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That's kind of the point; if we go by "everything is determined by power levels", everything is an arbitrary power increase. The Saiyans' zenkai is the same way; a random power increase that just so happens to be enough power - except when it's not. And none of these power increases actually make that much of a difference. Increasing your power to 1,000,000x your normal power will allow you to hit slightly harder and go from "getting my ass kicked, but landing a punch here or there" to "getting my ass kicked a bit slower, and landing a few more punches". While there is a distinction in that some characters ARE stronger than others, the characters completely overblow the actual power differences between them.
Let's use Vegeta's zenkai abuse on Namek for reference. His first zenkai makes him strong enough to defeat Cui. As Vegeta points out to Cui, he's been on the front line fighting, while Cui's been suckling at Frieza's teat. Of course a battle-hardened warrior is going to wipe the floor with a pampered sod. He also defeats Dodoria, which is hypothetically quite the accomplishment, but we have no idea how Vegeta stacked up against Dodoria before Earth.
Vegeta nearly beats Zarbon, but then Monster Zarbon takes him by surprise and overwhelms him. Vegeta's second zenkai allows him to slaughter Zarbon. By hitting him harder and faster and defeating him in a pure matchup of strength and skill? No. By applying force directly to a single point and allowing Zarbon's own strength to impale him in Vegeta's fist, then blowing a hole through him like a bullet. That's not "I am fifty times stronger now!" victory, that's just cleverness, and it's worth noting that Monster Zarbon caught Vegeta offguard the first time. It's hard to say for certain who's really stronger than who before or after.
For the third zenkai, Vegeta gets demolished by Recoome. Jeice shockedly remarks that Vegeta is stronger than ever, but again, we don't see that. Vegeta doesn't fight Recoome again. He fights Jeice, and Jeice has had nothing but an unimpressive showing since landing on Namek. He's the Yamcha of the Ginyu Force.
For Vegeta's final zenkai against Frieza, he goes from not being strong enough to defeat Frieza in his Third Form to not being strong enough to defeat Frieza in his Final Form. Quite the awe-inspiring jump there.
This is pretty consistent every time we hear things like, "Power level of 1 million," or "I'm only using 50% of my strength." Increasing your power level thousands and thousands of times will very slightly increase the strength of your punches and let you make ki attacks that are a couple feet wider in diameter - which, incidentally, makes the actual impact of the attack weaker, not stronger.
Less than that, because even if we ignore the shirking of the training, what put Goku on part with Vegeta was the kaioken x3, and Piccolo never learned to do that, so the training he was shirking was the training to make Goku roughly 1/3 to 1/4 Vegeta's strength.
And the Kaioken is another great example. Each multiplier is an actual MULTIPLIER of your power level. So going from 300% power to 400% power takes Goku's beam struggle from "struggling really hard but slowly losing to Vegeta" to "Struggling really hard and slowly overpowering Vegeta". An entire fourth Goku slapped on made a very small difference that just happened to be enough to tip the scale.
edited 25th Sep '13 12:42:57 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Piccolo had already made up some of that gap by doing his own training, also, maybe meditating actually works as training for him.
Hmm. I guess I lost my connection when I made my post that would've gone on the last page.
It's entirely hypocritical that Vegeta would declare that power levels are bullshit, when he gained more from zenkai and offscreen power level jumps than anyone else. He even had the book on it in the Abridged series because of how much he embodied and exploited it. It's his own damn fault he loses and feels he has to complain, because he keeps getting into fights with his loud mouth and foolish pride.
Even when he didn't win, he didn't die, and it was just there for a chance to extend things until either Vegeta or Goku finally got the kill. Because apparently, Nail, Krillin and Gohan couldn't do shit.
edited 25th Sep '13 1:13:52 PM by wanderlustwarrior
EDIT: nvm, misread
edited 25th Sep '13 3:15:12 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.The only reason Vegeta thought it was bullshit for Piccolo to fight Freeza is because he thought it was the same Piccolo that fought Nappa. It's explained right there, that's the joke.
