A Dragon Ball Fanboy vs. Akira Toriyama: Missed Opportunities

Here's just a few:

Losing Buu just for the sake of a lame comedy bit.

By anjoicaros

 

Having Buu in this saga wouldn't done three huge and much needed things for this tournament.  A good writer would easily see the opportunities.

1.) Buu Could Bring Some Comic Relief.
Having Buu do stupid shit in the tournament would have been infinitely better than having him in a one off and highly predictable bit that eliminates his entire presents from the tournament.  The reactions of all the U6 fighters after seeing Buu fight would be priceless.

2.) His Strange Powers Could Liven Up the Tournament.
Candy beams, broken regeneration, angry steam, and the attitude of a child.  Buu would make for a great opponent for many U6 fighters.  Imagine Frost going against him next, instead of Vegeta and discovering that he can't poison him thanks to Buu's gummy body.

3.) His presence could've helped with the power scaling.
Since Buu doesn't train, we more or less know his power level.  He's somewhere between a Buu saga SSJ2 and SSJ3.  Now if you put him against, say Frost, and he wrecks Frost then we know that Frost is weaker than SSJ3 and possibly SSJ2 thanks to Buu being a sort of measuring stick for us.  As it stands, we don't know anything about anyone's power in this tournament.  It's all guess work, but even the smartest, most observant among us can't call anything definitively thanks to the slipshod way this new series is patched together.  Power levels aren't everything, but we should roughly know who measures up to who and in what way.  We don't and that's a problem.

Not using ample chances to explain and show how Piccolo got so much stronger (if he did at all).

Okay, so Piccolo is now powerful enough to dodge Frost's attacks, tank many of his blows with very little damage, block his punches one handed while backstepping and charging an attack, and can bind him with one arm.  Even being able to do this to a weakened opponent of this caliber is significant.

In the manga, it's worse from what I see.  They fight on even ground, with Frost having taken even less damage from his fight with Goku and Piccolo still seemingly having an edge in their fight.  To top it off, Piccolo's beam is strong enough to pierce Vado's godly barrier.  So, if he's made these types of gains again, why not explain it?  Why not have him train with Goku and Vegeta in the RoSaT?  Why not have him train in the afterlife while he was dead?  Why not have him give a random thowaway line, handwaving his boost?  Why couldn't we even get that?  Why is this show so damn badly written and poorly animated?  I digress...dammit.

Anyways, we don't even have enough evidence to definitively know if Frost is stronger than base level Goku.  We don't even know if base level Goku has god powers.  There's evidence that he doesn't since Krillin could sense his and Frost's power.  Then again Golden Frieza had regular ki too and was still stronger than both SSJGs.

Using normal Super Saiyan in the tournament without explaining how strong it is compared to Blue God.

Doesn't this just feel unnecessary and confusing for no reason?  We already have no idea how much more powerful SSJGB makes Goku or Vegeta.  Having them use the golden form to hold back just seems pointless right now, especially from a storytelling perspective.  Toriyama and Toei seem to be keeping power growth vague, so I can't for the life of me figure out why they'd add this complication to the story. We've already established that the god level Saiyan's base powers are unbelievably strong since Goku dominated Final Form Frieza in base.  That same Frieza that tortured a SSJ Gohan in his very first form.  Having Goku and Vegeta use SSJ just muddies up what was already established with the base forms.

Now people are questioning if the base forms are even strong at all, now comparing them to Frieza arc characters.  I don't fall into that camp but the horrendous power scaling gives them plenty of evidence.  Obviously no one at Toei or even Toriyama himself cares about making this show make sense any more.  Having at least a vague sense of how characters compare to one another would be nice.  Horrid power scaling makes this impossible though.

Other Notable Mentions:
-Not explaining Vegeta's rage boost.
-Not using the red haired God form again
-Not showing Frieza's training (shooting Togoma over and over again doesn't count)
-Not showing more of Piccolo and Gohan's training or showing how strong they got.

A Dragon Ball Fanboy vs Akira Toriyama and Toei part 5: The Right Way To Power a Character Up! (round two)

This post is a direct continuation of my last post, part 4 in A Dragon Ball Fanboy vs. Akira Toriyama: http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-dragon-ball-fanboy-vs-akira-toriyama.html.

In the last part, I ran with the theory of all the Z fighters including all the human protagonists getting serious about protecting the Earth after Frieza's last invasion.  To that end, I had included Piccolo and Tien training on King Kai's planet and mastering several levels of the Kaioken.  Piccolo took the training and used it as a basis for the rest of his training and Tien did the same.

Now also in that last scenario, I had other humans train with Tien.  My list of humans that trained with King Kai were Tien, Yamcha, and Chiaotzu but this time they were joined by Krillin, #18 aka Lazuli, and Master Roshi for some good ol' fashioned perverted comic relief and cuz it'd be cool to see two of Goku's old masters getting together and recollecting the journey that the Saiyan fighter has blazed throughout the years.

Now for this to work, I'll have to move forward in the timeline a bit from my last post a few weeks ago.  Dragon Ball Super has changed the catalyst for all my powerups by having Piccolo get revived instantly, thusly he doesn't go training on Kai's planet in the afterlife right after his death.  However, that's not to say that the humans have no motivation to seek out Kai.  So I'll say that this power boost happens during either the few months timeskip between RoF and the U6 Tournament or it happens after the U6 tournament.

Krillin  

Motivation: To be his wife's equal in protecting their family and to make a difference in defending Earth.

The battle against Frieza changes something in all of the human Z-Fighters, especially Krillin.  Things change when the bad guys start bringing thousands of soldiers to the party.  In order to be of more use and better prepared for similar invasions in the future Krillin and Tien meet and have a discussion about Earth's protection.  What should happen if Goku was stuck in space like he was with Frieza latest trip to Earth.  Tien and Krillin agree that it can't be helped if some monster like Frieza comes.  The wise old perverted Master Roshi overhears them, as does #18 and there is a tense frustration within the group.  #18 gets upset that the men have abandoned their fighting spirits in the face of powerful opponents.  It sparks a fire in everyone, Roshi included.  Tien mentions that he never completed his training under King Kai, despite being there for who knows how long.  Krillin tells him that he never trained with the North Galaxy ruler.  Tien mentions Kai's training regiment and the 10x gravity on his planet.  Roshi, Tien, Krillin, and even 18 all agree that they need to train hard.  They telepathically call out to King Kai and he agrees to train them all again.  They tell Yamcha about it and of course Chiaotzu learns about it as well.  They leave Marron with Gohan and Videl for a while, while they go off to train.  They go to the lookout and Dende takes them to the start of Snake Way.

