* DeadHandShot: As Vegeta draws his final breath on Namek, his tear-blurred vision fades from his point of view, and we next see a close-up of his gloved hand falling onto the ground, followed by a shot of his body shivering with his eyes closed before becoming still and lifeless, followed by a gust of wind blowing on his body.
* DefeatEqualsExplosion: This happens a lot.
* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: Many of the major villains:
** The Saiyans were built to be nearly unstoppable with the weakest of them easily beating the strongest warriors on Earth. After Nappa was killed, Vegeta became the bar to surpass and took a heroic effort to defeat.
** Frieza was feared by King Kai himself and even Vegeta had to swallow his pride when dealing with him. Both King Kai and Vegeta called Frieza unbeatable and the only way to have any chance against him was to become an immortal. Instead, it took the legendary Super Saiyan to defeat Frieza.
** Cell was created to be the ultimate weapon, made from the cells of the greatest fighters in the universe. The Japanese text went as far as to call him the God of Destruction. He was brought down by Gohan who reached Super Saiyan 2.
** Buu, an EldritchAbomination so fearsome that he killed the gods of the Dragon World. Buu didn't just destroy planets, he destroyed galaxies. It took the power of an entire planet to kill him.
** The series is rife with this after Freeza. Later {{Big Bad}}s have the ability to regenerate from the smallest of pieces.
** Goku himself falls into this in the Androids/Cell Sage. Given all the androids Dr. Gero built, even turning himself into one, and the creation of Cell, he wanted to create a monster that would completely surpass Goku and kill him. [[{{Understatement}} Seems Goku left a very strong impression when he destroyed the Red Ribbon Army]]. In either case, Cell achieved Gero's dream, both surpassing Goku in power and killing him.
* DealWithTheDevil: Vegeta allowing himself to be possessed by Babidi. Babidi grants him a power-up in exchange for servitude, which turns him evil in the process. Unfortunately for Babidi, becoming evil again is part of what Vegeta wanted (as it would allow him to be unfettered by emotions) and he was able to resist Babidi's commands through force of will anyway, so he was able to have his cake and eat it. Interestingly, Babidi was also able to enslave the closest thing Dragon Ball has to the devil (normally a key player in this trope).
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist:
** The titular Dragon Balls allow any number of people to be brought back from the dead, but only if they have never been brought back to life before. This results in every major Z Fighter and lots of Earth's population being revived after being killed. The Namekian Dragon Balls circumvent the "only once" rule, allowing numerous characters like Krillin and Goku to be revived multiple times, but only allows one person to be brought back per wish.
** Additionally, whilst most people are manifested in the spirit realm as disembodied clouds, many characters whose good deeds were considered great in life are allowed to keep their physical body (or a copy of it) after death, albeit with a halo. This, in addition with Goku's Instant Transmission technique which allows him to travel even between life and the afterlife, means that after his death, he is still pretty much free to do what he wants and give a big two fingers up to King Yemma and all the other supposed "gods".
* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: Played with in a filler episode when Chi-Chi threatens Goku and Piccolo not to feed them if they don't get their licenses.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The term "senzu bean" when senzu means "holy bean."
* DeusExMachina: The Dragon Balls both subvert this and play it straight. It's played straight in that they can do anything, except kill a villain directly (due to this being the role of their creator as Guardian/God of earth and it being beyond his power). Their main use in Z is to revive people that the latest villain killed.
* DeusExitMachina:
** After the fourth or so time Goku is conveniently removed from a plot he could punch his way right through it gets just a ''little'' obvious. For example, he's in the other world when Nappa and Vegeta attack. King Kai forgot to account for the time it took him to return to Earth. He's still recovering from his injuries when Bulma leaves for Namek, so he has to come later, leaving Gohan, Krillin, and Vegeta to take on the Ginyu Force. Immediately after that, he's forced to heal from his ordeal with Ginyu's body switch maneuver, missing out on the early parts of the fight with Frieza. He's stricken with his heart virus just as the Androids attack. Then, he's dead [[DeathIsCheap again]] during most of the Buu arc.
** Chibi Trunks also moons and flips off Broly in DBZ Movie # 11
** Roshi to Broly in the first Broly movie
** There's a title page in the manga that shows some of the heroes literally flipping off Cell.
** Chi-Chi slaps Majin Buu, the scourge of the universe, ''in the face'' and gets turned into an egg and crushed in response.
* DisproportionateRetribution:
** When Frieza's henchmen are trying out for the Ginyu Force, Captain Ginyu kills a {{Mook}} called Captain Strong because he is also a captain ("There's only one captain on the Ginyu Forces and that's me!" He then kills another of Frieza's henchmen because he touched a Dragon Ball (which Ginyu forbade them to do), and does the same to the rest of the mooks trying out because they lack the style to be on the Ginyu Force.
** Actually, the "only room for one captain" line is dub only. In the original? The guy's first-run tryout pose isn't quite up to snuff. [[SarcasmMode OBVIOUSLY a far better reason to kill someone.]]
** Majin Buu [[DoNotTauntCthulhu turned Chi-Chi into an egg because she annoyed him.]]
** Kid Buu blew up the planet because [[ItAmusedMe he felt like it.]]
** Broly from the eighth movie hates Goku with a murderous passion because shortly after they were both born, ''Goku's crying bothered him.'' It gets to the point where he so hates Goku, that he's willing to ''[[MisplacedRetribution murder Goku's sons]]'' in his second movie because he thinks they're both Goku!
** In Vegeta's first appearance, Goku made him bleed a little. [[MinorInjuryOverreaction Vegeta responded by trying to]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom blow up the entire planet.]]
** In the Cell Saga, Vegeta punches Future Trnuks in the stomach, simply because Future Trunks warned him to wait for Goku before he takes on the Androids.
** Let's just face it, Vegeta's a recurring example of this trope. At the end of the DBZ series, at the tournament when a guy heckles him, he punches him in the face hard enough for him to forfeit the match.
** Dr. Gero's hatred towards Goku for destroying the Red Ribbon Army caused him to make a series of androids that turn the future timeline into a hellhole and nearly destroy the solar system in the main timeline. It becomes disproportionate when you considered that his old boss, Commander Red, wanted to use the Dragon Balls to get taller.
* DieOrFly: Piccolo's primary method of training of training Gohan for the Saiyans.
* DitzyGenius: Bulma. Especially in ''Dragon Ball'' and in the anime's Frieza saga.
* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength:
** Goku and Gohan in some filler episodes.
** And in one of the manga chapters, Goku playfully flicks [=ChiChi=] and accidentally sends her through a wall and into a tree.
** The anime at least has a scene where Goten, while being trained by Chichi, turned Super Saiyan without realizing it and kicked her to the ground.
* DoAndroidsDream: Or specifically, Do Androids experience fear?
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Crowds of people joyously cheering for Mr. '''''Satan'''''.
---> Grandpa Gohan (after accidentally ripping off Goku's tail): Goku, does your backside still hurt?
* DragonInChief: Quite common:
** Majin Buu is more or less this to Babidi; though in a subversion, since he starts out as an overgrown baby, Buu takes a while to realize how little power Babidi has. Majin Vegeta might also counts, and he ''does'' realize that Babidi is inferior.
** Before Buu, there was Dabura. Unlike Buu he was loyal to Babidi to a fault and it was his idea to turn Vegeta against his friends that allowed Buu to be freed.
** Dr. Gero is inferior to (and killed by) his android creations, though his Dragon Cell never meets him, as Gero dies before he wakes up. Cell expresses admiration for Gero for being so smart as to create him, but it's reasonable to assume that, if Gero were alive, that would probably not have saved him.
** In the Red Ribbon Army, there's Officer Black, who is much more competent and threatening than Supreme Commander Red.
** For most of his first appearance, Broly is under mind control from his much weaker father Paragus, who led the Z Fighters to the planet to fight his son. When Broly is freed, [[SelfMadeOrphan he quickly disposes of him]].
** Tienshinhan to his master in the original Dragon Ball. He is stronger than Shen and more competent, but is undoubtedly loyal until his HeelFaceTurn.
* TheDreaded
** The Saiyans for the first story arc of ''Z''. The earth's defenders spent a year just preparing for them and still got destroyed.
** Frieza who terrified King Kai and made even Vegeta humble. When he came to Earth after his defeat to Goku, he had everyone shaken in terror.
** To a lesser extent during the Namek Sage, Vegeta was this to Krillin, Gohan, Bulma, and most of Frieza's men. None of the heroes were in his league until Goku arrived and none of Frieza's men except for a transformed Zarbon were a match for the Saiyan Prince. He was actively searching for the dragon balls and was just as ruthless about it as Frieza.
** For Vegeta it was the [[EliteMooks Ginyu]] [[QuirkyMiniBossSquad Force]]. Just hearing that they would soon arrive on Namek made him willing to [[EnemyMine team up]] with Gohan and Krillin.
** Goku became this to Frieza after his defeat. When Frieza came to Earth looking for revenge he has a classic case of PTSD at the mere thought of Goku. And even before his defeat, Frieza was deathly afraid of the legendary Super Saiyan.
** To Future Trunks, the [[HeroKiller androids]], specially 17 and 18. They turned his world into hell and killed everyone he loves except for his mother.
** Cell became this to the Earth after he started making cities disappear and announce the Cell Games.
** Majin Buu, so fearsome that the gods themselves feared him. He also became this to the Earth after turning 80% of the population into candy.
* DrumBathing: Goku commonly uses this as the default bathtub at his house. One notable moment is in the Tree of Might film when he bathes in it with Gohan.
* DueToTheDead: When Vegeta dies tearfully begging Goku to avenge their race on Namek, Goku, out of [[SympathyForTheDevil sympathy]], takes the time to give Vegeta a proper burial before fighting Frieza.
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Most of the time go hand-and-hand with HeroicSacrifice.
** Goku's [[DeathIsCheap deaths]] in ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. His first death consists of him holding Raditz in order to make sure he doesn't dodge Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon. His second death is even better: With [[TakingYouWithMe Cell threatening to explode]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom and destroy the entire Earth]], Goku merely smiles to his friends hinting on what he plans to do, teleports to Cell, and says his last words to his son Gohan before disappearing to King Kai's planet where Cell explodes, killing him, King Kai [[AndZoidberg and his pets Bubbles and Gregory]].
** Tien's final attack against Nappa which left him completely drained of energy and killed him only seconds later. Although it didn't kill the saiyan, it was the first time Nappa was left flustered and it was the most damage done against him up to that point.
** Vegeta's spectacular death scene during the Buu Saga, arguably the best part of the entire saga. Nearly completely breaking down from his back-to-back catastrophic losses, he reflects soberly on his life and, for the first time, hugs his son. He asks Piccolo if he'll meet Goku in the afterlife, and Piccolo candidly tells Vegeta that he will not go to the same afterlife as the heroic and selfless Goku and he would most likely go to Hell for his past deeds. Vegeta shrugs and sends his son away with Piccolo, gives a big scream, and consumes himself in an apocalyptic inferno (that can be seen from space) that reduces Buu to vapor.
** Vegeta almost gets another one near the end of the Buu Sage. Kid Buu has just finished [[CurbStompBattle pounding Vegeta into the dirt]], Goku can barely hold his own, and no one else is powerful enough to even scratch Buu. Goku, the rival who Vegeta has been trying to prove is inferior for 200+ episodes, says he can win but he'll need at least a minute to gather power. "I've got it covered." "What?" "Your minute. I've got it covered." Vegeta steps back into the fight, knowing quite well he'll get his ass handed to him, just to buy time for the man he has finally admitted is the better fighter. To top it off, Vegeta was already dead so if he was killed again he would be ''gone''. He was risking his very existence just to buy Goku time.
** Android 16. [[DeathIsCheap Unlike]] the other characters in this series, this ginger had no soul, and almost certainly knew it. Yet his reassuring smile to Gohan never leaves his face even as Cell crushes him.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: EverybodyLives, after dying ''at least'' once (except the rare few who don't die, which includes ''[[FakeUltimateHero Mr. Satan]]'' of all people).
* EarthShatteringKaboom: Happened to Planet Vegeta, Planet Namek... and even Planet Earth itself (''twice'' if you include ''[[CanonDiscontinuity GT]]'').
** Also, the Saiyans (excluding Goku and the Saiyan children), Freeza and Majin Buu have had histories of doing this for kicks.
** Kid Buu in fact did this to [[ApocalypseHow pretty much almost every planet in existence at the time]] in a matter of seconds.
* EasilyForgiven:
** Goku toward villains, over and over again. If Goku ''ever'' says he "won't forgive" someone or that there'll be "no mercy" for that person, don't believe him; he's lying. Goku seems to learn this lesson during his training with Kami, as before that he was willing to kill anybody who got in his way without a second thought. After his fight with Freeza he is more pragmatic, recognizing Cell and Buu as being evil creatures that ''need'' to be killed while being friendly to characters proven to be reformed like #18, #16 and Good Buu.
** Obviously averted in the movies, where there is no time for such drastic character development.
* {{Egopolis}}:
** Satan City is named after [[FakeUltimateHero Mr. Satan]] [[BlatantLies following his courageous defeat of Cell]]. He's not actually in charge, but he does have a large influence.
** Also deserving of mention is Planet Vegeta, which was renamed after the royal line of the Saiyans' king[[note]]''Every'' male member in this family who ascends the throne seems to bear this name.[[/note]] after they defeated the Tuffles.
* EgocentricTeamNaming: The Ginyu Force, named after [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOntheTin Captain Ginyu.]]
* EldritchAbomination:
** Majin Buu is an immortal, and almost indestructible creature of magic with a body that can take any shape and the ability to alter matter (for example, he can turn people into food). He can also absorb people for their power and abilities.
** Janemba is the best example as he is literally a creature from another universe (other world) and can distort reality while playing havoc with the laws of life and death.
** Hirudegarn is a cosmic monstrosity that was revered as a god by an alien tribe and could survive being bisected.
* EnemyMine: Just about all the villains who eventually [[HeelFaceTurn switched sides]].
* EndlessDaytime: the planet Namek had multiple suns shining on it from all sides, keeping it in perpetual daylight.
* EnragedByIdiocy: Vegeta is this throughout the whole series. He has spent most of his life dealing with Nappa, and gets extremely pissed at him for being an idiot in his fight against Kakarot (to the extent that he murders him in cold blood for being an embarrassment), and then constantly expresses anger at the perceived stupidity of most of the other Z Fighters (while ironically allowing the Android/Cell situation to escalate to a point where Cell manages to kill Goku).
* [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas Even Bad Men Love Their Papas]]: Frieza, surprisingly.
* EvilCounterpart
** Vegeta started as this to Goku.
** Super Buu to Goku. It has certain similarities, such as being a Big Eater, not very eloquent, and the tendency to seek a strong enemy.
** Cell to Vegeta. Both obsessed with fighting and proving they're the strongest and both prone to temper tantrums when outclassed.
* EvilDuo / [[FriendlyEnemy Friendly Enemies]]: Androids 17 and 18 to the Z-Fighters. Seeing as how they don't kill anyone (Aside from [[KickTheSonOfABitch Dr. Gero]]) in the main timeline, they aren't [[AffablyEvil really all]] ''[[AffablyEvil that]]'' [[AffablyEvil bad]]; they simply want to find and destroy Goku because it would be ''[[JustForFun fun.]]'' After a while they [[HeelFaceTurn get over it]], and Android 18 eventually even has a kid.
* EvilIsDeathlyCold: A running theme with the names in Frieza's family: Lord Frieza/Freeza, King Cold, Cooler, their ancestor Chilled...
* EvilLaugh: Frieza and Kid Buu.
** Garlic Jr. engages in this a fair bit, as do the evil incarnations of Majin Buu.
* EvilVersusEvil:
** Vegeta and Nappa, two murderous {{Blood Knight}}s, depose an EvilOverlord on the planet of Arlia after he made the mistake of locking them both up. The people think they've been saved from an evil tyrant, only for Vegeta to remind them that he's a villain as well when he [[KickTheDog blows up the planet for shits and giggles]].