Oh and Vegeta's final Zenkai was not being able to defeat his first form to being able to see attacks that the others couldn't see, meaning he at least moved up past Freeza's second form and was just unlucky that he got that Zenkai so late that Freeza was already in his stupidly powerful form.
edited 25th Sep '13 3:55:22 PM by Saiga
To be fair to Jeice, he had nobody to fight against except Goku and Vegeta. I am pretty sure he had a decent enough powerlevel of his own.
Also it was stated that Vegeta did really badly against Recoome because he was exhausted as well, having not slept for many days in a row.
The only really stupid Zenkai was the one where he suddenly became strong enough to at least lock hands with 1st form Frieza. Going from around 30000 to closer to 530000 is quite a stretch for one Zenkai
edit: and considering we never saw unweighted Picollo take on a serious 2nd Form Frieza, I have to wonder how Vegeta compared to Nail Picollo
edited 25th Sep '13 4:15:35 PM by Medigo03
The Vegeta that met up with Nail was already at 250,000.
Veggie jumped from 18000 on Earth, to somewhere around 24000 before getting clobbered by Zarbon, to somewhere around 50000 before getting Recoome'd, to 250000 for his fight with Frisbee's first form, to I think around 2-3 million for his attempt at Freezy Pop's final form.
Or something along those numbers. I forget the exact values, if they had any.
edited 25th Sep '13 6:26:55 PM by Anomalocaris20
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!Monster Zarbon has only even been given a power level in video games. Those given are:
55,000 - Oldest one, from 1991, can't actually work in the series
30,000 - From 1992, most fans accept this as it's equal to Vegeta's Daizenshuu 7 power level.
34,000 - The most recent, From 1995. Some fans accept this as they believe Zarbon was stronger than Vegeta, or that 30,000 wasn't Vegeta's full power.
Ah, I see. So Ugly Zarbon wasn't much stronger than Pretty Zarbon, if the latter is stronger than Dodoria.
And whoops, messed up on order of events. Assumed he smack-talked Nail after the Ginyus, when it was before.
So yeah, Nail could have nailed Vegeta easily.
Thanks for being the Pope.
edited 25th Sep '13 6:56:12 PM by Anomalocaris20
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!Exactly, Zarbon's strength didn't increase much between forms. That's why Vegeta taunted Freeza into transforming, because he was predicting the same general increase and thought it'd be better to face it from the start rather than allow him to transform later.
Although, Nail might not have had such an easy time with Vegeta and could have even lost. Vegeta put up an admiral effort against Recoome, who may or may not be even stronger than Nail. And Recoome is also a veteran fighter on top of that.
edited 25th Sep '13 7:01:55 PM by Saiga
Not sure why he'd goad Frieza into transforming at all if even in his first form he was more than twice Vegeta's strength... Unless Vegeta assumed Frieza was already at full power of his first form.
Why DID Frieza feel the need to transform? He was, as I just said, twice as strong as Vegeta. Is he just a show-off?
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!Because if Freeza wanted to transform later, when Team Three Star were exhausted, they wouldn't be able to stop him and get killed. Freeza already has enough of an advantage to avoid them taking him out quickly before he can pull something like that.
And Freeza really is just a show off. None of his transformations were necessary - he was beating Piccolo when he went into his third form (although Piccolo did ditch his weights) and he deflecting Gohan's last ditch effort attack before deciding to go into his final form.
edited 25th Sep '13 7:06:13 PM by Saiga
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Because he's a prick.
Nevermind, that's his brother, sorry.
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I see someone amended his papacy. Just because I don't post in a thread doesn't mean I'm not its Pope. I'm the All-Pope for a reason.
I always liked that music part at 28 seconds in. Also, Abridged has established that Dende only heals people he likes or has to. Maybe he friggin hates Uub, and Goku never visits.
The part where Piccolo re-fuses with Kami... I just noticed that'll be funny for 2 reasons. Not only will Nail and Kami be in his head, but that means that Dende will have to live with Mr. Popo.
edited 25th Sep '13 7:25:02 PM by wanderlustwarrior

Nope. Just sat there meditating.
Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great