Now let's get to the training.  The experience of high gravity is new to Krillin so he initially has to adjust to that.  We see in an earlier saga that Piccolo, being stronger than Goku when he first arrived, has no trouble at all with the gravity.  But later on Gohan, whose power blows them both out the water at the time, still struggled with the high gravity.  So I think Krillin would struggle for a bit too.  After he gets used to the gravity, he begins to spar with Yamcha.  He also notices that Tien is doing some advanced stuff over with King Kai, including a move he saw Goku use a few times, the Kaioken.  Krillin and Yamcha get a lot stronger and they watch as Tien goes one on one with #18 while trying out his new technique.  Krillin wonders how Tien has always been so strong, how they've been neck in neck in power even when Krillin had gotten much of his potential unlocked.  He even curses himself for slacking off, guessing that Tien has already surpassed him.  He asks Tien to spar with him and Tien proves that he is the superior fighter even still.  Krillin continues his training and sees that Tien's boosts in power are getting even greater.  It's something to do with the technique that King Kai has taught him.  Even though he still loses to #18 Tien still puts up a much better fight than he did before, even surprising her at a few points.  Krillin is now motivated to learn the Kaioken.  He remembers when Goku used it against Nappa.

By Maffo1989

Krillin learns the Kaioken but quickly learns that his body can only take a certain amount of strain.  Tien seems to be able to boost himself to insane degrees with it, almost like a Saiyan, all thanks to his comfort with life-or-death techniques.  Krillin eventually overcomes his initial x5 limit and is able to max out his Kaioken at x10.  He uses his Kaioken in conjunction with his other techniques like the Scatter Kamehameha to create some devastating combinations.  He challenges Tien again and they have an even match with the x10 Kaioken, with Krillin having a bit of an edge in their fight.  Krillin knows that Tien can push himself upwards to x50 but Krillin is satisfied with being able to use the Kaioken to amplify his own techniques to even greater levels rather than his body.  In this way, Krillin becomes the technique master that he is destined to become in Dragon Ball Online.

#18

Motivation: To protect her husband and daughter from universal threats using the power she was cursed with.

Continuing from Krillin's path, #18 starts her training journey in a bit of a rut.  Because she is so much stronger than the others she doesn't initially gain as much as they do from the training.  The gravity barely affects her movements so she doesn't have to get accustomed to it like Krillin.  Tien mainly uses #18 as a sparring partner to gauge his progress.  Master Roshi tries to cop a few feels under the guise of training with her.  He also teaches her some turtle school techniques like the Kamehameha.  During this training we learn some unique things about #18 source of energy.  King Kai refers to her "ki" as unnatural but states that he can feel it buzzing all around her in an endless cycle.  He has her demonstrate by shooting a ki blast and when she does he notes that her energy source replenishes itself almost instantly.  He then has he use a bigger blast, the Kamehameha that Master Roshi was taught her.  She uses a huge blast and King Kai notices that her energy returns a little more slowly when she expends it on a large ki draining technique.

By OPunkreas

#18 decides to have a spar against all of Kai's students like Piccolo did during the Namek Arc.  She goes through everyone mostly with ease until Tien and Krillin get serious and use their x10 Kaioken.  She commends them for getting so much stronger but tells them that the still have a long way to go until she is nearly defeated by Tien's x50 Kaioken until King Kai stops the fight due to Tien's overexertion.  Now with two suitable sparring partners, #18 can finally increase her physical strength through intense sparring.  After seeing how strong Tien and Krillin have gotten with the Kaioken, #18 tries to get Kai to teach it to her as well.  Kai states that #18 can't learn the Kaioken because it would create an unstable effect with her type of energy.  He teaches her some of the properties of the Kaioken to help her form a version of it that is a little weaker but lacks the ki and body strain.  She learns to at least double her strength with a technique she calls "Heating Up."  She continues her training with Krillin on Earth and they both continue to hone their skills.  There's also potential for #18 to even get an upgrade from Bulma and her dad.  There's literally limitless potential to her character.  We just don't know about the limits of science and her type of energy in Dragon Ball.  Maybe both her and android #17 can come back and get a power up to defend the Earth.

Trunks

 

By EmiyanSaiyan

Motivation: Wants his dad to be proud of him and wants to be able to defend the Earth like Gohan did when he was younger.

In the latest episode of DBS, Vegeta told Trunks that the little warrior couldn't compete in the tournament because he needed to strengthen himself as opposed to relying on fusion.  This combined with the fact that his mother recently told him and Goten about the battle with Cell and the Androids.  Trunks was baffled to hear that his future self was so strong, even stronger than Piccolo and about as strong as Vegeta.  This sparks a desire in him to get much stronger.

Now at this point strengthening up Goten and Trunks goes against what was established with the End of DBZ,  Trunks and Goten are shown to have slacked off, with them being scared of fighting Buu in the tournament.  But since they've already produced a retcon in Super (Goku telling Vegeta about Uub when he seemingly first told him about Uub in the EoZ tournament) I simply don't care.  We're also never told exactly how strong the boys have become so let's go ahead and power them up.

By Cauai-desu

Trunks and Goten are the perfect sparring partners.  Both are Saiyans, both are sons of proud warriors, both are competitive and have a rivalry, and both are the best of friends.  They can and will always be able to push each other to new limits when it comes to training together.  Both boys train amongst themselves in the days leading up to the U6 tournament and after the tournament is over they ask their fathers to train them.  This training lasts for a little while until Goku and Vegeta get caught up in their own training again.  The boys then turn to Gohan, who they notice is getting a lot stronger than he was against the Evil Majin Buu on his own.  Gohan teaches the boys the basics and then spars with them from time to time.  They do this almost daily and all of them benefit from the training.  Goten and Trunks benefit the most and they manage to raise their levels past Gohan's when he fought against Cell by unlocking Super Saiyan 2.  The boy's next goal is to unlock Super Saiyan 3 and get stronger on their own than they were as Gotenks.  They get bored with this however and ask their fathers about Super Saiyan God.  Now here's where we'll go with different paths for the boys to make things interesting.

By Immateengohan

Path 1: Goku and Vegeta see that the boys are making some major gains in strength and decide to take them under their wing and teach them about SSG (Super Saiyan God) in order to prepare for a looming threat.  Together Goku and Vegeta teach Trunks and Goten how to control their ki in order to harness God Mode.  The boys attain SSB (Super Saiyan Blue) and are right under Goku and Vegeta's level.

Path 2: Half Saiyans can't become SSG.  Goku and Vegeta tell the boys this and they are forced to go back to their original Super Saiyan 3 training.  The boys easily become SSJ3's because their bodies remember the feeling of the form from being fused.  They consider it a dumb form because it makes them tired to quickly and so they fused into Gotenks in order to get some better ideas about transforming.  As Gotenks they discover a form similar to Super Saiyan 4 that powers them up greatly.  The boys keep this a secret until the next big villain where they reveal their new form that they called Super Omega Gotenks.

By hddragonballafhd

Path 3: Gohan teaches the boys the path he has taken to Godhood.  He teaches them Elder Kai's method of gaining god ki and they power up tremendously with relaxed "base forms".  They can then power up in Super Saiyan form though the multiplier isn't the same since they can already access most of their power in base form.

Path 4: The boys give up once they master SSJ2 and start relying on Gotenks again, but he's a lot stronger now, able to keep up with God Level fighters.  At this point they start slacking off, slowly becoming their End of Z selves.

Goten 

By Vicdbz

Motivation: Wants to be able to defend the Earth without fusion like his older brother did and father did.  Wants to train with Trunks.

Goten's training journey is the same as Trunks'. Also, it would be cool if he decided to mimic Yamcha's fighting style as he grew older, since he looks similar to him and chases girls like him at the end of Z.  That's the closest we'd get to a Saiyan Yamcha lol.

