Not really.
If the bird man (Toriyama) has something he wants to do with them, he does it, but they have their role most of the time.
Edit: I just remembered. There's not actually a new episode today is there? It's that educational special that was mentioned before if I recall.
edited 9th Sep '17 6:35:06 PM by HandsomeRob
One Strip! One Strip!Remember, the Tournament of Power isn't just about power, despite its name. If it was just about power, Krillin, Tien, and Roshi would have been replaced by three other people.
Yeah, Yamcha is too far gone. Even I could beat him, and I rarely fight.
edited 9th Sep '17 7:21:57 PM by Gehayadren
Ha ha ha. What a story, Mark.Actually there was a new episode today, what are you talking about.
I can't believe Tien didn't actually get eliminated because he had discovered the ability to use five copies with the Multi-Form, and then hid behind a rock. Also, he knows the Kaio-Ken AND the Spirit Bomb! ...Then he for real got eliminated by Hit. Oh well, Tien Sucks.
I'm thinking it was Toei who wanted them on it and Toriyama apparently just went with it.
One Strip! One Strip!I still hate that they keep pretending they're gonna use Buu and then cut him out.
It's pissing me off.
One Strip! One Strip!It's just stacking shaky logic on top of shaky logic, like a precarious house of cards.
I do see one legitimately good reason not to include Goten/Trunks - and it hasn't been mentioned once by the show. I can see them choosing to exclude the boys because they feel forcing them to erase other universes is just way too much for how young they are. Although I guess if they looked and acted their actual age, it'd be more understandable to include them.
That'd also require the characters to ACTUALLY CARE that they're going to be erasing other universes from the get-go rather than waiting until it starts happening before they briefly get sad over it.
edited 9th Sep '17 8:02:33 PM by Saiga
Trunks and Goten are also literal children whose only experiences in fights are beating up each other and fighting Buu. And granted, yeah, that's still a hefty task for a seven-year-old and an eight-year-old, but their teammates and opponents are far more experienced than both of them.
My various fanfics.Yeah, but it's completely insane to think that would make a difference with their strength being what it is.
Let me put it this way: Goku's experience did not count for shit against Cell. Everyone was aware that if nine-year-old Gohan was stronger than Goku, he's a better match for Cell.
Consider the amount of difference between these two. Now consider Roshi or even Kuririn compared to Super Saiyan Goten, Super Saiyan Gotenks, or Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks.
edited 9th Sep '17 8:20:21 PM by Saiga
Well, we can't use Super as an example because it's Super.
But it doesn't matter. They started out in the Boo arc being stronger than the Androids (most certainly Piccolo as well) and comparable to the range of the adult Super Saiyans. They have such a gigantic lead on anybody that unless you go Super-Gohan levels of ridiculous atrophy they'd still be really powerful.
Gohan went seven years without training and didn't lose a great deal of power. Goten and Trunks have been shown training in Super and we know they like to spar with each other.
Huh. That is a good one. Honestly, lets just stick with that one for justification for not using them.
I do wish they'd just kept Future Trunks around so he could have competed (with the option of bringing back his timeline, but I think it's safe to say that when they (Toriyama/Toyotaro/Toei) want the story to go in a specific direction, that's the direction it will go in, logic be damned.
One Strip! One Strip!The very least I would do is drop Roshi for Boo (I don't like Freeza coming back, but that's still better than Roshi) and have Bulma successfully adapt Gero's technology so she can make Kuririn and Tenshinhan Androids so that the floor on competence is a lot easier to justify.
I'd still massively prefer Goten/Trunks over Kuririn/Tenshinhan - they're more valuable, you can write them out easily by having them burn energy on fusion without jobbing them, they really need more development and it's more logical over going with popularity or fanservice.
But as a bar minimum, let Roshi stay retired, give Boo some spotlight and at least do something to justify Kuririn and Tenshinhan being involved.

Side characters matter...?
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