It makes more sense if you think of it that way, though.
Guru unlocked Gohan was still no match for Freeza, big horned form or alien queen head form, until he got angry. Clearly there was sleeping power still waiting for his anger to awaken, so it had to be a potential unlock.
Gohan was no match for Buutenks even after he got angry, so clearly all his sleeping power was already out. It clearly wasn't a potential unlock, because it followed on the heels of Super Saiyan 3, which explicitly was the result of drawing out more hidden power that was deep inside. It was more efficient because the Kai power up did so with out the strain of transformation.
Buldogue's lawyerAs predictable as this was, I prefer it to Monaka genuinely being super powerful purely because he doesn't look like it. This would have been a good outcome if it was handled with more subtlety and wasn't so on-the-nose.
Beerus' antics to cover this up were hilarious, so I appreciate those.
The biggest problem, is that this is just another way to eliminate the fighters on the Universe 7 side. Remember when people thought Boo's disqualification would mean he'd get a replacement? I knew from the start that was a way to raise the stakes against the heroes, Yu Yu Hakusho did the exact same thing in their team tournament arc. It's bog standard story telling when you're dealing with evenly numbered teams to handicap the heroes somehow
With Piccolo's fight being thrown out, and Monaka also not being a fighter, it's truly impressive how they can take the concept of "5 v 5 tournament" and still turn it into "The Goku and Vegeta show".
This is the double subversion. It's just that Toriyama's regular subversions are so well known people aren't even surprised by them anymore.
@Tobias' commentary on Super 22: Ginyu's return and Piccolo's death were incredibly fitting thematically, though. The Resurrection F movie and arc was all about bringing back old, fan favorite characters by shafting newer characters and trying to relive the glory days of the older material by hopelessly aping the same stories. Ginyu taking over Tagoma and pointlessly recreating Piccolo's sacrifice are right up that shit-show alley.
edited 9th Apr '16 7:26:10 PM by Saiga
Monaka actually is super-powerful, and has actually been faking his weakness the whole time to lull everybody into a false sense of security; Beerus was in on it and was playing along to make it that much more convincing.
edited 9th Apr '16 7:25:30 PM by Ssj3Gojira
Let's see if you can get past my Beelzemon. Mephiles, WARP SHINKA!
(8)
It's as if every little thing I like about Super just flips itself.
- A good version of Frost turns out to be a total dick, who starts wars and cheats in fights - it's not even enough for him to be dishonest, he's kind of a rat bastard.
- Cabba looks like a short, stubby Saiyan female, he turns out to be a non-Super Saiyan, nowhere near Vegeta's league, and he's almost certainly going to refer to him as Vegeta-sempai in the near future.
- Buu doesn't get to fight.
- Monanka is actually a pipsqueak. Which was setup when it was pointed out that he'd actually passed out watching Goku fight, but I'd hoped this was actually a Red Herring. I mean, a guy that actually did better than Goku against Beerus? That sounds really exciting, I wonder what happened in that fight that Beerus didn't destroy Monanka's planet.!
On the other hand:
- Hit being an assassin is cool. Being an assassin with a Stand is awesome.
- The "cube" he's trying to win sounds like a neat plot device.
- Champa isn't a one-dimensional "Evil Beerus" like the promotions made him look like, seeing him actually offended by Frost's actions makes him a little more interesting.
- Piccolo did get to fight.
- The Metal Man and the Bear fight were alright.
Well he was putting up a good fight against Vegeta, before he busted out the Super Saiyan Blue on him.
Not really, since at the very least Frost having built an empire on faked kindness is never even mentioned in the manga, so it might be anime-only or something.
edited 9th Apr '16 7:35:48 PM by Ssj3Gojira
Let's see if you can get past my Beelzemon. Mephiles, WARP SHINKA!Oh, hey, I dunno if this was mentioned when I was on my TV Tropes hiatus, but stupidoomdoodles is back.
I mean, she's not my thing, but I know that will make some people happy.
My various fanfics.Some French tumblr lady who draws a lot of Dragon Ball art and apparently her headcanon is that Vegeta is mentally handicapped.
My various fanfics.No, like just really really stupid.
And apparently "Yamcha and Vegeta should be best friends because they're both shitty losers who never win anything."
I'm not even paraphrasing.
My various fanfics.

What does the Japanese say, Saiga? 'Cuz that'd settle it.
himitsu keisatsu seifu chokuzoku kokka hoanbu na no da himitsu keisatsu yami ni magireru supai katsudou torishimari