Yamcha

Motivation: Wants to be able to lend a hand when the Earth is in danger.  Training with Tien, Krillin, and Chiaotzu reminds him of the old days reigniting old rivalries.

I don't have much for Yamcha.  I used to believe in the guy but he seems to fade away more and more with each new arc.  Continuing from the Krillin powerup, we have a Yamcha who is determined to get stronger no matter what.  As always, however, he still greatly lags behind both Krillin and Tien.  His gains will be great, just like theirs.  I believe he can master the Kaioken very well but I don't think his mastery will approach the same levels as Krillin or Tien, neither will his application of the technique to his other techniques.  I can see Yamcha maxing out his Kaioken at a x5, which is half of what I had for Krillin.  So Yamcha can get pretty powerful, but I can't see him catching up with the other two especially Tien who never stops training and Krillin who had his potential unlocked and who spars with a Super Saiyan level opponent in his wife.  It would be cool if Yamcha focused on his speed more so that he would be the fastest Earthling fighter, you know, something to call his own.  Imagine a high speed wolf fang assault from the master of the Wolf Fang Fist.  T'would be baddass!  Maybe afterwards he can train Goten, like I alluded to above.  It wouldn't make a ton of sense--well no it would--since Goku seems more interested in training foreign children who are the reincarnation of ancient demons anyway.  Yamcha and Goten could be like a bro version of Gohan and Piccolo.  I'd watch that spinoff.

Chiaotzu 

Motivation: Tags along with Tien and wants to be of use to him.

I really don't have much to say for Chiaotzu.  Maybe I shouldn't have even added him to the training, but we all know that wherever Tien goes, Chiaotzu follows.  Chiaotzu should also be fairly above Master Roshi so it'll be interesting to see if Roshi can catch up to him at least.  Chiaotzu may secretly be a badass though.  He was on Kai's planet almost as long as Tien was, but Tien usually leaves him behind during hectic encounters.  IDK this one's tough.  Chaiotzu does get much stronger but I don't see him learning Kaioken.  He seems rather delicate when you get right down to it.  But I do think he can at least get strong enough to wipe the floor with Ginyu level goons, if he's not already.

Master Roshi 

Motivation: Even though his fighters have long since left him in the dust, he wants to be able to better defend his planet against the likes of ruthless aliens like Frieza's soldiers.

Roshi is training again, what more can I say?  Roshi reveals that he's been secretly training this whole time on Earth to which Yamcha, Tien, and Krillin all go "duh" collectively after his good showing against many of Frieza's soldiers.  Master Roshi has a difficult time with the gravity since he's so old and he still wears his weighted turtle shell.  He gets to Kai's planet later than the others since he still can't fly.  He gains a lot of strength just from running down the entirety of Snake Way.  His power jumps from the mid-hundreds to the mid-thousands like the boys' did when they first trained with King Kai.  Roshi also helps the boys refine their technique, teaching Yamcha and Krillin the buff form as a way to release massive amounts of their own power.  He also teaches #18 the Kamehameha Wave.  Even with this training session, the master isn't able to surpass his students and he is unable to learn the Kaioken thanks to his old body.  Roshi does take what he's learned from Kaio back to Earth to advance his Turtle School style.

Welp, that ladies and gents is my list of how to power up some fan favorite characters.  What I really don't like about new Dragon Ball, from the Buu saga onwards, is how they neuter so many fan favorite characters just to progress the plot and a handful of Saiyans.  Goku and Vegeta need powerful allies and even if their allies aren't quite as strong as they are, these warriors should not just stop their quest for martial mastery and perfection.

Well anyways, thanks for reading my ramblings my glorious readers!  You all have a great weekend!

Dragon Ball Super and Team Universe 7: Piccolo and Buu (Gohan) part 2

Spoilers ahead for those who haven't read the latest chapters of the Dragon Ball Super manga by Toyotaro.  Read at your own risk.

Welp, it already looks like a few of my predictions were wrong.  To see those and get some giggles out of my lack of foresight, go ahead and check out this link http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2015/12/dragon-ball-super-and-team-universe-7.html.

Included was my idea that Buu would actually make it to the tournament.  He didn't even pass the written exam.  It was so predictable that even I didn't think Toriyama would go for it.  He did and sadly there's no Buu in the tournament despite the hype of him on the promotional materials.  So the poster should look more like this.

Nothing to see here, move along...

Yup, just four U7 fighters, as it always was. Good ol' Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, REDACTED, and Monaka *whistles and slowly walks away.*

Now with what he know of the end of Super's Fukkatsu no 'F' arc, let's see if we can figure out Piccolo's role.

Resurrection no 'P'

At the end of the Dragon Ball Super anime's Fukkatsu no 'F' arc, Piccolo is resurrected with the Namekian Dragon Balls not long after his death at Frieza's hand.  As you all should know at this point, he stepped in and took a blast from the tyrant that was aimed at his protege Gohan.  At the victory party, Gohan apologizes and earnestly asks Piccolo to retrain him so that he can protect his family.  Piccolo seems to agree, but tells Gohan that he'll have to properly retrain his weak body.  So now it seems that these two have a proper motivation to train.  Like many of you, I'm stuck wondering what will come of these results.  I did a post about ways Akira can power these characters up in an interesting way http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-dragon-ball-fanboy-vs-akira-toriyama.html but he's missed the window for the powerups I had for Piccolo in the after life.  So now what will he do?

More than 5 days to train

I'm relieved that my concerns about the manga and Piccolo's mere 5 day training window for this tournament seem to be old news now.  The anime presents us some evidence that a nice chunk of time has passed since the end of the FnF arc.  Krillin has had enough time to grow his hair back and Gohan has even changed hair styles.  So maybe some months have passed.  It's seemingly so since Goku and co. can use the Earth's Dragon Balls again.  So does this mean that Piccolo and Gohan have been diligently training in that time?  As is now shown in the preview for next week's episode, if they have been training with the sort of intensity shown in this gif then they both might just jump by several levels.  They are fighting like bitter enemies it looks like.  Look at how aggressively Piccolo is attacking.  I don't think he's holding anything back.

Training gains in Dragon Ball have always been wildly inconsistent.  Most of them are largely based on the plot.  But if a character is getting some screen time dedicated to intense training, usually they end up with a decent role in the the upcoming or current arc.  So with Piccolo and Gohan being the "B Team" of Dragon Ball Super, will something come of this?  That's the question many of you want to know, I suspect.  And the answer to that is yes in my opinion.  I don't think this nicely animated and well drawn action scene was just added to pad anything out.  I believe that this training session between two series favorites, who are the main defense Earth has behind Goku and Vegeta and who are leagues upon leagues behind the two in strength, will ultimately result in a substantial powerup for the both of them.

But how strong will they get?

That's definitely up in the air.  It wouldn't make a ton of sense for them to reach Goku and Vegeta levels in only a few months of training, especially when Goku and Vegeta are still constantly training.  I think this training will put both Gohan and Piccolo in a realm of power where they can both be recognized by Beerus and Whis.  As idiotic and crazy as it sounds, I think Piccolo will reach Super Saiyan 3 Goku levels.  I don't really know what's going on with Gohan though.  He should have already been way ahead of Super Saiyan 3 Goku, so is this training meant to get him back at that level?  Will he surpass the Vegeta who pushed Beerus to use 10% of his power?  I just don't know.