** Freeza vs Vegeta and Bardock. Vegeta is almost a Villain Protagonist on Namek - he and Nappa massacred Earth's heroes less than a month ago and he kills almost as many innocent Namekians as Freeza's men, but he still has the best chance of holding off Freeza's side until Goku gets there.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Either a ki-blast is in Japanese or it is this. Sometimes it's PlayedForLaughs. Other times, it's not. Example -- Super Buu's "Human Extinction Attack".
** Tien Shinhan's "Volleyball Technique." He hits his opponent into the air like a volleyball. Lampshaded by the announcer.
* ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy: Happens ''a lot''.
* ExploitedImmunity: In one of their battles, Frieza decides to blow up the planet he and Goku are fighting on, because he can see he's going to lose and while they can both survive an EarthShatteringKaboom, only he can survive in space.
* Expy: Most of Freeza's minons get one apiece in movies and anime fillers
** Garlic Jr's henchmen are similar to the Ginyu Force, sans Captain Ginyu. Cooler's Armoured Squadron as well, sans Gurdo.
** Mr. Satan's top pupils are similar to Zarbon and Dodoria, in that one's a bishounen and the other's an overweight brute.
* ExtremeOmnivore: Yajirobe, who ''eats Cymbal after defeating him.''
** ImAHumanitarian: And briefly considered eating a (presumably) dead ''Goku'' before deciding he would probably taste bad.
* EyeColorChange: A Saiyan's eyes turn green when he turns Super Saiyan (although it's easily missable, since [[PowerDyesYourHair the other effect]] of the transformation is much more visible).
* EyeScream:
** Ironically, Goku in the early series gave this to Yamcha using his Jan Ken Fist (otherwise known as "Rock, Paper, Scissors Attack") Goku delivers a "Rock" (a punch), which Yamcha blocks, delivers the "Scissors" (eye poke) to his eyes, then finished it off with "Paper" (a slap) that knocked him away.
** Vegeta is hit by a blast to his right eye as an ape.
** Goku did it during his fight with Piccolo Jr when the latter grew gargantuan. For a guy who's pure of heart, Goku really likes being a dick and hitting people in the eyes.
** An EyePoke that's decidedly not PlayedForLaughs is given to Majin Vegeta by Majin Buu.
* FakeoutEscape: Vegeta is imprisoned inside a healing tank on Frieza's ship. When he breaks out of the healing tank, it alerts the guards. So he blasts a hole through the wall to them think he has escaped the ship; while Frieza's henchmen are searching for him outside the ship, he takes the opportunity to go steal some dragon balls and then escape.
* TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether:
** [[BigBad Frieza]]'s family is a big perfect example. The father (King Cold) has been implicated to be a tyrant, probably responsible for multiple genocides throughout the universe, his son (Frieza) is a sadist who enjoys torturing his victims, and his brother (Cooler) and predecessor (Chilled) are very similar to him.
** Babidi's family as well. He and his father Bibidi are sociopathic OmnicidalManiac that sowed destruction in planets, and probably entire galaxies, and the Bibidi's creation (Kid Buu) is a PsychoForHire creature whose only skill is killing and destroying.
* FantasticRacism: Freeza's fear-driven extermination of "the Saiyan-monkeys." The Saiyans themselves were, as a rule, disdainful of anyone who isn't a Saiyan.
* FantasticVoyagePlot: Vegito gets absorbed by [[BlobMonster Buu]], defuses, and Goku and Vegeta look around Buu's insides for Gohan, Piccolo and Gotenks (now defused as Goten and Trunks). They also find [[spoiler:the Fat Buu]].
* FatBastard: Dodoria and Android 19.
* FearlessFool:
** Vegeta qualifies for this trope, as he is the first to charge into battles against opponents that are far more powerful than he is, and even lets them power up because of his arrogance.
** Videl sometimes, as shown when she tries to charge against Spopovitch and Yamu when they attacked Gohan.
** Gotenks. When he was first born, what's the first thing he tries to do? He rushes into battle with Majin Buu without thinking of the consequences, and ends up getting himself beaten to a pulp.
** Chi-Chi. She usually [[MamaBear tries to charge into battles to save her sons,]] without thinking of the possible consequences of her actions (with the other characters [[LetMeAtHim having to hold her back]]). She plays this straight when she walks up to Majin Buu, the scourge of the universe, and slaps him in the face for killing Gohan. She gets turned into an egg and killed as a response.
* FightingSeries: Aw hell yeah.
* {{Filler}}: DBZ is one of the most notorious of all anime series for this, including not just adding extra arcs, but stretching out battles because the manga hadn't concluded them yet. And we mean ''stretching them out''. An example is the Frieza Saga. There's Namek's Destruction. Five minutes to go, Frieza says. Five Episodes later - "...Two more minutes!..." Two Episodes later - "Only one minute to go!...". ''Two more episodes'' later — Frieza's defeated. One episode later — Finally the planet goes Kaboom...and Goku escapes. '''Ten Full Episodes'''.
* FinalBattle: The final battle of the series is Goku and Vegeta vs. Kid Buu in other world. [[spoiler:Goku wins by gathering all of the people's energy from Earth to form the Spirit Bomb.]]
* FinalFirstHug: Vegeta's heartbreaking farewell to Trunks.
* FinalBoss: Kid Buu is the final villain to be beaten.
* FlyingBrick: About 90% of the the cast in Z.
* TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne: Mostly starts with the Saiyan Saga, after which almost all the main characters were trained in ki-sensing.
* ForeheadOfDoom: All over the place. In fact, it's something of an iconic trait of Toriyama's art style. It's combined with some serious brow-ridges for the Saiyan characters, which seem to get larger with each stage of Super Saiyan, and spreads to pretty much ''everyone'' in the anime (as animator Tadayoshi Yamamuro, one of the worst offenders, also did many of the later Z character designs).
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Any time a character in the first anime comments on how Goku must be from another planet due to his quirks (having a tail, being a BigEater, etc). Despite this, it still comes as a shock to everyone when they discover that Goku really is from another planet.
** The Eldest Namek was the first to mention Super Saiyan after Krillin explained that Kami, son of Katas, was murdered by a Saiyan. After reading Krillin's mind he says that if Kami was whole no ordinary Saiyan could had killed him. This also foreshadows the power of the Nameless Namek.
** During the Buu saga Trunks and Goten pretend to be one fighter in costume. They also comment being one person is tiring. This is before they actually fuse.
* ForTheEvulz:
** Kid Buu was pretty much this and it's also half of Super Buu's motivation (the other being that he's a massive BloodKnight). Fat Buu also acted like this, before Mr. Satan convinced him otherwise. Although there was the matter of never being told this was wrong, but rather that this was a good way to get his masters to give him cake and that he thought it was a game…
** There was also Cell, who's only objective was to test out his "perfect body"…by killing everyone and everything. Even further, he wanted to see everyone's face to contort in terror at the sight of him first.
** Frieza does half of what he does for this reason. He kills the Namekians after they give him the Dragon Balls and fully intends to destroy the planet once he gets his wish.
* ForWantOfANail: The main timeline is ''very'' different than Trunks' timeline, for no discernible reason other than later on in his timeline Cell went into the past, creating the ''main'' timeline where he's already there; even though Cell apparently took no steps to actively change anything (in fact, being in a cocoon the whole time), there are several differences, though Kami briefly theorizes this may because time travel just messes with reality in general rather than needing anyone to change anything. Such changes include:
** Androids #17 and #18 being inexplicably more powerful but nowhere near as evil.[[note]]Apparently, the versions Trunks was expecting killed Gero ''before'' he could tune up their perpetual generators and tune down their personalities to make them more controllable.[[/note]]
** Dr. Gero turning himself into an cyborg and making #19.
** #18 deciding to wake up #16, meaning there are now 3 androids (not counting Gero and #19)
** Events happening earlier or later than they're supposed to, like Goku getting sick with his heart disease ''much'' later than Trunks expected.[[note]]In this specific instance, the stress of teleporting to Earth to fight Mecha-Frieza and King Cold caused Future Goku's heart disease to develop faster; in the main DBZ timeline, he sensed that Trunks was taking care of it and waited for his space pod to arrive, meaning he didn't get stressed until the Androids showed up.[[/note]]
** And, of course, Cell being there in the first place, which causes widespread carnage and such.
* FreakyFridayFlip: Captain Ginyu has the power to switch bodies with anyone, which he does with Goku. Eventually however, it backfires on him when he tries to take Vegeta's body and ends up in a frog's instead, rendering him harmless as his power requires the use of his voice. Later, when he meets Bulma, he acts nice to her and she makes a translator for him. He proceeds to switch bodies, then travels to Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo, Bulma hanging on. He tries to switch with Piccolo, only for Gohan to throw Bulma frog in the way, fixing everything. Eventually leading a group of frogs in the Capsule Corporation Compound if the series is to be believed.
* FriendlyTarget: Poor, poor Krillin and Android 16.
* FromASingleCell: Cell and Buu. Even more so with Buu.
* FromNobodyToNightmare:
** The Big Gete Star started off as a tiny little computer chip.
** Goku as far as Freeza and Gero are concerned.
** In the Budokai two normal people note that Spopovitch (while strong) was nothing like what he became in his fight with Videl.
** Gohan to Cell. Went from JustAKid to the android, to putting the fear of god into him.
* FutureBadass: Future Trunks and Future Gohan. The latter takes this to extremes compared to his present day counterpart.
* GeniusBruiser: Nappa, though it isn't shown much. That attack he uses to blow up a city? It requires ''a degree in nuclear physics''.
** Cell and Gero (again not pointed out much). Gero on account of being able to create androids and cyborgs and turn himself into a cyborg (he's noted to be as smart as Bulma or her Dad who are both shown to be brilliant scientists), and Cell on account of having a load of information taught to him by the computer while a larvae
* GenrePopularizer: For the FightingSeries.
* GenreShift:
** ''Z'' is SciFi, while the orginal series is more {{Fantasy}}.
** Saiyan Saga: ''JourneyToTheWest'' meets SuperHero fiction (including ''GoldenBat'', ''[[http://www.animevice.com/prince-of-gamma/18-31482/ Prince of Gamma]]'', and ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'').
** Freeza Saga: ''JourneyToTheWest'' meets SpaceOpera (including ''MessageFromSpace'', ''Franchise/StarWars'', and ''{{Macross}}'').
** Android/Cell Saga: ''JourneyToTheWest'' meets {{Cyberpunk}} (including ''Film/{{Terminator}}'').
** And it all comes full circle in the Buu Sage, reintroduction the fantasy elements from the original DragonBall.
* TheGift
** Vegeta likes to think he was born with the Gift being a prince from a race of proud warriors who boast about being the strongest in the universe. It doesn't help that he was more or less called special by all those who knew him, even his BadBoss Frieza. He is not too far off. He is extremely talented and reach levels that none in his race could even begin to comprehend.
** Goku has an even greater gift for fighting, being able to outpace Vegeta no matter how hard he trains. During the Cell and Buu Sages Vegeta outright states that Goku has a gift, something that he has denied before by calling Goku low class trash. By the end of the series Vegeta fully admits to himself that Goku is the superior fighter.
** Both Vegeta and Goku's gifts are outpaced by Gohan who can easily become the strongest in the universe if he desired it.
* TheGlovesComeOff: Vegeta does this in the Buu Saga, by [[spoiler:letting Babidi take control of him]] solely for the power boost that it involved.
* GodIsFlawed: Very apparent with the Supreme Kai, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin who is just that]]: the Supreme God of the Dragon Ball universe, and perhaps the least-knowing God of them all. He hastens Majin Buu's release by allowing Gohan's energy to be stolen at the world Tournament, having assumed Babidi was too strong to beat. He created a block of indestructible metal which destroyed the Z sword (it did release Old Kai, but Supreme Kai did not know that would happen). Finally, he is constantly surprised by the Saiyans, whom he believed were strong but not strong enough to achieve victory. It's only when Vegeta [[CurbStompBattle decimates]] Pui Pui that he begins to realize the Saiyans are stronger than he thought.
* GoldColoredSuperiority: Goku's original power multiplier was the Kaioken which had him TurnRed and maxed out at 20x base power. When that wasn't enough to beat Frieza he transformed into a Gold Super Saiyan, 50x base power.
* GoodIsNotNice:
** While Vegeta may have eventually turned good, he was never nice (although his sense of camraderie for Goku during their fight against Kid Buu is rather touching).
** Although not as bad as Vegeta, Piccolo is also a variety of this trope. He has no problem mercilessly killing his enemies or sacrificing innocence for the greater good as shown in the Buu Sage.
* GoodNightSweetPrince: Used in the English Dub of ''Dragon Ball Z'' when Freeza was going to kill Vegeta.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Piccolo is turned to stone by Dabura, and only returns to normal ''after'' Trunks has knocked over the statue. When Trunks realizes what he just did, he's the only one who gets to see the gory details. The poor kid goes BlueWithShock and begs Goten and Krillin not to tell - except Piccolo's already back on his feet.
* GratuitousEnglish: Most alien and supernatural creatures have name-puns based off English words, and Toriyama had said that Vegeta's attacks used English names to highlight his alien nature.
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: Subverted in the 2008 special where everyone is surprised the wife of Vegeta's brother is an adorable cartoonish alien. The exception is Master Roshi, who points out that Saiyans seem to have strange tastes in women. Unfortunately, he said it in ''earshot'' of [[{{Tsundere}} Bulma AND Chi-Chi,]] and gets [[AmusingInjuries severely beaten for it]].
** Played straight with Zangya, one of Bojack's henchmen.
--->"Space Chicks are hot!"
--->-Krillin regarding Zangya
** Inverted with Zarbon, who is a green skinned space man.
* GunsAreWorthless:
** As shown in episode 172 when the military tries to kill Cell, [[WhatAnIdiot and you can guess]] [[TooDumbToLive how it turns out.]]
** There were many earlier examples as well. When Raditz first landed on Earth, a farmer tried to shoot him only for Raditz to catch the bullet and throw it back at him, killing him
** Future Trunks easily deflects a few blaster shots just before he [[spoiler:kills Frieza]]. Also, Gohan catches an entire clip from a submachine gun fired on full auto ''with the same hand, bullet by bullet'' - something Master Roshi had also done before.
----
** Subverted by the Z Sword. Everyone thinks that it's unbreakable and [[AbsurdlySharpBlade stupidly sharp]], but it's not, though the material it was pitted against ''was'' ridiculously sturdy.
** Played with when King Cold believed that Trunks only managed to kill Frieza because of his sword (which probably does qualify for this). Amused, Trunks decided to let Cold test this theory and gives him the sword, knowing that Cold would attempt to kill him with it. When Cold uses the sword, Trunks [[BarehandedBladeBlock stops the blade with his hand]] and kills Cold with a ki blast to the heart.
* [[AbsurdlyYouthfulMother Absurdly Youthful Father]]: Looks like nobody ever ages here:
** Averted in the final chapter/episode which is set some 10 years after Buu is defeated where everyone (bar Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Piccolo) has aged as you'd expect (and they have the excuse of being aliens or half breeds with longer life spans)
** Goku is particularly guilty of this trope, due to being ''dead'' for eight years.[[note]]One year in the Saiyan Saga and the seven years between the Cell and Buu Sagas.[[/note]]
* {{Acrofatic}}: Fat Majin Buu and Dodoria, as well as Yajirobe.
* ActionBomb
** Chiaotzu and Vegeta tried exploding to defeat their opponent (resulting in a huge TearJerker for the former), and Cell actually killed Goku doing it.
