DragonBallDiscussions

     In honour of Father’s Day, I thought I’d try to tackle one of the biggest criticisms that people have regarding Goku: the idea that he isn’t a good father. First, let’s start by saying that I obviously think that Goku actually is a good father which you probably already figured out by reading the title. I think that a lot of the jokes regarding Goku’s parenting style were definitely started by Dragon Ball Abridged (which I am a fan of; I’m not criticizing it at all) and a lot of these jokes revolve around Goku not being around for his children but Goku actually was a pretty caring father for Gohan if you look at it. So let’s look at it.      In regards to Gohan, Goku was around for a lot of Gohan’s life at the beginning. Goku spent the first four years of Gohan’s life with him, and, even though Goku probably spent a lot of that time training, you could tell that he treated Gohan well since Gohan was very clingy with Goku in the first episode of Dragon Ball Z. Now, in the events that followed, Raditz arrived and Goku ended up dying which made him miss almost one year of Gohan’s life. In addition, this time was spent by Piccolo raising Gohan which led to the “Piccolo is a better father than Goku” jokes. But you can’t really blame Goku for not being around can you? Anyway, time passes and Goku comes back to Earth only to be terribly injured in his fight against Vegeta which leads to Gohan going to Namek which means that the two spend even more time apart. Even when Goku gets to Namek, they barely spend any time together and then Goku ends up being caught up in the explosion of Namek and disappearing for another year before returning to Earth again! Now, this all seems like Goku wasn’t around for Gohan (especially since it was Goku’s choice to remain in space for almost a year...) but trust me, Goku is a good father because of what happens next. Trunks delivers his prophecy regarding the Androids coming in three years. This forces all of the fighters to train for three years to prepare. Goku spends those three years training with Piccolo and Gohan which means that he definitely spent time with Gohan (even though most of the time was spent training). If that isn’t enough for you then here comes the main point. After realizing that they’re not strong enough, Goku decides to take Vegeta, Trunks, and Gohan to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to train. Here, Goku spends an entire year alone with his son! And, as we see from various scenes the two of them clearly spend a lot of time having fun rather than just training which means that this was some quality father-son time for them. Unfortunately after this, Goku ends up dying again in order to save everyone from Cell (it was really Gohan’s fault anyway...) and ends up missing approximately seven years of Gohan’s life but after that he comes back at which point they can spend all the time that they want together. So Goku was a pretty good father to Gohan and spent a lot of time with him.

     Now, for Goten. Goku obviously missed the birth of his second son and the first few years of his life but after he came back there is evidence that he spent time with him. At the end of Dragon Ball Z, you can see that Goku is training with a teenage Goten which means that he probably spent the years leading up to that point training with him. In addition, you could tell that when Goku first met Goten that he instantly cared for his son so he definitely knows what it takes to be a good father as the two effortlessly share a few laughs.      Well, that’s my post for today. I hope that you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!

     One of the biggest complaints that I hear about Dragon Ball is that it became all about the Saiyans. I can’t really argue with that and it really isn’t a bad thing. When Goku first became a Super Saiyan, this pretty much triggered the Saiyan takeover so to speak. Other characters definitely had their moments but after this point Goku, Vegeta, and the other Saiyans were front and center. That’s exactly why I made this post. I present to you my top 3 fights in Dragon Ball Z involving only non-Saiyan characters. There are no Saiyans involved in any of the fights that I will list. I also limited the list to Dragon Ball Z because if I included Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Super then the list would be hard to refine to my top 3. Here we go!

*You’ll notice that I don’t include moments like Tien’s Tri-Beam attacks against Semi-perfect Cell. Despite that scene being one of my favourites, I don’t count it as a ‘fight’ between the two of them. It was more like a momentary beatdown of Cell by Tien.*

Honourable Mentions:

     First, I just want to mention some fights that didn’t make my top three but were definitely some of my favourite.

Yamcha vs. The Saibaman: Even though this fight doesn’t end well for Yamcha, it will always be one of the best fights in all of Dragon Ball for me and definitely an integral moment. The choreography and animation of the fight itself were both amazing but I also like the little part where Piccolo uses this fight to teach Gohan how to see high-speed fights because it was kind of like he was teaching the audience to do the same. The fight ends pretty quickly and we all know what end result is but I still really like this fight.

Piccolo vs. Frieza: The reason that I mention this fight here is because it almost made my top 3. This fight was great because of the action but also for the underlying tones. This fight was kind of a poetic justice type of thing with Piccolo, a Namekian, fused with Nail, another Namekian, beating up Frieza who had caused nothing but damage to the Namekian people. Again, the animation and choreography of this fight was great and it seemed like Piccolo was just getting started before Frieza transformed and ruined it.