Predictions

My guess is Gohan will unlock something new.  It won't be Super Saiyan God or the blue haired form though.  It'll be something just for him and he'll be back in the second arc or whenever the hell sh** hits the fan in this arc to show off his new power.

Piccolo will maintain his role of outclassed badass, kinda like the Tien role in late Dragon Ball Z.  Though Tien is still a boss too for going hand to hand with the freakin' God of Destruction!  But I don't think Piccolo will reach the realm of Goku and Vegeta by any means and I also don't think he's being set up for it in a later arc.  I think AT just wants to make him a little stronger so that he can tag along with Goku and Vegeta and make some smart observations about their battles while also being able to lend a hand every once in a while in some small way.  It's a disappointing role to see for a Piccolo fan, but at least he's being utilized.

Anyways, that's my predictions about this latest arc and Piccolo and Gohan's role in it.  No, I don't think Gohan will fight in the tournament, but I do think he's being pushed for something later on.  Who knows, I've proven to be wrong before on calling the obvious.  But please, share your own thoughts, opinions, and theories below or just comment on mine.

As always, thanks for the browse, my glorious readers!

A Dragon Ball Fanboy vs Akira Toriyama and Toei part 4: The Right Way To Power a Character Up!

 
With a new tournament arc coming for the Dragon Ball Super manga and not too far after that in the anime, the Dragon Ball community has run rampant with speculations on just what Piccolo and Buu as well as Gohan's role will be in this new God of Destruction tournament.  You can find some of my own speculations here (http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2015/12/dragon-ball-super-and-team-universe-7.html).  Mainly, I have no hope for Toei and Toriyama at this point so I believe Piccolo and Buu will be a non-factor in the arc and only exist to provide comedy relief and to job out to the other team.  BUT...let's be more hopeful in this post, shall we!  For now I'm going to think of the best ways I can to power up some of my favorite members of the Z-Team.  I think there's some time before the whole 5 days to train thing that Piccolo and Buu have to contend with.  My frame of reference will start from the last episode of Dragon Ball Super that I watched (and that I will watch until the show's quality improves) episode 23.

Piccolo - Let's start with my favorite character.  The Namek here should already be one of the strongest characters in the show just going by the show's own rules and the fact that he's the creator's favorite.  What Piccolo suffers from the most is Toriyama's own lacking memory.  At two points in the show, Piccolo is shown to be the type of character who makes incredible gains while training.  This seemed to be somewhat dropped after his relevance in the Android arc.  Piccolo should also have an incredible technique pool if he possesses Kami's memories (which he does since he knew of Cell's evil) and should know Kami's Instantaneous Movement technique which is superior to Goku's own Instant Transmission.  With that and the fact that he possesses the former Kami of Earth inside of him, Piccolo should be able to get some training from some higher realm deities.

So my version of events goes like this (some spoilers will be ahead).  Some ideas I give credit to youtuber Mike from Laughingstock Media for (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysdtngSCkc8), specifically the keeping Piccolo in the afterlife stuff.  So after Piccolo is killed by Frieza, he lets it be known to the powers that be in the afterlife that he doesn't want to be wished back.  His body disappears from the Earth or Namek and he requests to be brought back in a year or something like that.  In the afterlife he trains.  Why?  Cuz he's the badass demonic Namekian Piccolo who mostly cares about fighting and strength.  Anyways, Piccolo visits King Kai again and completes his training with him.  King Kai informs his former Earthling students and all of them get a burning desire to fully master King Kai's training as well.

Piccolo masters King Kai's training in a mere day or two. From King Kai, he gets the Kaioken which he notes gives him an ability that allows him to rival Buu.  But it's not good enough for him and he goes on to train with some of the masters of Otherworld.  He learns some cool stuff and gets a cool new technique or two.  Finally, he meets his dad, the all powerful Katas.  From Katas Piccolo learns the true secret of his Namekian origin and what it means to be a true Super Namek.  He is able to tap into the ancient tribal power of the Dragon Clan, a power locked within himself.  It sounds a little fan-ficky but this is at least stuff that's potentially represented in the show.  Anyways, through some ancient Namekian knowledge Piccolo gets a boost of power.  I would have that boost be a Namekian centered technique, which grants the user a tremendous power boost at very little cost.  It would pretty much be a green colored Kaioken technique with healing properties.  Like an aura that constantly heals Piccolo and those around him (allies) which would make him into a high tier support character, but a badass to boot.  It's redundant to give Piccolo two types of Kaioken, but in this version this plot point would serve two purposes.  One: Hearing of Piccolo's Kaio Training and mastery of Kaioken ignites a fire in Tien and the other humans too.  And two: Piccolo's mastery of the Kaioken would get him familiar with the properties of his new Namekian based version of it.  Hell, maybe Piccolo, genius fighter that he is, develops this type of technique on his own.  Imagine that, a Kaioken that actually heals you!

Piccolo by PhazeN1 of Deviantart

After the yearlong training session, Piccolo is wished back.  At this point he surpasses resurrected Frieza's first form by a large margin.  I would say, to make things pointlessly cyclical, to put him a little over resurrected Frieza's second form/second suppressed state.  That's a respectable level for a year of hard training with these new power boosting techniques.  I wouldn't even mind putting him over Final Form resurrected Frieza, but I'm more conservative with my power level increases (I literally shuddered at Frieza's ridiculous FnF gains).  Now that he's back, the events of the DBS manga kick in and he has 5 days to train for the new tournament along with Buu who he's greatly surpassed.  Whis decides to train them both hard, seeing a godly nature in them.  Whis is also fairly impressed with Piccolo's training gains in only a year.  He finds it remarkable that someone who isn't a genius like Freiza can attain such power so quickly.

From here Piccolo can enter the tournament as is and be somewhat of a threat.  I'm fine if he stops here, but since I'm a Piccolo fanboy let's train him up some more.  He takes on Buu as a training partner and they get training from Whis himself.  They get the same training as Goku and Vegeta.  Piccolo starts at a comparable power as them and Buu is just durable as hell, so they survive the Beerus training and Whis' trials.  Buu gains a huge boost in power from this alone and Piccolo jumps up a little as well.  They are both chucked inside of Whis' staff and learn to "not let their ki leak out."  I'm still not sure what that means or what it does, but it seems to make people godly so they learn that.  Piccolo and Buu have godly potential inside of them.  Piccolo because he absorbed Kami who has been shown throughout the show to be a legit godly being.  Even Dende could sense Beerus and I don't think he's any more proficient as a Kami than Kami himself (even though his Dragon Balls are better).  Katas, Kami/Piccolo's father may even be some type of deific being.  Who knows, but that's my fast lane method for getting Piccolo up to snuff for the tournament in DBS.  Here you have character motivation for getting stronger (getting one shotted by Frieza while trying to protect Gohan), a clear route for training, some good power boosting techniques that aren't too far outside the realm of reality, and some really powerful trainers and training methods.  Piccolo could easily become a beast if some care was put into his character progression.  My hopes for decent sub character development was shattered a long time ago so I don't expect anything close to this in this new anime (yup I'm a downer).