** Most, if not all, of Dr. Gero's Androids incorporated very powerful self-destruct devices. 17 and 18's are removed by Shenron on a wish from Krillin, while 16's is removed by Bulma. The problem is that she doesn't make him aware of that either, so 16 attempts to use his now nonfunctioning self-destruct mechanism against Cell. When it fails, Cell blast him into pieces, [[FromASingleCell not that the bomb would've helped anyway according to him.]]
** The Saibamen used by Nappa and Vegeta in the first saga, which is how Yamcha died.
* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: When Trunks recounts why he came back in time, and you get a feeling of the despair he must feel being the only defense for all the people against the Androids who have ravaged the entire world, leaving only a handful of people behind.
* ActingUnnatural: Frog Ginyu was trying to steal one of the Dragon Balls. When Gohan spots him, he starts leaning against the ball and whistling nonchalantly, which only makes him more suspicious because he's a frog.
* AdaptationDistillation: ''Anime/DragonBallKai'', in recutting the ''Dragon Ball Z'' anime to match more closely to the manga original.
** There is an inherent problem with translating directly from the manga page, which the original anime did. Primarily showing an explosion on the comic page takes up one panel with a half-second glance while it takes 90 seconds of the anime to animate (to say nothing of {{talking is a free action}}). To fit one manga into a half-hour show meant that there was plenty of {{padding}} and reaction shots. ''Kai'' is cutting that down ''to a third'' of its original length and thereby allowing for a swift watch almost equal to reading the manga.
* AdaptationDyeJob:
** Bulma, and her daughter, Bra.
** This happens a lot since Toriyama tends to color characters' outfits or aesthetics differently, every now and then. You have two choices: A) Assume this was on purpose, thus [[CharacterDevelopment making the characters less static]], or B) It wasn't on purpose, and Toei just had to [[LimitedWardrobe settle on a color for Bulma's hair, Piccolo's arms, training gis, etc...]]
** A particularly notable example is Vegeta; in his first appearances in the anime, he looked like [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Vegeta_First.PNG this]]; as soon as he got to Earth, however, his armor was the blue-and-white color scheme we're used to and his hair had become black... which extends {{ret|con}}roactively to events that take place well before his first appearance, up to and including [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/dragonball/images/1/12/Chibivegeta_nappa1.jpg childhood]]. No explanation has ever been given, but it seems to have been a mistake on the animators' part. The mistake was corrected in the remake, ''Dragon Ball Kai''.
* AdaptationExpansion: While the anime contains a lot of {{filler}}, it also contains a great deal of expansion of the story arcs, often for the purpose of developing the characters. The most positive version of this was the Saiyan Saga, which showed us the year that passed before the Saiyans arrived, as far as fleshing out Gohan's training and Piccolo's {{heel face turn}} as a result of his time with Gohan. Toriyama himself was also indirectly involved with some of the filler, with the anime's producers developing it based off of his suggestions.
** As well as giving some actual screentime to, Tenshinhan, Yamcha, and Chaotzu before the Nappa fight. The latter three heroes also got a well-deserved moment of awesome when they thrashed the Ginyu Force as part of the training they received from Kaio-sama.
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Several, due to how the anime was ridiculously close to the manga at almost all times. One particularly jarring example though, happens in a filler scene at the end of the Freeza saga: [[spoiler:After Namek has exploded, Vegeta realizes that, now that both Goku and Freeza are dead, he's the strongest fighter in the universe, and is now free to take over the world. Gohan attempts to stop him, and the two have a brief fight which ends with Vegeta being stopped by Piccolo from delivering the final blow, before he flies off on his own. This entire scene is [[{{Retcon}} never mentioned again]], and it completely contradicts his motivations in the very next episode, where he is back with the rest of the group, completely calm, and shown to actually ''want'' Goku brought back to life so that he may fight him again and prove that he is the better fighter. Heck, he's actually the one to give them the suggestion for how to revive him!]]
** There's also a very significant difference between the manga and anime versions of Namek's explosion. In the manga, Goku is shown flying towards Freeza's ship with several Ginyu pods in sight. He finds the ship useless, flies up and says Namek's about to blow (and the view shifts to King Kai). In the anime, Goku is helplessly raging above the ship while we actually see the planet go up in smoke and supposedly take him with it without much doubt. Since we actually ''see'' his onscreen death in the anime, his later explanation that he "found a pod, jumped in, hit the button and made it out of there" is certainly in line with the manga. As for the anime version, it's utter {{canon discontinuity}}[=/=]{{retcon}}[=/=]{{ass pull}} [[invoked]] considering how far they went to show him dying.
** One of the more infamous examples occurs in a filler episode of the Red Ribbon Army Saga. In this episode, Dr. Flappe is credited as the creator of Android 8. Years later during ''Dragon Ball Z'', Dr. Gero is revealed as the true creator of the androids. [[AllThereInTheManual A later guide book]] would {{handwave}} this by saying Dr. Flappe and Gero were partners on the android project.
* AdaptiveAbility: Saiyans, Cell, and other villains to extreme degrees..
* {{Adorkable}}: 16-year-old Gohan. Studious, sweet, socially awkward, and has a love of superheroes while failing to realize that the only person who thinks Great Saiyaman is cool is his 7-year-old brother.
** Goku, Yamcha, Krillin (growing up with someone as goofy as Son Goku really rubs off on you), Goten and every lovable and goofy member of the Ginyu force is a rare evil example.
* AdultFear:
** In the Saiyan Saga, Chi-Chi having no idea where Gohan was for a long period of time and having no way to contact him.
** Also, Goku and the others (Krillin, Bulma, and Master Roshi) watching Gohan (as a 4 year old) getting kidnapped by Raditz.
* AfraidOfNeedles: Goku (anime only).
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: Young Gohan is patted on the head quite frequently, even by ''Vegeta''.
* TheAgeless: Master Roshi and Fortuneteller Baba, both having drank from the Fountain of Youth.
* AlasPoorVillain:
** Vegeta's death after Frieza gives him a no holds barred beatdown. Vegeta has been despicable for sixty-something episodes, and has just killed a village full of cute alien children and their big brothers. You'd expect a character of this type to die in a spectacular explosion, then never be seen again. But instead, after Frieza gets impatient and shoots him for describing Goku as a Super-Saiyan, we get Vegeta's lengthy final speech about his genuinely horrendous childhood, and see Vegeta crying as he begs Goku to kill Frieza and avenge their people, before breathing his last in a BigSleep from his terrible injuries (like almost everyone in the series, he gets better).
** Zangya may have been ruthless, but still, seeing her in her last seconds of life betrayed and mercilessly murdered by her own leader Boyack, a lot of fans feel sorry for her.
** Subverted with Frieza's death. A few minutes before his death, he is split in two parts by a reverse attack. He is dying and asks Goku for mercy. Although Goku was aware of all of the horrible things Frieza did, he still manages to show some sympathy and gives Frieza some of his energy. However, Frieza immediately used it to try to kill Goku (again), which fails. Even ''then'' Goku is visibly shaken and reeling after having to kill Frieza, although more out of pitying Frieza's self-destructive foolishness than any sympathy for the bastard.
** Played straight with Buu, starts off as {{obliviously evil}} till he [[HeelFaceDoorSlam almost became good before some gunmen forced him to regain his evil desires]], and ends up becoming even more monstrous than before.
** [[spoiler:Smitty. Unlike his boss, he did have redeeming qualities and gave off a {{punch clock villain}} vibe in his hesitance to shoot an unarmed man. It's implied in the original Japanese audio that he only followed Van Zant's insane rampages because he's Zant's butler. The fact that his end at Super Buu's hands was [[NightmareFuel one of the most horrifying in the series]] didn't exactly help either.]]
* AlienAmongUs: Every other character, mainly Goku, Piccolo and Vegeta.
* AliensAreBastards: Most aliens in the show. The Namakians are the only real benevolence race who are introduce to. Goku is an exception to the Saiyans.
* AlienInvasion
** Goku's arrival on Earth was supposed to be an alien invasion/genocide until he hit his head and forgotten his mission. However, we learned later that he was really sent to Earth for his own protection.
** Raditz invaded years later and was killed by Piccolo and [[HeroicSacrifice Goku]]. A year after that, Vegeta and Nappa invaded the earth and destroyed a city immediately. Unlike Raditz, who was looking for his brother Kakarot/Goku, Vegeta and Nappa just wanted to find the [[MacGuffin Dragon Balls]]. Although, they did plan to destroy all life on the planet and sell it once they gained immorality.
** After hearing from the Dragon Balls, Freeza and his minions invaded Namek and stole the balls in a very brutal way. They killed almost every Namekian - some of them were killed by Vegeta, the Grand Elder died of old age, but his death was accelerated by Freeza's invasion, and Nail being the only survivor ([[DeathIsCheap all of them were revived, anyway]]). Except for the Namekians killed by Vegeta, since he was not one of Frieze's men, and Nail fused with Piccolo so he all by ceased to exist. The Grand Elder also died permanently not long after his revival.
** A year later Frieza came to Earth with his father, planning to kill all the earthling as revenge towards Goku. He was stopped by Future Trunks.
** The alien wizard Babidi and his minions, a couple of whom are also aliens, sneak onto Earth to retrieve and revive Babidi's father's LivingWeapon Majin Buu.
** This scenario happened in some of the {{Non Serial Movie}}s, most notable are the invader groups of Tarles and Lord Slug. The former almost dried off the entire earth with a WorldTree, and the latter had actually a real army and he froze the planet by darkening the sky with black clouds.
** Paragas and his army invaded some planets, his son [[OmnicidalManiac Broly]] destroyed them anyway.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Inversion: it took Dr. Gero 16 androids to finally get any that were evil. Then they killed him [[KarmicDeath because they were too evil]]. It's also implied that there was resentment from before they were converted
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Bulma was infatuated with Yamcha early on when he was an arrogant rogue, then when he somewhat settled down, she decided that Vegeta (whom she fell in love with) who is as bad as it gets, tickled her fancy.
** And in the meantime, she also had the hots for General Blue and Zarbon.
** Subverted when she first saw Goku as an adult, who she also had the hots for, and Goku is as good a guy as it gets... only for him to get engaged on the same day with Chi-Chi.
* AllThereInTheManual: Most of the new information after Dragon Ball Z ended comes from varies interviews with Akira Toriyama.
* AlmightyIdiot: Kid Buu. While other iterations of Buu may qualify, Kid Buu stands out in that he's the only one unable to communicate outside of psychotic fits of laughter, and fighting style is way more wild and unpredictable than his previous forms.
* AlmightyMom: Chi-Chi's willingness and ability to tell off absolutely everyone is a {{running gag}}, up [[TearJerker until she tries it on]] [[OmnicidalManiac Majin Buu]].
** Chi-Chi in ''general''. Let's not forget that, until #18 gets her upgrade (or, if we're going by natural ability, Videl) Chi-Chi is the ''strongest woman on the planet''. No wonder Goku likes her.
* AlternateContinuity: The {{non serial movie}}s of the original ''Dragon Ball'' series are direct retellings of earlier sagas distilled into movie format, entirely incompatible with the manga and anime series. The 10th anniversary special, ''The Path to Power'' is another continuity retelling Goku's origins with the Red Ribbon Army and Muscle Tower.
** The movies are parodied amazingly during an in universe movie screened at the World Martial Arts Tournament which focuses on Mr. Satan defeating Cell. It even begins with Toei Pictures' trademark intro screen which involves waves crashing against rocks, and has the names of series staff (written in romaji) as an EasterEgg in the credits.
** And then there's the [[WhatIf what if?]] situations in the video games and the alternate timelines that Trunks, the Androids, and Cell come from.
** The overall canon of ''[[Manga/DoctorSlump Dr. Slump]]'' and ''Neko Majin'' is also unknown as the crossover with ''Dr. Slump'' was mostly used to promote ''Dragon Ball''. In the case of ''Neko Majin'', it is a parody of ''Dragon Ball'' that got brought into the franchise solely because Vegeta, Buu, and Goku appeared in the last three chapters, when the two series had no real connections before.
* AlternateTimeline: The Android / Cell Saga involves at least three separate timelines: the main series, Trunks' BadFuture, and a slightly-less BadFuture where Trunks managed to beat the Androids, only for Cell to kill him and steal his time machine.
* [[AmericanKirbyIsHardcore American DBZ Is Metal]]: In the Japanese version of the original series, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHnfX1RmZX8 Chala Head Chala]] was used as the opening. In the Ocean Dub originally made during the 90s, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP75aZvWVdw Rock The Dragon]] was used.
* AndIMustScream:
** [[spoiler:Piccolo tries to inflict this to Super Buu by destroying the door to the [[YearInsideHourOutside Hyperbolic Time Chamber]]. Apparently Buu has a grasp of this, and quite fittingly screams his way out.]]
** [[spoiler:Gohan sealing Garlic Jr. in the Dead Zone also qualifies.]]
** [[spoiler:Also the likely fate of anyone who falls victim to the Evil Containment Wave, being trapped in an otherwise empty container until someone opens it back up.]]
* AndTheAdventureContinues: The manga ending is very non-conclusive and almost feels like the beginning of a new story until it just abruptly ends. Completely intentional on Toriyama's part. The movie ''Battle of Gods'' also contains several hints of greater things to come [[spoiler:what with Beers never unleashing his full power, Goku losing the final battle, and the mention of Whis being even more powerful and the mention that the universe Goku and his friends live in is only one out of twelve parallel universes.]]
* AnimationBump: The anime was animated almost directly from Toriyama's manga drawings, and, as a result, frames and images that come directly from the manga are noticeably more detailed than other frames. In ''Kai'', the designs of the characters during the opening, ending and mid-episode interludes all contain ''much'' higher quality.
* APlanetNamedZok: Most notably Namek.
* ApocalypseHow:
** Future Trunks went back in time to prevent the world being wasted by Androids, after the Z Fighters were killed and Goku died of an alien heart disease.
** King Piccolo threatens to destroy every city on Earth at random.
** The Saiyans frequently wipe out lifeforms on a planet so it can be traded. Goku was sent to Earth for one of these missions before bumping his head.
** Shortly after landing on Earth, Nappa levels a city.
** The Namek Elder and the father of Kami/Piccolo were the only survivors of a storm on Namek some centuries before the Frieza saga. Over the course of it, Vegeta and Frieza wipe out all Namekians (then numbering in the hundreds), apart from Piccolo and Nail, before Frieza completely obliterates the planet.
** After already wiping out entire cities by absorbing the life energy of humans, as well as blowing up several islands in the search for Android 18, at one point, Cell threatens to take down the entire solar system.
** Majin Buu makes quick work of planets (though in his "fat" form, he mostly limits his devastation to humans on Earth, and "Super Buu" has a human extinction attack move), and after learning instant transmission, could wipe out all life in the "universe"(It should be noted that the main Dragon Ball universe only consists of four galaxies). The ultimate one is when while fighting Vegetto, he goes even further to threaten a multi-dimensional collapse when he suffers an epic {{villainous breakdown}}.
* ArmorIsUseless
** Everybody who wore armor either got rid of it or [[CharacterDeath died]]. Or as often as not, [[DeathIsCheap both]]. However, this isn't due to the uselessness of armor (which was used quite often by even the protagonists) but due to the fact that they eventually got to the point that their superpowers outstripped their armor's ability to protect. It's also explained in some of the earlier seasons, as most characters wore armor or clothing that was weighted for training purposes, and after removing it they become much faster.
** One notable aversion is after Goku's first battle with Vegeta. When Vegeta recovers from his injuries, the doctor reveals that the only reason he's still alive is because his armor protected him from being crushed by Gohan.
* ArtifactTitle:
** After the Frieza saga, the titular Dragon Balls are nothing more than a ResetButton, and collecting them is barely an inconvenience. None of the action or plot revolves around them anymore.
** Subverted during the climax of the Buu saga. The Namekian Dragon Balls had already been gathered by the time Dende and the Kais arrived, but their usage is instrumental in saving the day and helping Goku to kill Buu once and for all.