TOP 3:

#3. Nail vs. Frieza      Despite seeing Nail completely dominated here, this fight was great. It’s in my top 3 because Nail was the strongest warrior class Namekian on Planet Namek at the time and I really liked seeing him fight since we didn’t really see a lot of warrior Namekians other than the ones that fought Dodoria. Nail knew that he was done for before the fight started but he needed to stall for time which gives this fight some meaning. It also opened the door for him to fuse with Piccolo which kind of allowed him to get some revenge on Frieza later. This fight is also on top of my list because it’s simply something different. Frieza was a major villain but Nail was not a major character. He was a minor character who decided to take on the biggest villain in the series so far. Usually when something like that happens, the fight is over in seconds but Nail had an extended fight which makes this fight that much better.

#2. Android 16 vs. Cell      Making this fight #2 was a tough decision because it easily could be #1. This fight was awesome on multiple levels. The obvious reason that this fight is one of my all-time favourites is because this is the fight where we actually see Android 16 do something! I remember when I was a kid first watching Dragon Ball Z I kept waiting for Android 16 to do something. He had this gentle giant type persona but you knew that he was hiding something. What was he hiding? The fact that he was stronger than both Android 17 and 18. Out of nowhere, 16 punches Cell to save 17 and fearlessly engages in battle as if he already calculated that he would be fine. He even manages to outsmart Cell when Cell attempts to shut him down and later rips off his tail. But this fight wasn’t just great because of Android 16. This fight was also a chance for Cell to fully exert his power and show what he could do. That part where he powers up and has that gold, lightning-ish aura around him before attacking 16 is awesome. It looks like he’s stronger but then 16 launches a rocket arm at him. Epic. Simply epic. The big thing that makes this fight awesome is Android 16′s signature attack: Hell’s Flash (a.k.a. Blasters Fire!). Like I said before, this fight could easily have been #1 on this list, if not for my real #1.

And now, my #1 Non-Saiyan fight in Dragon Ball Z: #1. Piccolo vs. Android 17      This fight was the best non-Saiyan fight in Dragon Ball Z for me. We had already seen Piccolo try out his new power earlier against Cell but this was the first time that he used his full power. The moment that he powers up and his aura turns blue was awesome. It was like he was on fire. Honestly, this fight had a lot of great elements other than showcasing Piccolo. The initial combat sequence was great but then out of nowhere Piccolo pulls off a brilliant plan which places 17 in a minefield of energy spheres a.k.a. the Hellzone Grenade. It seems like Piccolo is going to win but 17 survives using an energy shield. This is where the fight really ramps up. At this point it seems like both Piccolo and 17 just lay everything on the line and unleash their full power. The fight seems even in terms of power and it is clear that the two fighters respect each other. Unfortunately, the fun ends when a certain green monster shows up. Nevertheless, this fight was legendary.

     That’s my post for today. Do you guys agree with my list? What would you change or add to this list? Feel free to let me know. Thanks for reading!

     ***THIS POST IS A LONG ONE BUT ONE OF MY BEST. I HOPE THAT YOU GUYS ARE UP FOR IT!***      Among everything that has occurred in the Dragon Ball universe, nothing compares to the impact that the Super Saiyan transformation has had on the series. The Super Saiyan transformation is a technique exclusive to Saiyans (and also Cell I guess...). The user generates an immense amount of energy, their muscles may grow, their eyes turn green, and their hair becomes blonde. Among these physical changes, the user is granted an exponential boost in power; a multiple applied to their base power. But how much of a boost does it actually give?

     To analyze this I’m going to use Goku as an example. He is pretty much the only viable example since he was the only one actually in battle during his transformation. Therefore we can use his opponent (Frieza) as a measuring stick. I understand that Goten was also in a ‘fight’ during his first transformation but it’s much harder to make calculations using Chi Chi as a standard. The same goes for Gohan since we don’t know what Goku’s power level was at the time or how much he was holding back.