Tien - I wouldn't get too crazy with Tien's power boost.  My first priority would be the beginning of a shift in Tien's role in the series.  You see, in Dragon Ball Online, Akira Toriyama wrote a story about the future of the Dragon Ball Universe (about 200 years later).  In the future, it is known that Tien is the founder of The New Crane School of martial arts (http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/New_Crane_School).  Many consider the game's story as canon material since Toriyama is said to have been heavily involved with the game's production.  Anyways, I'd like to see Tien and Krillin slowly shift to their roles as masters in the new show.  But to start, Tien always trains.  He does it non-stop and never gives up.  The logical step would be for Tien to get his potential unlocked by Moori (if he can), Elder Kai, and then fully master the Kaioken technique which all might put him on the level of a fully powered Super Saiyan or Super Saiyan 2.  But that's played out and boring at this point.  I think Tien has the potential to discover some show breaking techniques on his own anyway and not share it with the rest of the cast  Seriously, he is that gifted!

Anyways, continuing from Piccolo leaving King Kai's planet, we have the Earthlings all going there to train after hearing of Piccolo's amazing results.  I myself would have the entire earthling cast go there for training to defend Earth since most of them came face to face with Frieza.  I'd have Tien, Yamcha, and Chaozu joined by Krillin, #18, and Roshi.  I think it's a great opportunity for one master to meet another and could be rife with comedy as Roshi is forced to train alongside his former pupils and a beautiful woman.  Tien and Krillin make the biggest gains here.  It's also discovered that #18 can't learn the Kaioken thanks to her unique energy type.  King Kai notices that Tien is a natural with the technique, moreso than anyone else including Goku.  Tien reveals that it's because his Kikoho technique produces a similar effect on his body and he's mastered the technique to minimize the strain on his body.  Therefore his Kaioken usage is equally less strained and he can push himself to higher levels with it than the others.  Fighters like Roshi, Chaozu, and maybe even Yamcha still don't learn the full Kaioken...okay I'll throw Yamcha a bone and say he learns it too.  Roshi gets a power boost similar to what the boys did before when they trained during the Frieza arc. #18 and Chaozu get a slight power boost.  Every Earthling basically takes what they learned from King Kai home with them and uses it as a foundation for their new personal training, especially Tien.  He goes ham with it (no, not Oolong :-/).

So Tien tests the upward limits of the Kaioken and discovers that he can take it really far before it starts to really rip his body up.  Then he starts testing it with his other techniques like multiform and Kikiho and discovers some powerful combinations.  During one training session, he strains his body too far and discovers a new limit in himself.  Now this is where my Tien power scaling reaches a branching path.  Path 1 will be the logical path, using only methods shown so far in Dragon Ball, while Path 2 will be something more fanciful, with my own addition to the lore, but not very far from what we've seen.



Path 1:

Fan made Mystic Tien

Tien pushes himself to the brink with Kaioken and learns to use it as naturally as a Saiyan would use the original Super Saiyan form.  He continues to apply the Kaioken theory to his various techniques so that they can hit harder, even while he is at a lower power level.  He finds ways to boost his specific techniques far higher than his human body can go.  For instance, his Kikiho grows immensely in power and is able to hit with a power of Kaioken x 500 even though Tien can only raise his body to Kaioken x 50.  He can now one shot Buu saga level threats.  He also learns to use the multiform/Kaioken combo to power his clones to high levels while one stays at rest or uses a less strenuous Kaioken level so that the exhausted clones have a fresh body to return to.  He becomes more of a technique master in this regard, with powerful techniques that still make him a tricky opponent to face even for powerful threats.

Path 2:

Three eyed, four armed human?  Sounds legit.

He learns his body is not actually like a normal Earthling's.  The body straining techniques reveal this more and more.  Tien pushes himself to the brink every day and his power reaches new heights.  Suddenly his former limitations seem so far away and his ability to grow grows exponentially.  He ponders this while training with Chaozu.  King Kai, who's watching, posits a theory to Tien.  He states that there was a race of beings from long ago that were known as war gods.  They were a multi-eyed and multi-armed people (similar to Hindu gods) with extremely high battle powers and a love of combat like the Saiyans.  As a matter of fact, in the past they had often clashed with the Saiyans and were considered rivals, though the War Gods were many times stronger and only the strongest Saiyans stood a chance against them.  War Gods were one of the most durable races in the universe, but an out of control disease (or freaking Beerus) managed to take them all out.  Tien possesses a small measure of this War God blood.  It's affecting his body more and more as he reaches new limits.  The more he strains his body with Kaioken and Kikoho, the more his War God blood reacts.  Now, whenever Tien reaches his brink, his inner War God comes out and he grows four arms, dark red skin, and he can use the multiform without splitting his power.  The War Gods were possibly lower tier deities so this could open a path for Tien to gain some god ki.  I think it's a cool idea, but admit that it is over-the-top and adds lore that wasn't present before.  I don't think it's all that bad considering all the recent additions to the lore.  And Tien is one of those characters whose past is mostly blank so his history can easily be expanded upon.  This is the easiest way to make Tien into a relevant character again and even a suitable rival for Goku again.  One could only hope.

Gohan - This is definitely the easiest powerup on today's list.  Gohan has always had all the potential in the world, starting out with a power greater than all the martial artists on Earth and growing exponentially from there.  He's had his potential unlocked literally three times in the show so far and some of the latest chapters of the Dragon Ball Super manga reveal that Vegeta thinks that he has even more potential still.  The sky is the limit for this man and he will continuously surpass it and then fall waaaaaaaaay below it because Toriyama and whoever else deem it necessary for whatever reason to repeat this character regression endlessly.  All Gohan really needs is another BS powerup from the latest revealed deity, which would be Whis.  If we aren't just giving powerups away then Gohan has several paths he could consider.  Path 1 will be the standard one, path 2 will be one that's a little less obvious and much more character driven, and path 3 will be one that I'm having some fun thinking up.

Path 1:
Gohan gets Super Saiyan God and then Super Saiyan Blue.  This is standard and at this point, very boring.  I'd much rather see Gohan tread his own path to power (no pun intended).  But this is the most obvious way he could get stronger.  Since he would want to get stronger after Piccolo's death and his own humiliation at Frieza's hands, he might go to Whis for training.  Most likely he'd skip red haired Super Saiyan God form and go straight to blue (still not sure how this works).  Gohan might even just seek Goku for training and attain the form by training with him or Vegeta or both.  Very standard, very boring.  And now we'd have three blue haired characters doing the same types of moves *yawn*.