* ArtisticAge: Gohan during the Cell Games fits Type 1, while little Goku in the original ''Dragon Ball'' goes in Type 2.
* AscendedExtra: Gohan and Videl's classmates, Sharpener and Erasa, are among the main group in ''Z''[='=]s second Japanese opening despite having very little screentime in the actual show.
* AscendedMeme: The infamous "over 9000" joke was well known enough for the writers of the English dub of Dragon Ball Kai to make a nod to it. The funimation and uncuts dub of Kai feature Vegeta saying "It's over 8,000!" in a slightly agitated voice, then growling. In the Nickelodeon version of Kai, Vegeta screams the line "It's over 9,000!" like in the Ocean dub.
** In later dubs of the Buu saga,the joke was referenced again. There is a scene where Trunks is seen doing push-ups on one finger before he gets tired and takes a break. In the original Japanese version, he is just grunting from the strain, but in the English version, he counts each push-up and decides to stop after doing 9,001 (over 9,000).
** One of Vegeta's stock images from promotional material for Dragon Ball Kai shows him in the "over 9,000" pose where he leans forward and smashes his scouter in rage.
** When Panini recreated the Dragon Ball Z trading card game in 2014, a card called "It's over 9,000!" was printed. The card itself was a joke as it doesn't really help the person who uses it.
* AssholeVictim:
** Freeza's genocide of the Saiyans was pretty bad, and Bardock's attempt to save them all and rebel against Freeza's empire was, without a doubt, heroic. However, the Saiyans themselves were violent, arrogant, blood-thirsty creatures who probably would have gone out and destroyed worlds ''anyway'' if they attained spacefaring technology, even if Frieza wasn't in power--they already committed genocide themselves against the Tuffles on their home planet before they ever made contact with Frieza's organization.
** Battle of Gods reveals that there were good Saiyans, but they were killed when they rebelled against their evil counterparts.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: PlayedStraight except with Babibi, who is extremely weak himself and depends on those he enslaves to fight.
* AssKickingPose: Frequently. Parodied by the Ginyu Force members, whose poses are anything ''but'' asskicking.
** The same applies for Gohan as the "Great Saiyaman".
* AssimilationBackfire:
** Buu tries to absorb Vegetto, but the absorption fails and Vegetto (now split into Vegeta and Goku) releases all the victims Buu had absorbed previously.
** The Supreme Kais weakened Kid Buu into Buff Buu and finally Fat Buu when he tried absorbing them. It seems inconsistent considering how high their power-levels are, but its explained that because they are pure good, and Buu pure evil, the two forces diffused each other.
* AttackTheTail
** Saiyans' tails are their weak point. If you hold onto their tails, they are in so much pain it immobilizes them (e.g., Goku, Gohan, and Raditz). Subverted later, when it turns out that Vegeta and Nappa don't have this shortcoming (because of their training). When the Z Fighters made a break for their tails, it ended up backfiring because it didn't immobilize the Saiyans like they expected, leaving them open targets. Played straight later, though, when Yajirobe cuts off Vegeta's tail to return him to human form after he'd transformed into his Great Ape form.
** Goku managed to overcome this weakness long before Vegeta was introduced. It's odd how Krillin didn't remember this when he faced them. Then again, Raditz was unable to figure out how to overcome this problem, despite being much stronger than Goku at the time (and after ostensibly being in contact with Vegeta and Nappa for the last several years), so it would make sense why Piccolo, at the very least, would think the strategy had a chance of working.
** In a more amusing case, when Gohan was left in the wilderness to fend for himself he was occasionally hunted by a tyrannosaur, which he managed to fend off by removing the end of its tail. After he had taken a few levels in badass, he turned the tables (or the tails) by chasing the poor dinosaur and cutting steaks off its tail for his dinner.
* {{Autodoc}}: The healing tanks used by Freeza's forces.
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** The third stage of the original Super Saiyan form (also known as "Ultra Super Saiyan", gives a huge boost in power, supposedly as much as a Super Saiyan 2. Unfortunately all the muscles that come with it drastically decrease speed, making it practically impossible to actually hit your opponent. Goku and Vegeta both realized that the second form was useless due to the loss of speed, and Cell calls out Trunks for using such a foolish technique.
** This becomes an {{ironic echo}} when Cell bulks up massively in his fight with [=SSJ2=] Gohan. To top it all off, Trunks lampshades this as Gohan is dodging everything Cell throws at him, remarking that Cell could probably put the hurt on Gohan if he ever managed to hit him.
** The Spirit Bomb. Considering it takes a long time to gather enough energy to use and that Goku is left defenseless while doing so, it is difficult to use in live combat. Usually, live bait is used to help him. It was used three different times.
*** Vegeta: [[spoiler:He gets hit with it, but by the next episode he's up and kicking ass again. It takes Gohan falling on him (while transformed) to finally get Vegeta to say "No mas."]]. The rest is history.
*** Freeza: [[spoiler:He also gets hit with a massive one. However, it does little more than cut his tail in half and hurt his left eye. He gets up, shoots Piccolo through his lungs and kills Krillin in the span of about two minutes]]. Although if that hadn't happened, we wouldn't have [[spoiler:Super Saiyan Goku]].
*** Buu: [[spoiler:It's finally decided that ''this'' is the ''only'' way he's going to be defeated. Goku positions himself and the designated live bait (Vegeta, Fat Buu, and Mr. Satan) proceed to keep Kid Buu busy. Goku finally unleashes it but somehow Buu is ''still'' able to fight it off and Goku doesn't have any strength left to force it with his own ki. The final wish is to restore Goku's strength and he finally manages to put it away with a blast of his own helping it along]].
** The Super Saiyan 3 form can also be regarded as this, as it gives the user incredible power, but at the expense of so much energy that on two occasions it leads to the user running out of juice at a critical moment.
** The full powered form of Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon takes a full 5 minutes to power up. He only uses it once against Raditz before using a weaker, but faster version of it throughout the series. Fortunately by that point his PowerCreep has made up for the difference.
** The non-Potara Fusion: The silliness of the dance aside, it leaves performers vulnerable to incoming attacks. If it's done incorrectly (and in the heat of a battle, a screw-up is nigh-inevitable) leaves the newly created warrior hideously deformed and unable to do ''anything'' worthwhile, making them a liability. If it is done correctly, the incredibly powerful fused warrior has all of ''thirty minutes'' to defeat or disable his opponent before the effects wear off.
** WorfOfGod is that all forms of Super Saiyan beyond the first level are this. According to Toriyama, after the fight with Beerus, Goku realized that mastering Super Saiyan level 1 would raise his level more than going to level 2 and 3 since those would sap his strength.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis
** How Vegeta learned how to sense ''Ki'', which took most of the cast months and for Goku years.
** Buu learned the Kamehameha by watching Goku do it once. He also learned one of Vegeta's techniques this way.
** This is how Goku learned almost all of his fighting techniques with the Spirit Bomb and Kaioken being the noticeably exceptions.
* AxCrazy:
** Majin Buu is this taken to OmnicidalManiac extremes. Every time he transforms into a new form, he becomes progressively more evil and psychopathic to the point where he just blows up planets without a second thought. While his Power Level in his final form is the subject of much debate among Dragon Ball fans, everyone can agree that said form was definitely the most Ax Crazy. To put it in perspective, the first thing he did after reverting to Kid Buu was try to blow up the planet. When he was foiled, he just made the next shot ten times bigger so he wouldn't miss.
** Any character who has had an extreme VillainousBreakdown. Frieza and Cell as examples.
** Vegeta in his ''majin state''.
** Van Zant, who is a twisted and despicable man who enjoys killing innocent people.
* BackFromTheDead: The single most-granted wish from the eternal dragon in the series. [[DeathIsCheap So much, that is it is the one of things that the series is known for.]] And it's taken UpToEleven compared to the original series.
* BackToBackBadasses: Muten Roshi and the Crane Hermit fighting Piccolo's forces in Roshi's flashback.
* BackupTwin: After Namek is destroyed in the titanic battle between Goku and Frieza, they manage to find a new planet that looks ''exactly'' like Namek did for the now-homeless Namekians to live on.
* {{Badass}}:
** Each one of the main heroes and main villains are pretty badass.
** Pikkon from the Other World is probably, one of the biggest secondary badasses in the franchise. He defeated Frieza, Cell, and King Cold on his own. And then almost defeated ''Goku'' in the Other World.
* BadassAdorable: Goku and pretty much everybody related to him except Bardock and Raditz.
* BadassArmy: Both the Saiyajin and Freeza's army. To put this in perspective, these are groups that only consider a small handful of fighters enough to wipe out the populace of civilized planet. Raditz, who is only considered a common soldier, [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] Goku and Piccolo, who were both [[PersonOfMassDestruction persons of mass destruction]] at that point in the series.
* BadassFamily:
** The Son Family (Bardock, Goku, Gohan, Goten). Their overall strength, and most importantly the way they retain their kindness and positive values so they don't misuse their powers, are admirable.
** The Brief family, but they eventually reach critical wimpy levels by ''GT'', where Trunks is girlier than Pan and Bra combined (good thing it's not considered canon).
* BadassGrandpa:
** Subverted with Muten Roshi as the main cast have far surpassed him by ''Z''. 5 years prior to the start of the series Kami was the third strongest being on earth but is also soon left in the dust
** Dr. Gero plays this straight.
** Goku technically becomes one in the epilogue to ''Z'', after Gohan and Videl have Pan. To a lesser extent, Hercule, as well.
%% * BadassMustache: Mr. Satan.
%% ** Nappa as well.
%% ** Dr. Gero's invincible android mustache.
%% ** Don't forget Vegeta's [[PornStache pornstache]] in ''GT''.
* BadassNormal: Mr. Satan and Yajirobe are the only fighters with no grasp of ki.
** Yajirobe fights an enraged kid Goku to a standstill, single-handedly kills one of Piccolo Daimaou's minions in a single strike, and manages to cut Oozaru Vegeta's tail off when Gohan and Krillin failed to.
** Mr. Satan is actually a skilled martial artist and very strong to boot, it's just easy to forget that seeing as the story is about [[OverShadowedByAwesome Goku and his pals]] and his status as a ButtMonkey. ''Despite'' the fact that Buu could kill him several million times over, he chose to face him. After multiple, comedic failed attempts at killing him, he eventually befriends him, teaches him that [[KungPow killing is wrong]] and, because [[ChildrenAreInnocent Buu didn't know any better beforehand]], Buu swears off killing at the request of his new friend. Of course [[FromBadToWorse something goes wrong...]]
*** Gohan notes that Videl (an ordinary high school girl) is probably stronger than her father, before he starts teaching her how to control her ki making her truly badass.
** In the manga, by the time the Buu arc kicks in, Krillin is acknowledged as the most powerful human being in the world. While he is fairly superpowered at this point, it's all just because of [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower rigorous training]]. Of course, all characters that are still relevant by then are hundreds of times stronger than he is.
** Colonel Silver of the Red Ribbon army is probably the most triumphant villain example. By real world standards he was strong, fast, skilled and cunning - his only mistake was going up against a Saiyan.
* BadBoss: All the villains in ''Z'', no exceptions.
* BadFuture: There are four alternate timelines of them in the ''Dragon Ball'' universe. One of which Future Trunks is KilledOffForReal.
* TheBadGuyWins: The Cell Saga. No really. Even though Dr. Gero can only watch his triumph from Hell, he is the ''only'' villain in the entire ''Dragon Ball'' franchise to have got ''exactly'' what he wanted; the death of Son Goku at the hands of his creations.
* BarbieDollAnatomy: Subverted in ''Kai''. Due to the show airing on a morning timeslot, they had to censor baby Goku's penis and balls, but did so through {{scenery censor}}.
* BarredFromTheAfterlife: Being killed by a demon does this. Goku and Raditz actually being able to make it to the after life was the first indicator of Piccolo's impending heel face turn.
* BashBrothers: Trunks and Goten. Even Goku and Vegeta to an extent in parts of Z.
* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: Certain aliens are able to survive without air. Saiyans aren't one of them. Doesn't stop Bardock from flying into space to confront Freeza and speak to him, too.
** In some filler episodes, Vegeta is seen flying between planets without a spaceship or any apparent breathing apparatus.
** Also when Vegeta blows up the planet Arlia in a filler episode, he and Nappa hang out in space just standing in their open pods.
** Freeza survives in space with half his body and head missing. This is suggested a trait of his species. [[MeaningfulName Cell]], with Freeza's cells, can also survive in space.
** Broly is strongly implied to have this ability as well.
** Vegeta and Bardock didn't "breathe in space" for long. It's probable that the Saiyans cannot actually survive in space, but their superior physical abilities and ki powers grant them the ability to withstand vacuum exposure for a limited amount of time.
* BattleAura:
** Features [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience distinctive colors]] for different characters and situations. For example, most of the [=Z=] Fighters have blue auras, while most of Frieza's forces have purple, the Super Saiyans and Cell have golden auras and Buu has a pink aura.
** In the early days, the auras had a zen-like majesty to them and indicated an incredibly powerful or skilled opponent; as the series went on, the auras became more prevalent as mostly-realistic martial arts gave way to beam-spamming fistfights.
** The battle auras seen in the anime escalate to the point that the color of the world around the aura itself begins to change, and the display of this increases to signify how powerful that person is.
* BattleStrip
** The series mostly uses ClothingDamage as an excuse to get its male leads naked, but there are a few occasions where the heroes take off their clothes before battle.
** One such occasion is the fight with Raditz both Goku and Piccolo were wearing weighted clothes, and stripping increased their power levels.
* BeamOfEnlightenment: Often used when characters come to a discovery.
** Especially when the Z Fighters find out that a fight is going downhill for a comrade.
* BeamOWar : This series is likely the {{trope codifier}}. And like most tropes, it's taken {{up to eleven}} compared to ''Dragon Ball''. For example, the Goku vs. Vegeta and Cell vs. Gohan are among the most stand out examples in the series.
* [[BecomeARealBoy Become Real People]]: Subverted. Krillin tries to use the Dragon Balls to wish Androids 17 and 18 fully human, but this is beyond the dragon's power. He settles on removing the bombs inside their bodies instead. 17 and 18 are actually augmented humans who are still able to have children.
* BefriendingTheEnemy: Hercule (Or Mr.Satan depending on which version you watch) knowing he can't beat him in a fight befriends the ObliviouslyEvil Majin Buu, and eventually makes him realize that turning people into candy and eating them is wrong. [[spoiler: This resolution doesn't last long though as Majin Buu's [[LiteralSplitPersonality evil side]] splits from the original Majin Buu and becomes the new villain]].
** Done by Gohan as part of Piccolo's redemption (something that was started by Goku 6 years earlier)
* BerserkButton: [[BerserkButton/DragonBall Has its own page.]]
* BerserkerTears
** Gohan has a variant of this after breaking through the Super Saiyan 2 barrier. What makes it so powerful is the implication that Gohan understands the kind of line he just stepped over to go this far (that his childhood innocence is lost). The implication is backed up by the [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown horrific brutality]] he attacks with in the next episode.
** Also happens to Trunks in the Future timeline, who cries tears of rage at [[spoiler: Future Gohan's death at the hands of the Androids]] as he finally breaks the Super Saiyan barrier.
* BetterThanNew:
** Goku and Vegeta frequently sustain life-threatening injuries, only to quickly come back stronger than before they were injured (and remain stronger going forward). This is one of the Saiyan race's inherent abilities. This is shown at one point by Vegeta ordering Krillin to blow a hole in his chest so he can be healed and become stronger. While he doesn't become as strong as he'd have wished, he still gets a huge power boost. Referred to by {{fan|on}}s as a Zenkai, this ability is the first part of why the Saiyans are able to become so unconscionably powerful. It also explains [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower the power of training being so exponential for them]].
