Super Saiyan isn't a set power
Because Vegeta explicitly describes it as a mythical ability exclusive to the Saiyan race and then turns out to be completely wrong. So Last Season isn't exactly a good trope.
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!I'll recant that. I just looked up the scene and Vegeta didn't actually believe it existed at first. And then the Wiki even points out:
Vegeta didn't say that a Super Saiyan can only appear every 1,000 years. There's nothing to fix, like you said.
But LSSJ is nice to have is because it's a Hand Wave for the original Super Saiyan apparently destroying themselves. We just had to assume that they were as strong as Goku but couldn't deal with it. That's kind of lame.
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!What's lame about it? Goku has something that other Saiyans don't: he's an expert martial artist. Also, a master of the Kaioken, a technique which amplifies his power at a taxing cost to his body. He also repeatedly demonstrates the ability to manipulate his battle power in a way that no one else in the series can.
Goku has the discipline, skill, and practical experience necessary to believably control the Super Saiyan form without destroying himself. It's Vegeta that's the problem.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.And then Goten. And Kid Trunks. And Goku Jr. And humans with a 1/1000th Saiyan DNA in them.
More importantly, a legendary form belonging to an ancient, near-extinct race of warrior space monkeys that hasn't been seen in a 1,000 years, a legend so graphic that even Frieza feared it, wiping out a portion of his own private mercenary force just to ensure it wouldn't come to fruition... this form was SO UGLY, EVERYONE DIED DANGEROUS THE ORIGINAL WIELDER DIED FROM IT.
The end.
What.
What happened? Who was this guy? Why would such a powerful, terrible creature be forgotten to the annals of Saiyan history (to the point that a king's son would believe it a myth), but someone like Beerus who sleeps for centuries and shows up for one or two of them is immediately treated with respect by the acting king?
How would he even kill himself? If he's at Goku's level he's bench-pressing planets, immune to bullets, and presumably able to fly (every other Saiyan we've seen has figured it out sooner or later, with the exception of Goten). I guess they blew up the planet they were on. Yeah, that's satisfactory.
- Having an off-screen death like that is always disappointing no matter how you slice it.
- Goku's expertise vs the original's complete lack of traits doesn't make the latter's obscurity any better.
- Why would Frieza be scared of a Saiyan who was destroyed by his or her... let's be honest, his own power?
- It's left completely up in the air how a Super Saiyan managed to kill themselves.
edited 11th Apr '17 2:09:14 PM by Soble
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!IIRC, didn't he destroy the planet he was on? Saiyans can't breathe in space. You do the math.
Broly doesn't actually fix this, either. He makes it worse by establishing that a minimum battle power of 10,000 is sufficient to allow anyone to survive the destruction of the planet they're occupying. This is asinine, especially considering that terrestrial existence failure would continue to be a threat to the protagonists all the way through Buu.
As for why it was lost to the annals of history but Beerus wasn't, the answer is because Beerus still exists. Simple as that.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.The only explanation is that Broly's initial 10,000 power level was just his surface level, and after surviving the stabbing, he powered up enough to create that barrier.
I mean, when Gohan got angry enough, he started hunting Raditzes and all.
Of course, that's a potential in universe explanation. I'm pretty sure the reason everyone will attribute things to is fuck broly / fuck toei!
One Strip! One Strip!Everyone can make a ki barrier.
Even if we do credit the feat to Broly being a Super Saiyan at the time, that just raises the minimum power required to make a ki barrier that blocks the vacuum of space from 10,000 to 500,000. So the humans are screwed but Piccolo and the Saiyans can do it without breaking a sweat.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub."But this isn't a tournament!" "Isn't it? Is it not?"
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Call me when they pull off Channelball.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.If only more fighters in DBZ had trap cards or magic effects.
Deadly serious here. That's one thing I noticed come, like, ZEXAL. In spite of the fact the second-to-last duel had Attack Points in the 1.000.000 range, the real deal were card effects. Every duel ever was "but my card has this effect1" and then someone countered with "but my card has THIS effect!" And so-on and so-forth. Big numbers meant a lot less than they used to and DBZ could learn a thing or two from that.
That's true in Magic too. Games rise and fall on your creature abilities more than their Power/Toughness ratings. Ultimately, you're not going to win unless you can punch your opponent in the face enough times to bring his life total to zero, but landing those punches tends to be more a matter of card shenanigans than just playing creatures and hitting them.
Some decks even manage to forego creatures entirely. The infamous Channelball combo, the single meanest design in the history of magic, was a deck designed to win the game on the very first turn without ever playing a creature. It was f*cking brutal; so much so that two of the three cards involved are banned forever from, like, every format.
edited 11th Apr '17 8:02:12 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

On that note:
FUN FACT: If Goku had become a Super Saiyan after arriving on Namek without first getting his body broken and receiving a zenkai from Captain Ginyu, his battle power would have shot up to 4.5 million!
Remember how one-sided that fight with Frieza was before he transformed? Goku was using the Kaioken x10 at the time, putting his battle power at a steady 30 million. Without that zenkai, the legendary Super Saiyan might just barely have been a match for Frieza's third form.
edited 11th Apr '17 12:27:47 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.