Path 2:
Okay, this is a little more interesting.  After being humiliated by Frieza and having his master killed in front of his very eyes, a useless feeling Gohan goes on his own training journey to get powerful again.  He attempts self training to get his stamina and control of his full power again.  He fully unlocks his powers again (black haired form) through vigorous self training.  Vegeta gives him tips for a good daily regiment and Bulma makes a gravity chamber modification to his house.  On his own, Gohan powers up past his Buu saga Ultimate self and seeks a method to even surpass that.  He considers the path that his father and Vegeta are taking, but the Elder Kai contacts him and tells him that there is another way.  He explains to Gohan that the ways Whis trains are suitable only for those who wish to destroy.  He then tells Gohan that there is a way for Gohan to become a more gentle god than one like Beerus.  He tells Gohan that it is possible for a god to be both strong and gentle like himself, a god that cares for all life.  He opens Gohan up to the path of the Kai's and Gohan attains a different sort of god form this way, one that is the most serene yet.  He always stays in a relaxed looking base form no matter how strong he gets, but he has power on par with Goku and Vegeta.

Path 3:
Gohan goes the route of true martial arts disciple after his humiliation at Frieza's hands.  As Gohan has never really been a fully fledged "martial artist" I figured it'd be some fun character development for him.  He can seek out training from the various Z fighters and even learn some of their techniques.  Mainly it would just be an arc about Gohan learning the virtues of fighting and learning to enjoy it as his peers and masters do.  He could learn from Roshi, Tien, Piccolo (again), Vegeta, King Kai, Whis, etc.  Then after that he could do some intense self training and with his ridiculously high potential that would probably automatically put him at Goku and Vegeta's SSB level. This path just turns Gohan into a battle freak like Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, and Tien.  It's fun though and a major change for Gohan.  He'd still remain his pacifist self, but have a newfound love and respect for fighting.  Now, he'd always find some time to train, at least every so often.

Buu - Since this is getting so long, I'll make Mr. Buu the last one I do today.  Buu has a lot of paths open to him as well when it comes to gaining greater strength.  First and foremost, we know nothing of Buu's potential.  We don't even know all there is to know of his physiology.  He's magical in nature and for all we know could be constantly getting stronger just from breathing.  I would guess that that's not the case, but what do we know?  I think Mr. Buu does have a high potential to get much stronger.  I think with proper training that Buu could easily get to Golden Frieza and SSB level.  He already starts with an amazingly high base.  Buu was also a life form that the Kais feared so in many ways he's higher than even the gods in the universal heirarchy.  His function seemed to even be on par with what god's of destruction did.  Maybe he was once an out of control god of destruction, who knows?  Buu might even be able to surpass Beerus in only a week, anything is possible with him since we know so little.  I'll try to ground this with the two path approach, maybe more.

Buu absorbed this god eons ago, the Grand Supreme Kai

Path 1:
Buu absorbed a god (the god of gods, Daikaioshin) and thusly has god ki.  Simple, right?  Whis sees this in him and trains him to bring this power out though "without it leaking."  This is a very straightforward way of giving Buu God Ki and a shot at attaining higher levels.

Path 2:
Buu is already a godly being and can access God Ki whenever he wants to.  With simple training Whis is able to help him unlock this.


Path 3:
Buu's magical nature makes it so that his potential is insanely high and with intense basic training he is able to far surpass even Freiza.  He also gains some new abilities through magic, like splitting himself into two characters with unique personalities, Skinny Grey and Buff Pink.  Okay, I'm having a little too much fun with this one, but the point is that he gains some new magical techniques.  Buu could benefit from some Whis training, but if Whis only trains those with God Ki potential and if Buu doesn't have such potential (in this scenario) then maybe Buu finds a different trainer.  Maybe the Piccolo scenario I made above has this powered up Piccolo decide to train Buu so that they could rightfully defend Earth.  These two do have some similar abilities and Buu did take over Piccolo's spot as Dragon Ball's resident demon.  Maybe his super form would look something like Super Buu.

Path 4:
Buu absorbs someone really strong.  I think this one is highly unlikely.  It's one of those "bad guy" techniques that the good guys just don't use.  Think about Piccolo's giant form, Vegeta's Oozaru, and Tien's Four Witches.  There are just certain techniques that get dropped to make a character a good guy and the absorption will be one of them, mark my words.  Besides that, it'll just be ineffective against stronger opponents.

Created by Justice 71 of Deviantart

 
Well that wraps up this exciting episode of Dragon Ball Fanboy.  Next time we'll talk about ways to power up Goten, Trunks, Krillin, and #18.

Thanks for reading this article my glorious readers!  You all have a great week ahead!

Part 2: http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-dragon-ball-fanboy-vs-akira-toriyama.html

Dragon Ball Super and Team Universe 7: Piccolo and Buu

Team U7 includes: Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Majin Buu, and Monaka while Team U6 consists of (from left to right) Hit/Heat, Cabe, Frost, Botamo, and Magetta.

Hey Dragon Ball fans!  This post is a follow-up of my last post about Piccolo's role in Dragon Ball Super.  You can find that post here http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2015/09/a-dragon-ball-fanboy-vs-akira-toriyama.html.  Anyways, continuing from there, it looks like Toriyama and the Toei crew have found some use for Piccolo in the main storyline again.  As if the image at the top wasn't enough of a spoiler, I'll preface the rest of this post my declaring there to be SPOILERS ahead.  Read at your own risk.

Now, with that out of the way, let's get started.  Those of you who've been keeping up with Dragon Ball Super's manga know that there is a multi-universal tournament about to kick off between Beerus' team of universe 7 fighters against his brother Champa's team of universe 6 fighters.  Both teams have now been shown in full.  And I'm excited to say that Piccolo has made the cut.  He is a part of team universe 7!

HYPE!

Just seeing this poster gets me hyped up and feeling like this new arc may just be something special.  It takes me back to some of my favorite arcs in DBZ when Goku, Piccolo, and Vegeta were the mainstays of the series.

The series was always at it's highest point when these three got the most screentime and development.  If Piccolo is properly utilized in this new arc then the series may find its way again. So I'm wondering what they'll do with him on the team.  Will he get to fight?  Will Buu fight?  I mean, if Goku and Vegeta are competing one would think that there will be strong fighters of their caliber on the opposing team to challenge them.  If that is the case then where does Piccolo and Buu fit into all this?  We're consistently lead to believe that Piccolo isn't much stronger than he was at the Cell games.  He's most likely still far below Buu unfortunately.  But from what we've seen with this new content, it seems that with the most intense training (like with Tagoma) that even Piccolo can potentially make some ridiculous training gains to make him a prominent fighter again.  We'll get back to this in a little bit though.

The Most Likely Scenario:

Here's what I'm afraid of. Piccolo and Buu are not really needed for the tournament.  They are simply team filler.  If we judge by previous tournaments then this is the most likely scenario.  Usually in the Dragon Ball tournaments there are about 4 top tier fighters with two of them being far above the rest, along with a handful of jobbers.  The jobbers also get some cool moments, but they are mostly there to make their opponents look powerful.  Think of Yamcha's role in the original Dragon Ball series.

In the first Tenkaichi Budokai we see in Dragon Ball the above formula applies to Goku, Krillin, and Roshi who are top tier and manage to almost effortlessly sweep through the competition.  You can add Nam as a forth there.  Goku and Roshi perform at a level far above the others here.  I've posted a photo of the tournament fighters to show who all competed, but please ignore the power levels.  These coincide with what I'm saying, but they are not official. Credit goes to kanzenshuu.com forum user Black Hawk.