** Now when the heroes die they go and train with King Kai and become exponentially stronger
** Cell, bearing Saiyan genes, ends up regenerating into Super Perfect Cell after his own self-destruction, with enough of a power increase to turn what was a CurbStompBattle for Gohan into a nearly-hopeless struggle for the fate of the entire universe.
* BewareTheNiceOnes:
** Gohan is polite, kind and will avoid fighting if possible. But he also has a tendency to snap and release incredible power whenever his friends and family are threatened.
** This trope can apply to almost everyone in the Son's family. They're all good nature people, but ''don't'' make them angry.
* BeyondTheImpossible:
** The Supreme Kai thinks this when he finds out how powerful the earth Saiyans are. To explain: this guy is the series' equivalent of {{God}} and yet his power level is nothing compared to them.
** Vegeta becomes obsessed with surpassing the Super Sayian state which most see as crazy (except for Goku) and is eventually achieved by Gohan and later Goku and Vegeta. Goku then later one ups this by revealing [=SSJ3=] which the others think must be a bluff
** Special honors to Vegetto who is the only character to retain ''all his power'' and gain an even greater speed advantage due to his size after being turned [[NiceJobFixingItVillain into a coffee flavored jawbreaker by Buu.]] This was supposed to make him helpless and harmless like it did everyone else. If anything this is where Buu gets his worst and most embarrassing beating.
* BigBadEnsemble: Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, Buu, and a few others thrown in-between.
* BigEater:
** All the Saiyans, with Goku being the most notable and a trope codifer for {{shonen}} heroes with this trait.
** Even the humans after long bouts of training.
** Majin Buu's appetite for sweets can't be matched by any Saiyan in their dreams.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** Piccolo pulls this off for Gohan in nearly every ''DBZ'' movie before the post-Cell timeskip.
** In situations where Piccolo isn't around in the movies, Krillin takes up the reins in more than one case. The first time he saves Gohan while [[LampshadeHanging dressed up like Piccolo to point out how often that situation happens,]] the second time he shows up out of nowhere to rescue his wife, though he is nowhere near strong enough to totally avoid the danger.
** The rest of the cast getting {{curb|StompBattle}}stomped by the villains mercilessly for a few episodes only for Goku to show up at the last second and save everyone often curbstomping the villains in return happens so often in both the Anime and the movies you could make a drinking game out of it.
* BigGood: King Kai in the Saiyan and Frieza sagas, he shares it with Kami in the Cell Sagas [[FusionDance before he re-merged with Piccolo]]. Dende tries to fill his shoes but notes that he finds it difficult
** Supreme Kai in the first half of the Buu saga, then Old Kai in the second half.
** Goku acts this way towards Goten and Trunks, and even uses this as his reason to Piccolo why he didn't go all out. Notably Kami had tried to get Goku to take over from him at the end of [[Anime/DragonBall]] but Goku refused
* BishonenLine:
** Freeza: small horned tailed imp -> larger {{Satan}}ic form -> Xenomorph like form -> streamlined white being. In interviews, Toriyama stated that he did this on purpose to subvert the viewers' expectation that "more powerful" always meant "bigger and more muscular".
** Cell: Insect like MonstrousHumanoid -> larger and midway HumanoidAbomination -> gray skinned human like creature in bug suit.
** Buu starts out as an over weight pink humanoid, which separates into a malnourished grey form, before turning into the muscular Super Buu. With each Z fighter he absorbs he gets further and further into Uncanny Valley with a longer head tail and more lean and muscular each time. His final form looks like a pissed off teenager and is the strongest of all
** Inverted by Zarbon, who is normally a PrettyBoy but turns into a hulking monster who's a lot tougher and faster.
* BirthdayEpisode: The filler episode called "Memories of Gohan."
* BittersweetEnding:
** The Saiyan Sage. The Saiyans have been defeated, but almost all of Earth's warriors are dead and those left alive are badly injured, the Dragon Balls are gone forever because Kami died, and Vegeta is still alive and promise to return for revenge.
** The end of the Frieza Sage. Frieza has been defeated, the Namekians have been saved from extinction, and all the warriors who fall during the Saiyan Sage have been revived. Unfortunately, Namek has been destroyed, Nail is forever fused with Piccolo, Goku is somewhere in space, and Gohan had to say goodbye to Denda.
** The future Perfect Cell came from. Sure, Trunks the last Z Fighter is dead, but so are all the Androids. Cell has gone back to the past, which means the people of his present aren't subject to him, and Earth is so ravaged and devoid of all its powerful people that there would be absolutely no point for Babidi to revive Majin Buu, and absolutely no one to give him the energy he would need to do so anyway.
** The world Future Trunks returns to after the events of the Cell Sage. The androids are finally dead and Cell has been defeated too. However, Trunks is the only living warrior left and there are no Dragon Balls to revive anyone who has been killed.
** The main timeline isn't completely happy either. The androids have either been reformed or killed, but Goku still died and decides to stay dead for everyone's protection, given Gero his victory from Hell. Kami is also gone forever, merged back into Piccolo becoming the Nameless Namek.
** The tv special ''The History of Trunks'' counts as well. Trunks gets beaten badly by the Androids, apologizes to Bulma, and agrees to go back in time. [[spoiler:And he eventually destroys the Androids of his time and also the Cell of his time.]]
** ''Bardock, Father of Goku'', despite Bardock's heroic effects he is killed along with most of the Saiyans by Frieza. Before he died, however, Bardock foresaw his son confronting Frieza given him comfort that he would someday be avenge.
** The bonus chapter ''Dragon Ball Minus''. Gina and Bardock successfully send their son into space where Frieza wouldn't find him. They are killed a month later by Frieza and Goku will never know what they did for him, thinking he was sent to Earth to conquer it.
* BilingualBonus:
** Shen Long is Chinese for "Dragon God." The names of almost all his alien characters - along with Bulma's family and Piccolo and his minions - are straight English or derived from it. And apparently according to Toriyama, Vegeta and Trunks use English for their attack names because he thought it sounded "more alien."
** In the [=FUNimation=] dub, Majin Buu mispronounces "Saiyan" as "Saiya-jin" once.
** In the Italian translation the characters names are extremely similar to food. Radish: radice (root), Vegeta: vegetale (vegetable), Kakarot: carota (carrot). And lots of other Sayans. Piccolo has his named changed to ''Junior'' (because piccolo means "small/junior" in Italian, and [[RuleOfCool that's not that cool]]).
* BizarreAlienBiology
** The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Saiyans]] are HumanAliens who are insanely aggressive and love to fight, have tails, and can transform into [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever giant apes]] in the light of the full moon if they still have their tails. Not to mention if they are put close to death and recover, they increase in strength exponentially. Despite this, they can interbreed with humans.
** Piccolo's race, the Namekians, are apparently modeled after slugs. They have visible musculature, the ability to regrow pretty much anything so long as their head is intact (Piccolo once regenerated from being [[LiterallyShatteredLives broken into pieces]] as a [[TakenForGranite statue]]), and green skin (the muscles are pink, though). They also reproduce asexually and are universally male.
** Then there's Frieza's race. They can survive the vacuum of space, are naturally so powerful they can casually destroy planets, can shapeshift to limit their power so as not to destroy their surroundings, and are durable enough to survive the destruction of an entire planet ''while'' grievously wounded, and survive in space without any kind of sustenance for at least a ''year''.
** Tien's race is another one. They can split and create extra bodies, grow extra arms, the ability to look in multiple directions at the same time.
** Humans are not bizarre biologically, but they are apparently the only race in the entire cosmos which has learned on their own to sense power levels naturally and conceal theirs if they desire. Other races can learn this, but none have managed this without humans (directly or otherwise) teaching them.
** Majin Buu is not only immune to cyanide, but actually likes the taste of it.
* BlastingTime: All over the place, specifically the Spirit Bomb.
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: While debatable in [[AntiHero Vegeta]]'s case, most of the Z fighters are really good and nice guys. Moreover, enemies are evil, crazy and monstrous sociopaths willing to destroy worlds.
* BlackEyesOfEvil/BlackEyesOfCrazy: Super Buu and Kid Buu respectively
* BlindAndTheBeast: Buu meets a blind kid.
* BlockingStopsAllDamage:
** Subverted when Tien blocks a punch from Nappa; Nappa takes a part of Tien's arm off.
** Played straight and deconstructed with force fields which are stated to be able to block all damage but usually drain more stamina than just tanking the blows or dodging and are only used sparingly as a result
%%* BlondGuysAreEvil: Van Zant.
* BlondesAreEvil:
** Android 18 in Future Trunks' timeline, whose purpose is to kill all humans. Unlike in the present time, she never goes into any redemption due to Krillin's death.
** Van Zant, the serial-killer human who shot Buu's dog and then Mr. Satan causing Buu to release the evil within him and eventually transform into the more powerful and cruel Super Buu.
* BloodKnight:
** The Saiyans are an entire race of them. Even Goku is such a gigantic blood knight that, while about to slam a spirit bomb into Majin Buu to finally kill him, he explicitly says he wants him to reincarnate just so he can fight him again!
** Cell, having Saiyan cells, loved the thrill of fighting, and even held a tournament, the Cell Games, just so he could fight Earth's strongest. Although, he isn't too fond of fighting stronger enemies; witness his reaction to being on the wrong end of a CurbStompBattle by Gohan.
** Super Buu wants to fight and to be the strongest (to the point where he has a VillainousBreakdown). Kid Buu on the other hand just fights and kills [[ForTheEvulz because he can]] and Fat Buu is just doing what he's told.
** Tien is one of the few human BloodKnights. He lives for battle and trains as much as any Saiyan. He is also one of the first to jump into a fight, even if he is badly overpowered.
** Broly is one, complimenting the efforts of the [=Z=] Fighters for fighting him and later licking his blood when Goku hits him.
** Janemba, who laughs when Vegeta manages to break his sword.
* BloodierAndGorier: Moreso than most of Dragon Ball up till the Piccolo arc.
* BloodUpgrade
** Vegeta's response to Goku drawing blood on him during their first major battle was an attempt to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy the entire damned planet]], leading to a spectacular BeamOWar between him and Goku.
--> "[[Anime/DragonBallKai Blood!]] ''My noble blood'', spilled by the sheer luck of such - such trash?! No, I will not allow this to stand....I CANNOT ALLOW THIS TO STAND! YOUR INSOLENCE JUST COST YOU THIS WORLD! '''I'LL BLOW IT ALL TO PIECES, AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME!!!'''"
** It shows up again when Trunks attacks Vegeta to stop him from interfering in the fight against Cell. He's initially just stunned that Trunks followed through, but once he sees blood on his glove he becomes furious.
* BodyguardingABadass: Kibito to Supreme Kai in the Buu Saga.
* BodyHorror: Anything involving Buu: when Majin Buu enters Vegitto's body through his mouth to take control of his body, Vegitto's muscles become grotesquely enormous. Then Buu enters a gunman's mouth, the man's body growing to monstrously obese proportions and finally explode.
* BoobsOfSteel: Pretty much inverted completely. The female fighters (Eighteen, Videl, etc.) tend to be modestly endowed, while the non-fighters (such as Bulma) are fairly stacked.
* BoringInsult: [=SSJ=] Goku's final insult to Freeza is to declare that he's no longer a challenge and it's not even worth Goku's time to finish the fight. Freeza reacts poorly.
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: In the Namek Saga, Chi-Chi and Gohan have an argument when Gohan wants to go to Namek. Chi-Chi made a good point when she said that Gohan should be having fun as a kid instead of trying to be an adult, and Gohan also had a point since his priority was {{serious business}}.
* {{Bowdlerise}}:
** In the first dub, having to meet Saban's standards and practices for syndicated kids' shows, the villains were always threatening to blast people into [[NeverSayDie another dimension]], scenes of wanton destruction accompanied by throwaway lines implying [[BlatantLies nobody got hurt]], and Tien says that ''his arm can grow back'' after Nappa breaks it off. The second dub reduced this, allowing death and even kept small amounts of blood.
** Also, in the scene when Vegeta turns into a giant ape via full moon in front of Goku, leading him to the sad truth, the first dub becomes more of a {{blatant lie|s}}: [[spoiler:Goku claims that Vegeta was the giant ape who had killed Grandpa Gohan, when in reality it was ''freaking Giant Ape Goku himself'' (!) who committed the AccidentalMurder of Grandpa Gohan, and Vegeta had nothing to do with it. It seems that this dub, in an attempt to stop kids from committing more violence after watching the show, completely negated Goku's SelfMadeOrphan trope and turned it into his "NeverMyFault" situation.]]
** Also, in the first dub, extra objects are written to cover all nudity, both front and back. The only thing that was different is Recoome's buttocks. While the first dub had a black strip of clothing covering his butt in a few episodes, the cloth strip is missing in the second dub. [[spoiler:And this was shortly before Vegeta used the CoupDeGrace to finish off Recoome.]]
* BrainlessBeauty: Krillin's once-girlfriend Maron during the Garlic Jr. arc.
* BrawlerLock: Goku does this with Freeza, Cell, and Vegeta. The former two during their respective arcs, and the latter during the Buu arc.
* BreakTheCutie:
** Mostly Gohan, but Goten and Pan aren't exactly left out. Another example occurs late in ''Z'' with [[spoiler:the Supreme Kai's comrades/TrueCompanions getting taken out by Buu, and his mentor is killed right in front of him.]]
** Chaozu's merciless wrecking at the hands of Nappa, followed by a tearful farewell and a kamikaze explosion. [[SenselessSacrifice Which was pointless.]]
** Future Trunks also has this moment when [[spoiler:all of the Z-fighters except Gohan die, and even more so [[SacrificialLion when Gohan dies.]]]]
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Not as prominent as ''Dragon Ball'', but there are still are some instances that stand out.
** One that stuck in the anime: Gohan addresses the audience near the start of the Buu arc that Krillin grew his hair out after quitting fighting.
** During the Majin Buu arc, Krillin notices that the author is cheating by recycling panels (to be exact, Goten and Trunks's fusion training sequence is reused over and over) and Toriyama himself pops out behind him to apologize.
* BreakTheHaughty:
** One of the most common trends involving Vegeta. He spends large parts of the storyline reveling in his own egotism and power, only allowing his opponents to manipulate his arrogance and humiliate him. Due to stubbornness, his haughtiness broken several times before the lesson actually sinks in. It takes realizing that his actions have possibly doomed everyone he cares about for him to actually start to become truly humble. Somewhat.
** Also happens to Gotenks, who has something like Vegeta's arrogance mixed in with a childish bravado and {{jerkass}}ery. He means well, but he's too caught up in how magnificent he thinks he is to listen to other people or act wisely. Minutes after his first appearance, this results in him being outsmarted by Majin Buu, beaten to a pulp, and then forced to watch helplessly as an army is slaughtered while he can't do a thing. It hits hard, but doesn't sink in.
* BrickBreak: A running gag for Mr. Satan. At least twice he failed to break the last brick at the bottom.
* BrickJoke[=/=]CallForward[=/=]{{Foreshadowing}}:
** Early on (in Volume 2 of ''Dragon Ball''), Oolong comments that Goku's amazing qualities have to be due to him being an alien. Later on, during the Red Ribbon saga, Major Metallitron scans Goku. In a corner, it says that he's not human and it doesn't know what he is. During the beginning of ''DBZ'', it is revealed that Goku is a Saiyan.
** Very early on in the series, Goku, Bulma, and Oolong run into the Boss Rabbit Gang. After Goku beats up two of the grunts, they call in their boss who threatens to turn them all into carrots. Later in ''DBZ'', we learn Goku's Saiyan name is based off the word "Carrot." Maybe Toriyama is an unreliable source of information?
