It happens.
I'm not even sure he thinks through what he's doing right now all that much.
Like Super Saiyan 2, for example.
By the time Cell enters the picture, battle powers have ceased to be numbered, so nobody's exact power is set in stone. After making such a big fuss out of getting Gohan to Super Saiyan 2 so he can beat Cell, Super Perfect Cell manages to land a shot that Gohan's forced to tank to protect Vegeta.
The damage from this reduces Gohan to 50% of his power, which puts him on-par with his original Super Saiyan form. This proves to still be enough strength to win the Beam Struggle and destroy SP Cell, with the aid of Vegeta's distraction and Goku's emotional support.
In establishing that Super Saiyan Gohan is powerful enough to destroy Super Perfect Cell, the Fridge Logic this creates is that Super Saiyan Gohan was already far beyond Perfect Cell's ability, and the entire introduction of Super Saiyan 2 is rendered completely unnecessary as a consequence.
It doesn't actively contradict previous continuity the way Frieza's introduction does, but it's still a glowing example of how Toriyama doesn't really think too far ahead, and just does things because they're awesome.
edited 29th Jul '15 8:45:36 AM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I think if he was going to introduce SSJ 2 as a cool new transformation, making it just x2 SSJ's power was a little underwhelming.
what do you mean I didn't win, I ate more wet t-shirts than anyone elseAnd then there's this asshole
.
The transition from the Saiyan Saga to the Frieza Saga is a little rocky as a consequence of previous assertions that Saiyans are one of the strongest races in the galaxy and they travel the galaxy genociding races and selling their planets to the highest bidder, until one day their planet got blown up by a meteor. The anime even goes further with the story and asserts that the meteor was summoned by their planet's God, to end the tyranny of his people.
Frieza retcons the entire story by asserting that 1) they didn't travel the universe killing and selling planets to the highest bidder on their own, they were doing that in service to him, and 2) there was no meteor, Frieza destroyed their planet himself. It also muddies the issue of the Saiyans' relative strength by having Vegeta, the most powerful Saiyan, a super-elite, humiliated by aliens more powerful than him.
In most cases, this is excused by them being Frieza's highest elites. They're not representative of their species in the same way that Vegeta and Goku aren't, they're the cream of the crop and, in later interviews, they're even established to be mutants to further establish that they are not indicative of their species as a whole.
But then there's Cui. We know shit about Cui. He wasn't around long enough nor memorable enough to ever receive the same justifying answers as Zarbon, Dodoria, and the Ginyus, and he wasn't a highest elite figure; he was just one of Frieza's men who happened to consider himself Vegeta's rival. He did so because he had a battle power equal to Vegeta's (before the Earth zenkai).
This random dipshit alien is as powerful as a Saiyan super-elite for no reason that is ever established beyond Toriyama wanting to give Vegeta a cool moment of killing him. He literally just shows up, confuses the issue of Saiyan power compared to the rest of the aliens, and then abruptly dies. He is so unimportant that half the audience didn't even remember he existed until he started showing up in the video games, prompting a lot of confused players to ask who the f*ck that guy is. One could be forgiven for thinking he's a mook.
But he's not a mook. He's just some asshole who is as powerful as a Saiyan super-elite because reasons.
edited 29th Jul '15 8:59:24 AM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.When I think about it, Gohan being the one to destroy Cell kind of comes out of left field.
I mean, it's not Trunks who came back from the future to change things and save the world, nor Goku, the guy who's death he came back to prevent, but Gohan the guy who in orginal timeline outlived the rest of Z warriors by 16 years and didn't accomplish squat against Androids in that time, now save the day against much more powerful foe.
Also, Gohan's involvement in the arc prior to that was pretty small, so it's not like he was getting any special focus that could foreshadow it.
Through the whole Namek Saga we hear Freeza's men talk shit about Sayians. Either they weren't as much of a warrior race as they liked to talk about, or Freeza's men were fronting now that they were mostly extinct.
edited 29th Jul '15 9:09:35 AM by Shlugo_the_great
Indeed. The sudden shift from "The Saiyans are a super-dangerous race of galactic genocide guys and you should fear them for their awesome power," to "LOL, Saiyans, amirite guys?" is another example of the lack of forward planning in Toriyama's writing.
After all their build-up in the Saiyan Saga, they got brutally shoved down the elevator shaft of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil to make way for Frieza's empire.
Frieza himself would be on the receiving end of this when the story makes a point of having him return even more powerful to threaten the Earth only to have a bridge dropped on him, his entire invading force, and his father who they just introduced because Toriyama decided he was done with that story and wanted to do a different one about time travelers instead.
edited 29th Jul '15 9:05:59 AM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I think for the Saiyans, it would have made more sense if they had them be a threat to Frieza's Empire, rather than subservient to it. Where Saiyans were stronger than most of the people under Frieza's command minus Frieza himself.
Which would have made Frieza destroying their planet make a lot more sense. He would have been getting rid of an actual threat rather than a mostly perceived one.
That's what I think, at least.
what do you mean I didn't win, I ate more wet t-shirts than anyone elseYa know, Planet Vegeta being destroyed by a meteor is kinda ridiculous when they could have just had a bunch of the strongest Saiyans get together and blow it the fuck up.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!Should've told Frieza to keep off the Twitter.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.He said the same thing in the movie, though.
Re: training and average folks: I feel like most of the main characters could operate under the mantra of potentially great power coming with great responsibility. At least until Goku takes all the responsibility and power at the last minute.
I have a message from another time...Whis and Beerus should have left right at the beginning of the episode and arrive right at the end.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!
Actually Whis gave an exact number — 26 minutes. The problem is this is the run time of an anime IF you included the station advertisements and whatnot at the start and end of shows (remember back in Madoka's live airing with Morning Rescue? Stuff like that) AND the OP and ED.
If they wanted to be really meta about it, they'd have Whis and Beerus leave during the middle of one episode, and arrive in the middle of the next one.
edited 29th Jul '15 11:27:44 AM by MyssaRei
I distinctly recall Whis saying that it would take "about 22 minutes."
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!I mean, it seems like Whis and Beerus keep getting distracted.

I guess I gave him too much credit, huh? :P
what do you mean I didn't win, I ate more wet t-shirts than anyone else