Disregard the power levels here.

In the second Tenkaichi Budokai that we see the four are mostly the same with Goku, Krillin, and Roshi at the top again but they are joined by the main antagonist of the arc, Tenshinhan aka Tien.  Though the fights are portrayed as nearly even, Goku and Tien perform at a level seemingly far above the other two.  Roshi may still be at their level though, but you still see the pattern here, right?

Disregard the power levels here.

Now we go to the final Tenkaichi Budokai in Dragon Ball and we have Tien and Goku joined by newcomers Shen (Kami in a human body) and Ma Jr. (Piccolo).  Though Tien is really strong and gives Goku a great fight, he is still far outclassed by Goku, Piccolo, and most likely even Shen.  We don't really get to see too much of Kami in his fight with Piccolo so we don't exactly know how strong he is.  So we can still kind of go with Piccolo and Goku being way ahead of the rest.

Disregard the power levels here.

Now for the last tournament we pretty much have Goku and Vegeta waaaaaay ahead of everyone else and maybe Gohan and Supreme Kai or Gohan and Piccolo behind them.  Now in this new God of Destruction Tournament arc in Dragon Ball Super it's probably the same.  I would say that Goku and Vegeta are going to be quite powerful as the latest chapter of the manga has shown that they've been training for three years in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

The prevailing theory is that they may have gotten stronger than Beerus in that time.  Along with them you have Monaka the red alien at the rear of the U7 team.  Monaka was said to have been the fiercest warrior that Beerus has ever faced.  Monaka now looks quite old and my theory is that he/she has lost a lot of power, but who exactly knows at this point anyway.  Now that we have this new team based tournament style for the series we can change the numbers up a little bit from previous tournaments and include at least two more to the formula.  So with this tournament we'll have a total of six characters who are top tier, and four characters who are of the highest tier, with maybe two barely at the very top above the other two.

Predictions:

So I think it'll work like this for the Universe 6 vs. Universe 7 tournament arc: Piccolo and Buu are probably going to be complete jobbers (people who lose to show the strength of an opponent).  I don't think they're going to get a power boost at all, well not a major one anyway, well not one to compete with the big boys I should clarify.  Toriyama may subvert our expectations again and have a tournament that's not even completely about fighting.  If it is completely about fighting then two of the fighters on the Universe 6 team may have strength comparable to Buu and Piccolo.  My guess would be that the Botamo (the bear looking guy) and Meggeta (the robot) will be close enough to Buu and Piccolo to make those fights more even.  Whatever the case with the lower tier fighters, the higher tier fighters will follow the known Dragon Ball formula.  You can think of Goku and Vegeta as the top fighters in our universe, taking that top tier spot and either below or above them will be Monaka who was said to give Beerus some trouble in the past.  On the opposite side I believe the purple guy, Hit/Heat, will be top tier along with the small Saiyan, Cabe.  Joining them will be the Frieza looking guy, Frost.  So altogether I think there'll be six high tier fighters (Goku, Vegeta, Monaka, Hit, Cabe, and Frost).  Of those six, four will be above the rest or simply take precedence (Goku, Vegeta, Hit, Frost).  Monaka will probably have a gimmick to why he/she isn't as reliable as Goku and Vegeta.  My guess would be old age/laziness.  Hopefully it doesn't play out like this and Akira plans something far more creative for us.

Back to training...

So let's get back to Piccolo and Buu.  Goku handpicked them to be on the team.  His decision seemed like a more pragmatic one than anything.  He picked them in terms of strength and usefulness I think.  Buu, because he was next in line (hopefully under Gohan) and he's nearly invincible.  Piccolo, because (besides Gohan and Buu) he's the next strongest.  He also has the most fighting experience besides Goku, Vegeta, and possibly Tien.  He is also a very unique fighter with a diverse pool of useful techniques.  Goku and Vegeta are seen training in a unique dimension in Whis' staff during the Fukkatsu no 'F' arc of Dragon Ball Super in order to master their god forms.  Now they've been shown to train for three days in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber which you all know equals three years.  This is after they already learned Super Saiyan Blue.  So their level of strength at this point must be insane!

Buu and Piccolo 

Maybe they should combine.  That would mean they would be a combination of 5 or more people including 2 gods.

So what about Piccolo and Buu?  They only have 5 days to train.  Will they also train in some crazy new dimension?  My hope is that they do.  I hope they end up training with Whis, maybe together.  What's cool is that they have similar abilities when I think of it.  Magic, object materialization, regeneration (though Buu's is better), stretchy limbs (Buu's is better again), and sweet capes (Piccolo's is waaaaay better).  But I hope that they get more than simple basic training.  I hope they unlock something godly within themselves as well.  These two seem to have the best potential to be gods.  Buu because he literally absorbed the highest Kaioshin, Daikaioshin.  And Piccolo because he literally absorbed the Earth's god, Kami.  Maybe both can get new forms as well.  With the ridiculous powerups we've seen in Dragon Ball Super so far, I would have no qualms about Piccolo and Buu getting some crazy powerups to make them much closer to Goku and Vegeta's level.  We've seen Piccolo make some of the best training gains in the past before Frieza was reintroduced (and now Tagoma) so it's not too crazy here.

Before I hope for too much here, I'll end my speculations for now.  So far DBS hasn't lived up to my expectations so hopefully, this time around, Toriyama and crew do something cool that brings me back into the show and lets my imagination run with how cool his new story is, rather than ways that I could do it better.  They have introduced a very cool cast of characters into this tournament and even given Piccolo a role in it.  Time will tell if this proves to be as good as the hype it builds.

Thanks for the browse my glorious readers!

Check out my updated opinions with part 2: http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2016/02/dragon-ball-super-and-team-universe-7.html

Also my dream powerups for some of my favorite characters: http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-dragon-ball-fanboy-vs-akira-toriyama.html

A Dragon Ball Fanboy vs. Akira Toriyama part 2: Exploring Concepts and Characters More Deeply

Okay, so they say that the devil is in the details (no not Dabura, or King Piccolo or even Spike the Devilman or Mr. Satan or...sigh Broly.)  Details essentially help us understand something better and make sense of the world.  In manga and anime, these details are often vital for understanding complex powers or situations.  People often complain about the exposition in anime and manga, but for shonen anime and manga, I find such exposition to be a part of the spectacle. It's enjoyable to learn the conditions and limitations of someone's abilities and how they cleverly use those abilities versus others.  The reveal is often a huge event worthy of weeks of hype.

So, what's up with the lack of details in Dragon Ball?  If you watch any other shonen anime, you get tons of details but not DB.  I believe that has to do with Toriyama's simplistic style.  He writes his stories on the fly and when you don't work with notes and carefully laid out plans then details simply become inconvenient.  I'm not trashing his style, because it's that same style that kept me glued to my T.V. every week waiting for a new episode.  But that style does have it's flaws.