%% * BumblingDad: Goku, Mr. Satan, & Krillin.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: The Ginyu Force. Frieza hires them as enforcers to take out Vegeta and retrieve the Dragon Balls. After seeing their entrance, full of ridiculous camp, dumb poses, and ''flowers'', you may think he's made a huge mistake. Until you watch ''one'' member of the team beat ''Vegeta'' like he was nothing, without ever dropping the camp.-
* BusFullOfInnocents:
** Goku and Piccolo save a bus full of children in episode 125.
** Imperfect Cell stops and and absorbs an entire bus full of rugby players in one episode, and when Vegeta fights Android 18 he inadvertantly blows up a truck full of paperclips.
* ButtMonkey: Yamcha, Krilin and Gotenks. Even Goku at times. Frieza, King Cold and Cell became this in Hell.
** ''Mr. Satan'' takes the cake here, [[AmusingInjuries for being injured in just about any conceivable manner.]] It's usually the only reason for his existence. [[IronButtMonkey He could very well upgrade his status]], as being the only character never to die against Cell and Buu is an achievement no one else can boast of. Even his injuries are gone the next time he appears in a shot.
* ByronicHero: Various, but the most prominent are probably Piccolo and Vegeta. Vegeta is notable, because he is basically Goku's opposite.
* CallBack: Much like its predecessor, the series often has nods to events portrayed earlier in the series:
** The Buu Arc is a throwback to the gag-heavy atmosphere of Toriyama's earlier works.
** [[https://twitter.com/SchaefDogg/status/312718345977876480/photo/1 Some of the shots of Gohan vs. Super Buu]] mirror Goku and Vegeta's first fight.
** Gohan winds up sprawled on top of Vegeta after saving him from Cell, in the same position as at the end of the Saiyan saga after the two nearly killed one another, as if to highlight how far the characters have come since then.
* CallingYourAttacks:
** Played straight most of the time. Future Trunks averts this - he's ''silent'' during his initial fight aside from normal speech. In at least some cases, it seems to be necessary. Captain Ginyu's body switching attack apparently doesn't work unless he can actually vocalize the "CHANGE NOW!"
** Good {{aver|tedTrope}}sion from Goku: he used Kamehameha quickly, without calling it, to block a mouth blast from Nappa. It's the only time he's ever used it without calling it.
* CameBackStrong: When the heroes die they train with King Kai in grueling conditions and so when they are wished back to life they are a lot tougher.
* CantCatchUp: It doesn't matter how much ass the cast of ''Dragon Ball'' kicked in the original series. In this series, nearly everybody has a hard time keeping up with the Saiyans. By the end of the series, even the final BigBad Super Buu is desperately trying to play catchup with the Saiyans. Gohan was able to effortlessly defeat Super Buu without the need (or ability) to transform. Later, when Buu had absorbed Gohan and obtained his power, he was easily beaten by the original Super Saiyan form of Vegetto, who was probably capable of at least one and probably two more levels of Super Saiyan transformations on top of that. The only reason there was any tension at all for the final battle against Kid Buu was that Goku and Vegeta didn't want to fuse again on ''principle''.
* CardCarryingVillain: Frieza, Cell and Buu. Frieza, especially takes it to very dark extremes
** The Saiyans in general are this, being planet destroying barbarians.
** Broly in this exchange:
-->'''Piccolo''': He's a monster!
-->'''Broly''': Monster? Wrong, I'm the devil!
* CastFromHitPoints: Both the Tri-beam attack which actually kills Tien once through overuse and the Super Saiyan 3 form, which burns through the 24 hours of extra life Baba was able to grant Goku in mere minutes.
* CavalierCompetitor: Android 17 and Cell, the latter until he starts to lose.
* CerebusSyndrome: Stating with the Saiyan saga, it's no longer the sweet story of ''Dragon Ball'' and much more graphic.
* CharacterDevelopment:
** In the beginning of ''Dragon Ball'', Goku literally had no idea what boobs were (he thought Bulma had a butt on her chest). Near the end of the Majin Buu saga, Goku is literally using Bulma's breasts as a bargaining chip to get Old Kaio-shin to go along with their use of the Dragon Balls (to the ire of Vegeta, who suggested that Goku offer his own wife's breasts instead).
** Also Gohan becoming less of a whiny, spoiled brat and becoming a MartialPacifist.
** Vegeta who eventually comes to terms that he [[CantCatchUp can't catch up]] to Goku.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower
** All living things have ''ki'' as a sort of mystical lifeforce. Apparently with training you can make your ''ki'' pool larger and stronger and learn how to channel it into [[KiAttacks shooting energy beams]], flying, being bulletproof, telepathic, and have SuperStrength that'd make them outright near ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' level. You'd still not really be much of a match for most androids and aliens, but still.
** Being an alien (Saiyan) seems to give you the highest ki "potential", but then the human members gain strength far surpassing what is possible (although they're still extremely weak in comparison to said aliens).
** Although, considering that it is outright stated that ki use literally causes the user to become stronger, more resilient and faster, and that most ordinary humans are ignorant of the EXISTENCE of ki, never mind how to use it, it's unclear whether it qualifies as this trope. In Dragon Ball those who know of its use are mostly human martial arts masters, though; it's only later on that aliens like the Saiyans who have a natural affinity for ki utilisation are introduced, although even some Saiyans like Vegeta were unable to use skills like Ki Sense until meeting the Z Fighters of Earth.
* ChekhovsGun:
** The Spirit Bomb. Goku learns it in the Saiyan Saga, and it does alright. Nothing to write home about, really, but it did send Vegeta running. Frieza just shrugged it off, so it didn't seem like a big deal. Then, 10-12 in-universe years later in the Buu Saga, Goku uses one to ''completely eradicate'' his opponent, an unstoppable being of literal pure evil that once came back from being turned into so much smoke.
** To a degree, Goku showing Goten and Trunks how to become a Super Saiyan 3 in the Buu Saga.
** The artificial moon that Vegeta created to turn Oozaru during his fight with Goku in the Saiyan saga winds up playing a significant part in his eventual downfall.
* ChekhovsSkill:
** That weird language Shen ([[spoiler:Kami]]) and Piccolo were speaking in the 23rd Tenka'ichi Budokai? It's actually Namekian, the language of their native planet and Bulma learned to activate the starship that Kami came from to travel to Namek, with Krillin and Gohan, and is needed to use the Namekian Dragon Balls and make wishes to the Namekian Dragon God, Porunga. In a [[Awesome/DragonBall spectacular]] instance of a MeaninglessVillainVictory, Freeza found the latter out the hard way.
** Uranai Baba reveals that she can bring the dead to the world of the living for 24 hours at a time in the Red Ribbon arc. About ten real world years later in the Buu arc (approx. 25 years in-universe), this becomes a plot point as she allows Goku to spend 24 hours with his family, [[spoiler:and then ''again'' to allow Vegeta to fight Buu again]].
** The Shunkan Idou ("Instant Transmission") technique that Goku learned in Yardrat. He demonstrated it to his friends in the beginning of the Android/Cell arc, and would use it [[spoiler:to make an HeroicSacrifice and the save the world from Cell's SuicideAttack]].
* ChewingTheScenery: Vegeta, at least in the various English dubs.
** He also completely masticates everything that surrounds him in the Latin-American dub. His performances as a LargeHam DeadpanSnarker are some of the most hilarious highlights of the series in this version.
* TheChewToy: Supreme Kai, in spades. His introduction is very impressive, but it doesn't last long - most of his contribution to Majin Buu Saga is driven by plan after plan to save the universe that goes horribly wrong in some way or another, while constantly humiliating or injuring him, beginning with him having no idea how outclassed he is. He quickly becomes more of a joke than a revered character, and then just when his last plan goes belly up, his ancestor shows up to save the day and calls him a "shoe shine boy" rather than a hero. Kai simply responds with all the pathetically sad disappointment of a child being told he can't measure up by his father. While the rest of the characters respect him, it seems the universe hates him... which is ironic, given that he's the highest form of god there is.
%% * TheChick: Bulma or Pan, depending on the era.
* {{Chickification}}: Videl's case is unsurprising. She's a {{badass normal}} who is certainly strong but is hopelessly outclassed by the impossibly powerful beings surrounding her. The fact she goes from being on top of the world to being insignificant over the course of a few weeks can't possibly be good for her confidence.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Goku, which causes him to go out of his way to help people - in combination with his SpiritedCompetitor personality (which often drives him to seek out new and interesting challenges) this tends to lead him into bigger and more interesting adventures... and as the series goes on leads to him missing a lot of time with his family. Lampshaded by Chi-Chi at the end of the Buu saga.
--> Chi-Chi: "Can't he stop saving things just for one day so we can be together as a family?"
** He ends up passing this tendency on to Gohan, who can never stand by knowing someone's in danger without rushing in to help - occasionally accompanied by UnstoppableRage. This is a major reason beyond adopting his Great Saiyaman persona.
* ClothingDamage
** Clothing damage is more or less a given in every fight and nearly random in exposure area. Recoome's chest and butt are exposed by a blast from Vegeta, Goku's shirt is stripped off by a fireball launched by Vegeta.... well, the important thing is that someone's shirt gets torn off, at least. In fact, Goku's shirt gets torn so much that you can gauge where in the fight you are by it — if it's still there, and the enemy looks dead, it isn't over yet. Apparently, aliens are immortal unless Goku is topless.
** In any fight involving fighters with Saiyan armour, the plates extending out over the shoulder or forming a sort of skirt around the waist ''always'' get broken off. At the beginning of the Cell saga the only character who still wears the stuff is Vegeta, and it no longer features shoulders pads or the skirt stuff (which TheOtherWiki tells me are called Faulds in European armour and Tare in Japanese armour).
** 18 gets her clothes torn up when fighting Vegeta, but gets a new set later.
** Also, Videl gets her clothes torn up when fighting Spopovitch.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Bulma's parents. Bulma herself sometimes skirts on this from time to time.
* ColdBloodedTorture: This is one of Frieza's main methods of fighting. Kid Buu seems to do this during his fight with Vegeta.
* CombatPragmatist:
** Averted in most of the cases. Generally both the Saiyans, their friends and their enemies are more interested in a "fair fight against worthy opponents" than winning. They always give them enough time to transform, sometimes giving them hours to get there or find their final powerup.
** Played straight with Future Trunks. Having lived in a horrible future, he has no interest in fighting but only in winning. In the fights he barely gives his foes time to realise how outclassed they are, killing them the first opportunity he gets in every case. He is the only one to even carry a weapon in a life/death/fate of the world fight.
** Goku has been known not to always fight fair. He plotted to grab Raditz's tail and have Piccolo shot him while he's vulnerable. He escaped from being strangled by Frieza by biting the latter's tail. He also bites Kid Buu when he was fighting him as a Super Saiyan 3, but this time it was mostly played for comedy (Kid Buu bites him back). He also bit King Piccolo's thumb in their first fight. Not to mention shooting Vegeta in the eye when he was a Great Ape. Invokes during his fight with Recoome where he defeats Recoome with ''a single elbow to the stomach'', but did it '''while Recoome was powering up to perform a technique'''. Goku even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this after the fight is over:
--->'''Goku''': "I saw an opening that screamed ''attack''... so I did."
** Vegeta can also fall into this. He threw sand in Zarbon's eyes to temporarily blind him, after which he punched him in the back, breaking his armor. Vegeta defeated Guldo when the latter was distracted with attempting to kill Krilin and Gohan. Guldo blamed Vegeta of cheating, but Vegeta has a proper response:
--->'''Vegeta''': There's no such thing as fair or unfair in battle. There is only victory or, in your case, defeat.
** Krillin, initially. It's about the only thing he could do to keep in the frontlines linger than any of the other humans in Z. Notably, however, he never employed the solar flare/destructo disk combo that could've probably killed any major villain up until Cell.
* CombinedEnergyAttack: The Spirit Bomb.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
--> '''Vegeta''': Fuse with you?! I'd rather die!
--> '''Goku''': (sighing) Vegeta, you're already dead.
* CompressedHair: When Goku's in the hospital recovering from his injuries after the battle against the Saiyans, his head is bandaged despite his impressive AnimeHair.
* ConfusionFu
** Majin Buu, especially in his basic or Kid Buu form. The dialogue implies that this isn't the strongest form of Buu, but ends up being the most dangerous because there is no reason to his behavior. Of course, the fact that he's [[AxCrazy violently insane]] also helps.
** Before anyone knows who he is, Cell pulls a couple of these on Piccolo, Trunks and the others. Since he has the cells of all of the strongest fighters, he knows almost all of their attacks, many of which are unique to them. He also have the auras of the many different fighters he's built from, which is why it felt like there are two Piccolos, Frieza was alive, and Goku was on the battlefield despite being bedridden. He abuses this to get the upper hand on Piccolo whilst in his Imperfect Form. Piccolo at this point is considerably stronger than Cell, but Cell then performs a Kamehameha, which shocks Piccolo enough to allow Cell to grab him. When Trunks and Krillin show up, he then uses Solar Flare to escape.
* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Before they go extinct, they Saiyans are a fairly powerful race. After Freeza kills them, the surviving members start growing exponentially in power until they're the most powerful beings in the universe.
* ConvenientDecoyCat: Krillin, Gohan and Dende are trying to hide from Vegeta, who just learned to detect ki. When he sensed Dende's small ki, a dolphin jumps off the water, leading him to think that was the ki he sensed and leave.
* CoolStarship:
** Frieza's got one. So does Cooler.
** Dr. Briefs tries to give one to Goku (so he can go to Namek), even though he only needs a bare-bones transport.
* CrapsackWorld:
** Namek after Frieza showed up (and in the past, as the backstory also tells of weird weather patterns on Namek that killed many or drove them off, which was the main reason Kami was sent to Earth)
** Played straight with the world of the timeline Future Trunks came from. There are no magic balls in that one.
* CruelMercy: Goku tried to invoke this on Frieza, finding keeping him alive with his pride torn apart was a worst punishment than killing him. Frieza didn't take this well.
* CurbStompBattle:
** Most of Goku's {{Big Damn Hero|es}}[=/=]LookWhatICanDoNow moments in the series are like this, most notably when he came back from the dead to pummel Nappa after he killed Piccolo and nearly killed Krillin and Gohan, and later when he showed up and beat Recoome in a single blow after Recoome had hammered Vegeta, Gohan, and Krillin for the last three episodes.
** Vegeta also gets plenty of these, notably his fights against Guldo, Jeice, Frieza's best EliteMooks, Android #19, Cell (which is reversed once he allows Cell to reach "perfect" form), and Pui Pui. Especially Pui Pui. That last one was in ten times Earth's gravity, and Vegeta didn't even have to go Super Saiyan to beat him.
** The last leg of Goku and Frieza's battle was a curb-stomp battle. Goku managed to be far more powerful due to his transformation while Frieza was getting weaker. In addition Goku scared Frieza so badly that when he faces Trunks and Trunks transforms into a Super Saiyan Frieza has what can best be described as a panic attack.
** Trunks coming to Earth from the future and utterly destroying former BigBad Freeza in ''one episode''. It previously took Goku & co. an entire saga of fighting him, whittling his body down to nothing, and then ensuring his death by allowing a ''whole planet to explode'', only to watch in horror as he was resurrected by his even more powerful father via robotic technology! After all of that, there's no argument that Frieza had this trope coming to him.
** There's also the very beginning of Super Saiyan 2 Gohan fighting Cell—Gohan only landed two punches (and a kamehameha) on Cell, but they were so insanely damaging that they forced him out of his final form. For that matter, even though Cell was much stronger after he blew himself up and killed Goku, essentially becoming Super Saiyan 2 himself, he would likely still have had no chance of defeating Gohan if ONLY Vegeta's actions didn't result in getting Gohan severely damaged before the final showdown.
** Majin Buu makes quick work of both Gohan and the Supreme Kai immediately after getting released from his pod, and it's TERRIFYING. After serving as the Deuteragonist of the series up until then (even finishing off Perfect Cell as a kid), Gohan gets momentarily knocked out by Buu in [[OneHitKO ONE HIT]]. Supreme Kai can only stall for a time before Buu cripples him, and when Gohan tries to help (in full Super Saiyan 2 form), Buu unleashes an energy wave that engulfs Gohan completely (eliciting a piercing scream from him), and depleting his life force so much that Vegeta, Piccolo, and Goku all assumed that he had been killed. Gohan spends the next half dozen episodes laying unconscious in a forest, with only Kibito and the Supreme Kai's healing powers saving him from death.