Take Yu Yu Hakusho for instance.  It's a show very similar to DBZ in terms of action, but YYH takes its time to flesh out its character motivations, powers, and even world.  Overall I find YYH more enjoyable to watch than DBZ even though I'm a bigger DBZ fanboy.  YYH has multiple types of energy or ki for it's warriors to fight with and each warrior specializes in his/her own uses for it.  It's not all beams and fisticuffs there even though there's plenty of that too.  Sub characters are also given ample spotlight thanks to distinct motivations and abilities.  All the top shonen anime/manga nowadays delve fully into concepts that they've introduced and diversify and classify powers and abilities.  It keeps those shows fresh.  Look at One Piece, Naruto, Hunter x Hunter, Fairy Tail, Law of Ueki, and even *shudders* Bleach.

What does Ki do in the Dragon Ball universe? 

After watching the brilliant explanation and applications of Nen in HxH, I find the vagueness of Ki in the Dragon Ball universe more than a little disappointing.  Being a Dragon Ball fanboy, I know what it does.  It makes you stronger if you have more of it, but at this stage I think they should have someone break down ki and its uses in Dragon Ball Super.

Okay, so as I lifelong Dragon Ball fan, I know that ki:

1. Raises your physical strength.
2. Raises your speed.
3. Raises your durability.
4. Allows you to fire beams and other ki based projectiles.
5. Allows you to fly.
6. Allows you to detect other ki signatures.
7. Allows you to feel the depth of a person's ki and positive or evil intent.
8. Improves your vision or ki sensing.
9. Allows you to mask your presence.

I only know this because I've watched every episode of mostly all the english dubs of DB and DBZ and the Japanese Dragon Ball Kai.  Coming in fresh, it's impossible to know that ki is the sole reason for all this.  I used to think that it was simply the characters doing all this because their bodies were strong, like Superman.  Even for us who've seen the show a million times, there's enough vagueness to allow us to interpret all of this how we choose.  In the show nowadays, if a person has more ki, they are simply better than everyone else.  No one specializes anymore, it's all about that vague concept of "strength" in Dragon Ball.  For instance, on Namek after Vegeta gets blasted by Krillin and gets his Zenkai boost, it's implied that he's become a great deal stronger simply because he can see Frieza's movements.  But the Zenkai boost only improved the amount of ki he could generate or did it improve his vision as well.  Did he train his senses as Krillin was blasting that huge hole in his stomach?  No, none of that is true.  The Zenkai boost simply made Vegeta strong, and if you're stronger in Dragon Ball that means you get better at almost all those categories above without any sort of specialization.

Specialization

Super can incorporate fighter stats instead of power levels similar to Xenoverse.

I think having characters specialize in certain aspects of ki application is what can balance the show again.  Instead of having ki granting more of everything, how about we have characters choose to specialize in speed or power, or ki generation, or ki manipulation?  It's probably too late for the guys at the top to be affected by this, but if there's ever a show about a new generation then they should have specializations.  Otherwise the show will simply always be about "I'm stronger than you so I win."  That will get stale after a while unless the action and fight choreography improves in DBS.  If we're watching a straight up combat show then I need the action to match up.

My take: With Super, I'd introduce specializations into the mix to add strategy to it.  Like advantages and disadvantages.  I'd classify the different fighters.  Goku and Vegeta would be balanced types but you'd have others who specialized in beam attacks, others ball attacks, others fist fighting, others defensive fighting, power, speed, etc.  Certain types would be better at fighting other types.  Even balanced types like Goku and Vegeta would have specialties like Goku's beams or Vegeta's ball or kick attacks.  It would be the same fights DB is known for, but with an added strategic edge.

Kaioken

We need a definite reason for why the humans and Piccolo didn't learn this or we need to know if they did learn it at some point.  I mean, crap, why wouldn't they?  Same goes for the other techniques like instant transmission.  I know we want to keep everyone original, especially Goku, but why wouldn't these career martial artists seek out these powers?  IT I understand, but Kaioken was right at their fingertips.  Kaioken does nothing at this point of the show anyhow (unless you can raise it's level something crazy)

My take: Just give it to the humans.  After hearing of Frieza's imminent return, the Z humans return to Kaio-sama to gain techniques to stave off this pending invasion.  After a quick day long cram session they master the technique, showing that they are still capable fighters despite being so weak in comparison to current threats.  There's really no need to continue shitting on these characters.  Show them being useful and smart for once.  Afterwards have Piccolo train on Namek to learn some ancient Namekian powerup similar to Kaio-ken, but with fewer drawbacks.  Bam, now he and the humans are somewhat relevant again.  All Gohan has to do to keep his relevance is some pushups then he's back at his Buu Saga level which is damn impressive.

The Mystic Powerup

Just what the hell is it?  And why does Gohan keep losing it so often?  What is it in comparison to the god ki?  Can other people have this power drawn out of them?  Does the power have some divine nature to it.  Or is it just a pointless, ineffective plot device?

The Three Eyed Clan

Can we just put this one to rest?  Toei and Toriyama can let us know if they exist in canon or they can make a throwaway joke about it letting the fandom know that they never existed and Tien's power comes from his crazy genius potential for creating new techniques.  Tien has always been very interesting and his potential seemed to be on par with Goku's at the beginning.  What a shame that he suffered such character decay and with so many mysteries about him unanswered.

Dabura's Demon Realm

I would say more about this, but it appears that Xenoverse and (probably to a greater degree) Dragon Ball Online has made mention of and used characters from the demon realm.  Dragon Ball Online is canon as far as I know.  I'll just say that there's infinite potential to be explored here especially if some demons as strong as Dabura, if not stronger, reside here.  It'd be a great test for the non-saiyan Z-fighters.  Hell, even Gohan could possibly find a challenge here, or maybe a new cool ally for Goku and Vegeta or a demonic rival vying to be the Demon God of Destruction.  Ooh, maybe Piccolo trains here, the Makaioshin are direct rivals to the gods (Kais/Kaioshin) after all.

Those are just a few of the questions plaguing the minds of DB fans.  DB is strangely one of those shows with the largest amount of fan theories and speculation.  While this is fun to some degree, it's also painful because many of these curiosities can be easily put to rest with simple explanations.  The frustrating part in all this is when stuff like this is disregarded, thrown away, or simply forgotten about and no explanation was given to why it existed or its applications.  Kaioken, for instance, could've stuck around for a while thanks to its utility for characters without transformations.  It especially fit Tien, a character who already fights with heavy strain life or death techniques.  And considering that he trained with Kaio-sama longer than anyone else, it just doesn't make much sense for him not to know the technique.

Then there's stuff like why did Vegeta never go SSJ3, why his rage power boost as a SSJ2 put him over SSJ3 Goku against Beerus, this new Namekian Book of Legends, what happens to the Nameks absorbed by Piccolo.  There's also curious stuff that has no chance of getting mentioned in Super, like why was Piccolo able to make such crazy gains in the Frieza and Android arcs, but seemingly hit a ceiling in the Cell arc and beyond?  To their credit, Toei and Toriyama did at least go into why Vegeta has been inferior to Goku for so long.  That's important to know as a DBZ fan.  So I hope they continue this and start taking a magnifying glass to other parts of the show that could be easily expanded upon to the show of many lifelong fans.

If you guys have more of these, let me know so I can comment on them in the future.  So let's now move on.


Next post will be about the new transformations and the usefulness and cool factor of them all especially the new ones.  Til next time, peace!