** Vegito (the fused form of Goku and Vegeta) versus Buu after having absorbed a powered-up Gohan, Piccolo, Trunks and Goten definitely counts. A fight between the two most powerful characters in the entire Dragonball canon...and the former makes the latter look like a total pansy.
%% * CuteBruiser: Pan, Videl, [=ChiChi=], Trunks, Gohan, Goten, Goku (Dragon Ball and GT).
* CuteIsEvil: Fat Buu, before his HeelFaceTurn. And Kid Buu.
* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Both the Kaioken and the Spirit Bomb can kill the wielder (the Spirit Bomb can destroy the world if Goku's not careful).
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Dragon Ball Z'' wants you to know it's darkier and edgier than its predecessor, doing so by killing someone off on-screen in the first six minutes. While it was only a farmer who's been shown for about two minutes, it's far earlier than the first on-screen death in ''Dragon Ball'' (a random store owner during the Red Ribbon Army arc). And the dark tone increases further as each of the main arcs (Saiyan, Frieza, Androids, Cell, Majin Buu) pass.
** The Tree of Might movie.
** Future Trunks's timeline is DarkerAndEdgier than the main timeline.
* DeadHandShot: As Vegeta draws his final breath on Namek, his tear-blurred vision fades from his point of view, and we next see a close-up of his gloved hand falling onto the ground, followed by a shot of his body shivering with his eyes closed before becoming still and lifeless, followed by a gust of wind blowing on his body.
* DefeatEqualsExplosion: This happens a lot.
* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: Many of the major villains:
** The Saiyans were built to be nearly unstoppable with the weakest of them easily beating the strongest warriors on Earth. After Nappa was killed, Vegeta became the bar to surpass and took a heroic effort to defeat.
** Frieza was feared by King Kai himself and even Vegeta had to swallow his pride when dealing with him. Both King Kai and Vegeta called Frieza unbeatable and the only way to have any chance against him was to become an immortal. Instead, it took the legendary Super Saiyan to defeat Frieza.
** Cell was created to be the ultimate weapon, made from the cells of the greatest fighters in the universe. The Japanese text went as far as to call him the God of Destruction. He was brought down by Gohan who reached Super Saiyan 2.
** Buu, an EldritchAbomination so fearsome that he killed the gods of the Dragon World. Buu didn't just destroy planets, he destroyed galaxies. It took the power of an entire planet to kill him.
** The series is rife with this after Freeza. Later {{Big Bad}}s have the ability to regenerate from the smallest of pieces.
** Goku himself falls into this in the Androids/Cell Sage. Given all the androids Dr. Gero built, even turning himself into one, and the creation of Cell, he wanted to create a monster that would completely surpass Goku and kill him. [[{{Understatement}} Seems Goku left a very strong impression when he destroyed the Red Ribbon Army]]. In either case, Cell achieved Gero's dream, both surpassing Goku in power and killing him.
* DealWithTheDevil: Vegeta allowing himself to be possessed by Babidi. Babidi grants him a power-up in exchange for servitude, which turns him evil in the process. Unfortunately for Babidi, becoming evil again is part of what Vegeta wanted (as it would allow him to be unfettered by emotions) and he was able to resist Babidi's commands through force of will anyway, so he was able to have his cake and eat it. Interestingly, Babidi was also able to enslave the closest thing Dragon Ball has to the devil (normally a key player in this trope).
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist:
** The titular Dragon Balls allow any number of people to be brought back from the dead, but only if they have never been brought back to life before. This results in every major Z Fighter and lots of Earth's population being revived after being killed. The Namekian Dragon Balls circumvent the "only once" rule, allowing numerous characters like Krillin and Goku to be revived multiple times, but only allows one person to be brought back per wish.
** Additionally, whilst most people are manifested in the spirit realm as disembodied clouds, many characters whose good deeds were considered great in life are allowed to keep their physical body (or a copy of it) after death, albeit with a halo. This, in addition with Goku's Instant Transmission technique which allows him to travel even between life and the afterlife, means that after his death, he is still pretty much free to do what he wants and give a big two fingers up to King Yemma and all the other supposed "gods".
* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: Played with in a filler episode when Chi-Chi threatens Goku and Piccolo not to feed them if they don't get their licenses.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The term "senzu bean" when senzu means "holy bean."
* DeusExMachina: The Dragon Balls both subvert this and play it straight. It's played straight in that they can do anything, except kill a villain directly (due to this being the role of their creator as Guardian/God of earth and it being beyond his power). Their main use in Z is to revive people that the latest villain killed.
* DeusExitMachina:
** After the fourth or so time Goku is conveniently removed from a plot he could punch his way right through it gets just a ''little'' obvious. For example, he's in the other world when Nappa and Vegeta attack. King Kai forgot to account for the time it took him to return to Earth. He's still recovering from his injuries when Bulma leaves for Namek, so he has to come later, leaving Gohan, Krillin, and Vegeta to take on the Ginyu Force. Immediately after that, he's forced to heal from his ordeal with Ginyu's body switch maneuver, missing out on the early parts of the fight with Frieza. He's stricken with his heart virus just as the Androids attack. Then, he's dead [[DeathIsCheap again]] during most of the Buu arc.
** Chibi Trunks also moons and flips off Broly in DBZ Movie # 11
** Roshi to Broly in the first Broly movie
** There's a title page in the manga that shows some of the heroes literally flipping off Cell.
** Chi-Chi slaps Majin Buu, the scourge of the universe, ''in the face'' and gets turned into an egg and crushed in response.
* DisproportionateRetribution:
** When Frieza's henchmen are trying out for the Ginyu Force, Captain Ginyu kills a {{Mook}} called Captain Strong because he is also a captain ("There's only one captain on the Ginyu Forces and that's me!" He then kills another of Frieza's henchmen because he touched a Dragon Ball (which Ginyu forbade them to do), and does the same to the rest of the mooks trying out because they lack the style to be on the Ginyu Force.
** Actually, the "only room for one captain" line is dub only. In the original? The guy's first-run tryout pose isn't quite up to snuff. [[SarcasmMode OBVIOUSLY a far better reason to kill someone.]]
** Majin Buu [[DoNotTauntCthulhu turned Chi-Chi into an egg because she annoyed him.]]
** Kid Buu blew up the planet because [[ItAmusedMe he felt like it.]]
** Broly from the eighth movie hates Goku with a murderous passion because shortly after they were both born, ''Goku's crying bothered him.'' It gets to the point where he so hates Goku, that he's willing to ''[[MisplacedRetribution murder Goku's sons]]'' in his second movie because he thinks they're both Goku!
** In Vegeta's first appearance, Goku made him bleed a little. [[MinorInjuryOverreaction Vegeta responded by trying to]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom blow up the entire planet.]]
** In the Cell Saga, Vegeta punches Future Trnuks in the stomach, simply because Future Trunks warned him to wait for Goku before he takes on the Androids.
** Let's just face it, Vegeta's a recurring example of this trope. At the end of the DBZ series, at the tournament when a guy heckles him, he punches him in the face hard enough for him to forfeit the match.
** Dr. Gero's hatred towards Goku for destroying the Red Ribbon Army caused him to make a series of androids that turn the future timeline into a hellhole and nearly destroy the solar system in the main timeline. It becomes disproportionate when you considered that his old boss, Commander Red, wanted to use the Dragon Balls to get taller.
* DieOrFly: Piccolo's primary method of training of training Gohan for the Saiyans.
* DitzyGenius: Bulma. Especially in ''Dragon Ball'' and in the anime's Frieza saga.
* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength:
** Goku and Gohan in some filler episodes.
** And in one of the manga chapters, Goku playfully flicks [=ChiChi=] and accidentally sends her through a wall and into a tree.
** The anime at least has a scene where Goten, while being trained by Chichi, turned Super Saiyan without realizing it and kicked her to the ground.
* DoAndroidsDream: Or specifically, Do Androids experience fear?
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Crowds of people joyously cheering for Mr. '''''Satan'''''.
---> Grandpa Gohan (after accidentally ripping off Goku's tail): Goku, does your backside still hurt?
* DragonInChief: Quite common:
** Majin Buu is more or less this to Babidi; though in a subversion, since he starts out as an overgrown baby, Buu takes a while to realize how little power Babidi has. Majin Vegeta might also counts, and he ''does'' realize that Babidi is inferior.
** Before Buu, there was Dabura. Unlike Buu he was loyal to Babidi to a fault and it was his idea to turn Vegeta against his friends that allowed Buu to be freed.
** Dr. Gero is inferior to (and killed by) his android creations, though his Dragon Cell never meets him, as Gero dies before he wakes up. Cell expresses admiration for Gero for being so smart as to create him, but it's reasonable to assume that, if Gero were alive, that would probably not have saved him.
** In the Red Ribbon Army, there's Officer Black, who is much more competent and threatening than Supreme Commander Red.
** For most of his first appearance, Broly is under mind control from his much weaker father Paragus, who led the Z Fighters to the planet to fight his son. When Broly is freed, [[SelfMadeOrphan he quickly disposes of him]].
** Tienshinhan to his master in the original Dragon Ball. He is stronger than Shen and more competent, but is undoubtedly loyal until his HeelFaceTurn.
* TheDreaded
** The Saiyans for the first story arc of ''Z''. The earth's defenders spent a year just preparing for them and still got destroyed.
** Frieza who terrified King Kai and made even Vegeta humble. When he came to Earth after his defeat to Goku, he had everyone shaken in terror.
** To a lesser extent during the Namek Sage, Vegeta was this to Krillin, Gohan, Bulma, and most of Frieza's men. None of the heroes were in his league until Goku arrived and none of Frieza's men except for a transformed Zarbon were a match for the Saiyan Prince. He was actively searching for the dragon balls and was just as ruthless about it as Frieza.
** For Vegeta it was the [[EliteMooks Ginyu]] [[QuirkyMiniBossSquad Force]]. Just hearing that they would soon arrive on Namek made him willing to [[EnemyMine team up]] with Gohan and Krillin.
** Goku became this to Frieza after his defeat. When Frieza came to Earth looking for revenge he has a classic case of PTSD at the mere thought of Goku. And even before his defeat, Frieza was deathly afraid of the legendary Super Saiyan.
** To Future Trunks, the [[HeroKiller androids]], specially 17 and 18. They turned his world into hell and killed everyone he loves except for his mother.
** Cell became this to the Earth after he started making cities disappear and announce the Cell Games.
** Majin Buu, so fearsome that the gods themselves feared him. He also became this to the Earth after turning 80% of the population into candy.
* DrumBathing: Goku commonly uses this as the default bathtub at his house. One notable moment is in the Tree of Might film when he bathes in it with Gohan.
* DueToTheDead: When Vegeta dies tearfully begging Goku to avenge their race on Namek, Goku, out of [[SympathyForTheDevil sympathy]], takes the time to give Vegeta a proper burial before fighting Frieza.
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Most of the time go hand-and-hand with HeroicSacrifice.
** Goku's [[DeathIsCheap deaths]] in ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. His first death consists of him holding Raditz in order to make sure he doesn't dodge Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon. His second death is even better: With [[TakingYouWithMe Cell threatening to explode]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom and destroy the entire Earth]], Goku merely smiles to his friends hinting on what he plans to do, teleports to Cell, and says his last words to his son Gohan before disappearing to King Kai's planet where Cell explodes, killing him, King Kai [[AndZoidberg and his pets Bubbles and Gregory]].
** Tien's final attack against Nappa which left him completely drained of energy and killed him only seconds later. Although it didn't kill the saiyan, it was the first time Nappa was left flustered and it was the most damage done against him up to that point.
** Vegeta's spectacular death scene during the Buu Saga, arguably the best part of the entire saga. Nearly completely breaking down from his back-to-back catastrophic losses, he reflects soberly on his life and, for the first time, hugs his son. He asks Piccolo if he'll meet Goku in the afterlife, and Piccolo candidly tells Vegeta that he will not go to the same afterlife as the heroic and selfless Goku and he would most likely go to Hell for his past deeds. Vegeta shrugs and sends his son away with Piccolo, gives a big scream, and consumes himself in an apocalyptic inferno (that can be seen from space) that reduces Buu to vapor.
** Vegeta almost gets another one near the end of the Buu Sage. Kid Buu has just finished [[CurbStompBattle pounding Vegeta into the dirt]], Goku can barely hold his own, and no one else is powerful enough to even scratch Buu. Goku, the rival who Vegeta has been trying to prove is inferior for 200+ episodes, says he can win but he'll need at least a minute to gather power. "I've got it covered." "What?" "Your minute. I've got it covered." Vegeta steps back into the fight, knowing quite well he'll get his ass handed to him, just to buy time for the man he has finally admitted is the better fighter. To top it off, Vegeta was already dead so if he was killed again he would be ''gone''. He was risking his very existence just to buy Goku time.
** Android 16. [[DeathIsCheap Unlike]] the other characters in this series, this ginger had no soul, and almost certainly knew it. Yet his reassuring smile to Gohan never leaves his face even as Cell crushes him.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: EverybodyLives, after dying ''at least'' once (except the rare few who don't die, which includes ''[[FakeUltimateHero Mr. Satan]]'' of all people).
* EarthShatteringKaboom: Happened to Planet Vegeta, Planet Namek... and even Planet Earth itself (''twice'' if you include ''[[CanonDiscontinuity GT]]'').
** Also, the Saiyans (excluding Goku and the Saiyan children), Freeza and Majin Buu have had histories of doing this for kicks.
** Kid Buu in fact did this to [[ApocalypseHow pretty much almost every planet in existence at the time]] in a matter of seconds.
* EasilyForgiven:
** Goku toward villains, over and over again. If Goku ''ever'' says he "won't forgive" someone or that there'll be "no mercy" for that person, don't believe him; he's lying. Goku seems to learn this lesson during his training with Kami, as before that he was willing to kill anybody who got in his way without a second thought. After his fight with Freeza he is more pragmatic, recognizing Cell and Buu as being evil creatures that ''need'' to be killed while being friendly to characters proven to be reformed like #18, #16 and Good Buu.
** Obviously averted in the movies, where there is no time for such drastic character development.
* {{Egopolis}}:
** Satan City is named after [[FakeUltimateHero Mr. Satan]] [[BlatantLies following his courageous defeat of Cell]]. He's not actually in charge, but he does have a large influence.
** Also deserving of mention is Planet Vegeta, which was renamed after the royal line of the Saiyans' king[[note]]''Every'' male member in this family who ascends the throne seems to bear this name.[[/note]] after they defeated the Tuffles.
* EgocentricTeamNaming: The Ginyu Force, named after [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOntheTin Captain Ginyu.]]
* EldritchAbomination:
** Majin Buu is an immortal, and almost indestructible creature of magic with a body that can take any shape and the ability to alter matter (for example, he can turn people into food). He can also absorb people for their power and abilities.
** Janemba is the best example as he is literally a creature from another universe (other world) and can distort reality while playing havoc with the laws of life and death.
** Hirudegarn is a cosmic monstrosity that was revered as a god by an alien tribe and could survive being bisected.
* EnemyMine: Just about all the villains who eventually [[HeelFaceTurn switched sides]].
* EndlessDaytime: the planet Namek had multiple suns shining on it from all sides, keeping it in perpetual daylight.
* EnragedByIdiocy: Vegeta is this throughout the whole series. He has spent most of his life dealing with Nappa, and gets extremely pissed at him for being an idiot in his fight against Kakarot (to the extent that he murders him in cold blood for being an embarrassment), and then constantly expresses anger at the perceived stupidity of most of the other Z Fighters (while ironically allowing the Android/Cell situation to escalate to a point where Cell manages to kill Goku).
* [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas Even Bad Men Love Their Papas]]: Frieza, surprisingly.
* EvilCounterpart
** Vegeta started as this to Goku.
** Super Buu to Goku. It has certain similarities, such as being a Big Eater, not very eloquent, and the tendency to seek a strong enemy.
** Cell to Vegeta. Both obsessed with fighting and proving they're the strongest and both prone to temper tantrums when outclassed.
* EvilDuo / [[FriendlyEnemy Friendly Enemies]]: Androids 17 and 18 to the Z-Fighters. Seeing as how they don't kill anyone (Aside from [[KickTheSonOfABitch Dr. Gero]]) in the main timeline, they aren't [[AffablyEvil really all]] ''[[AffablyEvil that]]'' [[AffablyEvil bad]]; they simply want to find and destroy Goku because it would be ''[[JustForFun fun.]]'' After a while they [[HeelFaceTurn get over it]], and Android 18 eventually even has a kid.
* EvilIsDeathlyCold: A running theme with the names in Frieza's family: Lord Frieza/Freeza, King Cold, Cooler, their ancestor Chilled...
* EvilLaugh: Frieza and Kid Buu.
** Garlic Jr. engages in this a fair bit, as do the evil incarnations of Majin Buu.
* EvilVersusEvil:
** Vegeta and Nappa, two murderous {{Blood Knight}}s, depose an EvilOverlord on the planet of Arlia after he made the mistake of locking them both up. The people think they've been saved from an evil tyrant, only for Vegeta to remind them that he's a villain as well when he [[KickTheDog blows up the planet for shits and giggles]].
** Freeza vs Vegeta and Bardock. Vegeta is almost a Villain Protagonist on Namek - he and Nappa massacred Earth's heroes less than a month ago and he kills almost as many innocent Namekians as Freeza's men, but he still has the best chance of holding off Freeza's side until Goku gets there.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Either a ki-blast is in Japanese or it is this. Sometimes it's PlayedForLaughs. Other times, it's not. Example -- Super Buu's "Human Extinction Attack".
** Tien Shinhan's "Volleyball Technique." He hits his opponent into the air like a volleyball. Lampshaded by the announcer.
* ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy: Happens ''a lot''.
* ExploitedImmunity: In one of their battles, Frieza decides to blow up the planet he and Goku are fighting on, because he can see he's going to lose and while they can both survive an EarthShatteringKaboom, only he can survive in space.
* Expy: Most of Freeza's minons get one apiece in movies and anime fillers
** Garlic Jr's henchmen are similar to the Ginyu Force, sans Captain Ginyu. Cooler's Armoured Squadron as well, sans Gurdo.
** Mr. Satan's top pupils are similar to Zarbon and Dodoria, in that one's a bishounen and the other's an overweight brute.
* ExtremeOmnivore: Yajirobe, who ''eats Cymbal after defeating him.''
** ImAHumanitarian: And briefly considered eating a (presumably) dead ''Goku'' before deciding he would probably taste bad.
* EyeColorChange: A Saiyan's eyes turn green when he turns Super Saiyan (although it's easily missable, since [[PowerDyesYourHair the other effect]] of the transformation is much more visible).
* EyeScream:
** Ironically, Goku in the early series gave this to Yamcha using his Jan Ken Fist (otherwise known as "Rock, Paper, Scissors Attack") Goku delivers a "Rock" (a punch), which Yamcha blocks, delivers the "Scissors" (eye poke) to his eyes, then finished it off with "Paper" (a slap) that knocked him away.
** Vegeta is hit by a blast to his right eye as an ape.
** Goku did it during his fight with Piccolo Jr when the latter grew gargantuan. For a guy who's pure of heart, Goku really likes being a dick and hitting people in the eyes.
** An EyePoke that's decidedly not PlayedForLaughs is given to Majin Vegeta by Majin Buu.
* FakeoutEscape: Vegeta is imprisoned inside a healing tank on Frieza's ship. When he breaks out of the healing tank, it alerts the guards. So he blasts a hole through the wall to them think he has escaped the ship; while Frieza's henchmen are searching for him outside the ship, he takes the opportunity to go steal some dragon balls and then escape.
* TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether:
** [[BigBad Frieza]]'s family is a big perfect example. The father (King Cold) has been implicated to be a tyrant, probably responsible for multiple genocides throughout the universe, his son (Frieza) is a sadist who enjoys torturing his victims, and his brother (Cooler) and predecessor (Chilled) are very similar to him.
** Babidi's family as well. He and his father Bibidi are sociopathic OmnicidalManiac that sowed destruction in planets, and probably entire galaxies, and the Bibidi's creation (Kid Buu) is a PsychoForHire creature whose only skill is killing and destroying.
* FantasticRacism: Freeza's fear-driven extermination of "the Saiyan-monkeys." The Saiyans themselves were, as a rule, disdainful of anyone who isn't a Saiyan.
* FantasticVoyagePlot: Vegito gets absorbed by [[BlobMonster Buu]], defuses, and Goku and Vegeta look around Buu's insides for Gohan, Piccolo and Gotenks (now defused as Goten and Trunks). They also find [[spoiler:the Fat Buu]].
* FatBastard: Dodoria and Android 19.
* FearlessFool:
** Vegeta qualifies for this trope, as he is the first to charge into battles against opponents that are far more powerful than he is, and even lets them power up because of his arrogance.
** Videl sometimes, as shown when she tries to charge against Spopovitch and Yamu when they attacked Gohan.
** Gotenks. When he was first born, what's the first thing he tries to do? He rushes into battle with Majin Buu without thinking of the consequences, and ends up getting himself beaten to a pulp.
** Chi-Chi. She usually [[MamaBear tries to charge into battles to save her sons,]] without thinking of the possible consequences of her actions (with the other characters [[LetMeAtHim having to hold her back]]). She plays this straight when she walks up to Majin Buu, the scourge of the universe, and slaps him in the face for killing Gohan. She gets turned into an egg and killed as a response.
* FightingSeries: Aw hell yeah.
* {{Filler}}: DBZ is one of the most notorious of all anime series for this, including not just adding extra arcs, but stretching out battles because the manga hadn't concluded them yet. And we mean ''stretching them out''. An example is the Frieza Saga. There's Namek's Destruction. Five minutes to go, Frieza says. Five Episodes later - "...Two more minutes!..." Two Episodes later - "Only one minute to go!...". ''Two more episodes'' later — Frieza's defeated. One episode later — Finally the planet goes Kaboom...and Goku escapes. '''Ten Full Episodes'''.
* FinalBattle: The final battle of the series is Goku and Vegeta vs. Kid Buu in other world. [[spoiler:Goku wins by gathering all of the people's energy from Earth to form the Spirit Bomb.]]
* FinalFirstHug: Vegeta's heartbreaking farewell to Trunks.
* FinalBoss: Kid Buu is the final villain to be beaten.
* FlyingBrick: About 90% of the the cast in Z.
* TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne: Mostly starts with the Saiyan Saga, after which almost all the main characters were trained in ki-sensing.
* ForeheadOfDoom: All over the place. In fact, it's something of an iconic trait of Toriyama's art style. It's combined with some serious brow-ridges for the Saiyan characters, which seem to get larger with each stage of Super Saiyan, and spreads to pretty much ''everyone'' in the anime (as animator Tadayoshi Yamamuro, one of the worst offenders, also did many of the later Z character designs).
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Any time a character in the first anime comments on how Goku must be from another planet due to his quirks (having a tail, being a BigEater, etc). Despite this, it still comes as a shock to everyone when they discover that Goku really is from another planet.
** The Eldest Namek was the first to mention Super Saiyan after Krillin explained that Kami, son of Katas, was murdered by a Saiyan. After reading Krillin's mind he says that if Kami was whole no ordinary Saiyan could had killed him. This also foreshadows the power of the Nameless Namek.
** During the Buu saga Trunks and Goten pretend to be one fighter in costume. They also comment being one person is tiring. This is before they actually fuse.
* ForTheEvulz:
** Kid Buu was pretty much this and it's also half of Super Buu's motivation (the other being that he's a massive BloodKnight). Fat Buu also acted like this, before Mr. Satan convinced him otherwise. Although there was the matter of never being told this was wrong, but rather that this was a good way to get his masters to give him cake and that he thought it was a game…
** There was also Cell, who's only objective was to test out his "perfect body"…by killing everyone and everything. Even further, he wanted to see everyone's face to contort in terror at the sight of him first.
** Frieza does half of what he does for this reason. He kills the Namekians after they give him the Dragon Balls and fully intends to destroy the planet once he gets his wish.
* ForWantOfANail: The main timeline is ''very'' different than Trunks' timeline, for no discernible reason other than later on in his timeline Cell went into the past, creating the ''main'' timeline where he's already there; even though Cell apparently took no steps to actively change anything (in fact, being in a cocoon the whole time), there are several differences, though Kami briefly theorizes this may because time travel just messes with reality in general rather than needing anyone to change anything. Such changes include:
** Androids #17 and #18 being inexplicably more powerful but nowhere near as evil.[[note]]Apparently, the versions Trunks was expecting killed Gero ''before'' he could tune up their perpetual generators and tune down their personalities to make them more controllable.[[/note]]
** Dr. Gero turning himself into an cyborg and making #19.
** #18 deciding to wake up #16, meaning there are now 3 androids (not counting Gero and #19)
** Events happening earlier or later than they're supposed to, like Goku getting sick with his heart disease ''much'' later than Trunks expected.[[note]]In this specific instance, the stress of teleporting to Earth to fight Mecha-Frieza and King Cold caused Future Goku's heart disease to develop faster; in the main DBZ timeline, he sensed that Trunks was taking care of it and waited for his space pod to arrive, meaning he didn't get stressed until the Androids showed up.[[/note]]
** And, of course, Cell being there in the first place, which causes widespread carnage and such.
* FreakyFridayFlip: Captain Ginyu has the power to switch bodies with anyone, which he does with Goku. Eventually however, it backfires on him when he tries to take Vegeta's body and ends up in a frog's instead, rendering him harmless as his power requires the use of his voice. Later, when he meets Bulma, he acts nice to her and she makes a translator for him. He proceeds to switch bodies, then travels to Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo, Bulma hanging on. He tries to switch with Piccolo, only for Gohan to throw Bulma frog in the way, fixing everything. Eventually leading a group of frogs in the Capsule Corporation Compound if the series is to be believed.
* FriendlyTarget: Poor, poor Krillin and Android 16.
* FromASingleCell: Cell and Buu. Even more so with Buu.
* FromNobodyToNightmare:
** The Big Gete Star started off as a tiny little computer chip.
** Goku as far as Freeza and Gero are concerned.
** In the Budokai two normal people note that Spopovitch (while strong) was nothing like what he became in his fight with Videl.
** Gohan to Cell. Went from JustAKid to the android, to putting the fear of god into him.
* FutureBadass: Future Trunks and Future Gohan. The latter takes this to extremes compared to his present day counterpart.
* GeniusBruiser: Nappa, though it isn't shown much. That attack he uses to blow up a city? It requires ''a degree in nuclear physics''.
** Cell and Gero (again not pointed out much). Gero on account of being able to create androids and cyborgs and turn himself into a cyborg (he's noted to be as smart as Bulma or her Dad who are both shown to be brilliant scientists), and Cell on account of having a load of information taught to him by the computer while a larvae
* GenrePopularizer: For the FightingSeries.
* GenreShift:
** ''Z'' is SciFi, while the orginal series is more {{Fantasy}}.
** Saiyan Saga: ''JourneyToTheWest'' meets SuperHero fiction (including ''GoldenBat'', ''[[http://www.animevice.com/prince-of-gamma/18-31482/ Prince of Gamma]]'', and ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'').
** Freeza Saga: ''JourneyToTheWest'' meets SpaceOpera (including ''MessageFromSpace'', ''Franchise/StarWars'', and ''{{Macross}}'').
** Android/Cell Saga: ''JourneyToTheWest'' meets {{Cyberpunk}} (including ''Film/{{Terminator}}'').
** And it all comes full circle in the Buu Sage, reintroduction the fantasy elements from the original DragonBall.
* TheGift
** Vegeta likes to think he was born with the Gift being a prince from a race of proud warriors who boast about being the strongest in the universe. It doesn't help that he was more or less called special by all those who knew him, even his BadBoss Frieza. He is not too far off. He is extremely talented and reach levels that none in his race could even begin to comprehend.
** Goku has an even greater gift for fighting, being able to outpace Vegeta no matter how hard he trains. During the Cell and Buu Sages Vegeta outright states that Goku has a gift, something that he has denied before by calling Goku low class trash. By the end of the series Vegeta fully admits to himself that Goku is the superior fighter.
** Both Vegeta and Goku's gifts are outpaced by Gohan who can easily become the strongest in the universe if he desired it.
* TheGlovesComeOff: Vegeta does this in the Buu Saga, by [[spoiler:letting Babidi take control of him]] solely for the power boost that it involved.
* GodIsFlawed: Very apparent with the Supreme Kai, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin who is just that]]: the Supreme God of the Dragon Ball universe, and perhaps the least-knowing God of them all. He hastens Majin Buu's release by allowing Gohan's energy to be stolen at the world Tournament, having assumed Babidi was too strong to beat. He created a block of indestructible metal which destroyed the Z sword (it did release Old Kai, but Supreme Kai did not know that would happen). Finally, he is constantly surprised by the Saiyans, whom he believed were strong but not strong enough to achieve victory. It's only when Vegeta [[CurbStompBattle decimates]] Pui Pui that he begins to realize the Saiyans are stronger than he thought.
* GoldColoredSuperiority: Goku's original power multiplier was the Kaioken which had him TurnRed and maxed out at 20x base power. When that wasn't enough to beat Frieza he transformed into a Gold Super Saiyan, 50x base power.
* GoodIsNotNice:
** While Vegeta may have eventually turned good, he was never nice (although his sense of camraderie for Goku during their fight against Kid Buu is rather touching).
** Although not as bad as Vegeta, Piccolo is also a variety of this trope. He has no problem mercilessly killing his enemies or sacrificing innocence for the greater good as shown in the Buu Sage.
* GoodNightSweetPrince: Used in the English Dub of ''Dragon Ball Z'' when Freeza was going to kill Vegeta.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Piccolo is turned to stone by Dabura, and only returns to normal ''after'' Trunks has knocked over the statue. When Trunks realizes what he just did, he's the only one who gets to see the gory details. The poor kid goes BlueWithShock and begs Goten and Krillin not to tell - except Piccolo's already back on his feet.
* GratuitousEnglish: Most alien and supernatural creatures have name-puns based off English words, and Toriyama had said that Vegeta's attacks used English names to highlight his alien nature.
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: Subverted in the 2008 special where everyone is surprised the wife of Vegeta's brother is an adorable cartoonish alien. The exception is Master Roshi, who points out that Saiyans seem to have strange tastes in women. Unfortunately, he said it in ''earshot'' of [[{{Tsundere}} Bulma AND Chi-Chi,]] and gets [[AmusingInjuries severely beaten for it]].
** Played straight with Zangya, one of Bojack's henchmen.
--->"Space Chicks are hot!"
--->-Krillin regarding Zangya
** Inverted with Zarbon, who is a green skinned space man.
* GunsAreWorthless:
** As shown in episode 172 when the military tries to kill Cell, [[WhatAnIdiot and you can guess]] [[TooDumbToLive how it turns out.]]
** There were many earlier examples as well. When Raditz first landed on Earth, a farmer tried to shoot him only for Raditz to catch the bullet and throw it back at him, killing him
** Future Trunks easily deflects a few blaster shots just before he [[spoiler:kills Frieza]]. Also, Gohan catches an entire clip from a submachine gun fired on full auto ''with the same hand, bullet by bullet'' - something Master Roshi had also done before.
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