     Goku’s fight with Frieza on Namek is perfect for calculating the Super Saiyan boost. Prior to becoming a Super Saiyan, Goku had gone toe-to-toe with Frieza who said that he was only using about 50% of his power. Goku was struggling (that’s the nice way to say it) at this point. After unleashing all of his power with a 20x Kamehameha, Goku was able to briefly overpower Frieza and deal some damage. Here, we have our first bit of actual data. Goku put everything he had into his attack with a 20x Kamehameha. The Kaioken directly boosts base power just like being a Super Saiyan does but also gives us a number: 20. So at this point, Goku had a boost of 20 times his base power and just barely damaged a 50% power Frieza. In other words, Goku at 100% power just barely reached Frieza who was at 50%. Of course, we’re dealing with raw power for these calculations since Goku wasn’t able to sustain his 20x Kaioken form at this point. This means that Goku may have been a touch weaker than Frieza’s 50% form. Let’s continue.      As the fight progressed, Goku transformed and was easily able to overpower Frieza who was still at 50% at this time. So we can say that the transformation boosted his power over Frieza’s but there is no concrete data to give us a number yet at this point. Luckily for us, Goku urges Frieza to use 100% of his power so that they could see who was strongest. At first, Goku gets dominated but as the fight continues we see him beginning to understand how his new power works. Goku easily overpowers Frieza to a degree where the fight isn’t even fun for him anymore and he tries to leave. Frieza launches his Kienzan, Goku causes Frieza to slice himself in half, Goku gives Frieza some energy out of pity, Frieza betrays him, and Goku blasts Frieza to oblivion. Anyway, we now have sufficient data to make a calculation. Stay with me here.

     Before transforming, Goku multiplied his base power by 20 using the Kaioken to barely damage Frieza who was at 50%. Immediately after transforming, Goku overpowered Frieza (still at 50%) but keep in mind that he wasn’t using the Kaioken at this point. This means that his transformation gave him the boost of 20x plus some extra power to beat Frieza. Fast-forward now to the end of the fight. Frieza was undoubtedly at 100% and Goku was stronger than him. Not just stronger, but much stronger. So, comparing Goku’s 20x Kamehameha power to his power by the end of the fight, this means that Goku went from being just barely strong enough to damage 50% Frieza to completely dominating a 100% Frieza through the transformation alone. Let’s assign some numbers to that. According to this data, just to be as strong as Frieza at 100%, Goku would need to boost his base power level by 40x since 20x barely reached 50% Frieza. But as we know, Goku was much stronger than 100% Frieza. This means that the boost had to be more than 40x. In fact, we can’t even say that Goku himself was at 100%. He could easily have been holding back to make the fight more entertaining for himself since he knew that Frieza wasn’t strong enough. This means that his Super Saiyan transformation gave him a potential boost of 50x his base power level! That’s crazy.

     Even though measuring power levels pretty much became useless after Namek, if anybody wants a more concrete number, here’s the best I can do based on data: Frieza stated at one point that he had a power level of 1,000,000. Whether or not he was lying, we’ll use that as a reference. That would put Goku at a power level of at least 50,000,000 after transforming. It was probably much higher.

     Now remember: Becoming a Super Saiyan is different for each Saiyan. There is no single power level that guarantees that a Saiyan will become a Super Saiyan. The power comes in response to a need, not a desire. This means that the threshold is different for everyone and also the effect is different. If a Saiyan has a base power level of 5, then their new power level will be 250. If their base power is 5,000 then their new power is 250,000. I feel I need to add that in there because a lot of people say things like Goten and Kid Trunks were stronger than Frieza when they first transformed which simply isn’t the case.

     ***Bonus fact: Akira Toriyama himself has stated that the initial Super Saiyan form (Super Saiyan 1) actually has the potential to be the strongest form. Becoming a Super Saiyan encompasses all the other forms (i.e. Super Saiyan 2, 3, etc. are all modified forms of Super Saiyan 1). So it is possible as a Super Saiyan 1, through training, to surpass the modified forms. Of course, this would be quite difficult and this statement was made prior to Dragon Ball Super to my understanding so who knows.***      That’s my post for today. I hope you all you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!

     After Majin Buu had defeated Vegeta, the Supreme Kai decided that Gohan was the last hope for defeating Buu. In order for Gohan to defeat Buu, the Supreme Kai planned for Gohan to free the Z Sword from a mountain in the Sacred World of the Kais. The Z Sword is a mystical sword with a basic blade and hilt design that was trapped in a mountain, similarly to the story of Excalibur. No one had been able to free the blade from the mountain up until that point. At first, Gohan was unable to free the Z Sword from the mountain, which pleased the cynical Kibito. After transforming into a Super Saiyan 2, Gohan struggled but was eventually able to free the Z Sword from the mountain. Gohan soon figured out that the Z Sword weighed quite a bit, but after training with it for some time he became noticeably stronger. Soon after, Goku arrived and caused some trouble as Goku usually does. He decided to test the Z Sword using a giant boulder which Gohan easily cut through. The Supreme Kai then materialized a large block of Katchin, one of the hardest metals in the universe. As Goku launched the block at Gohan, Gohan attempted to slice through it and the Z Sword was snapped in half instantly. This was only a momentary problem since, as we all know, the Old Kai was trapped inside the Z Sword and later performed the ritual that allowed Gohan to gain an extreme amount of power and become Mystic Gohan. But was Gohan the only one who could have lifted the Z Sword from the mountain?

     I made the comparison to Excalibur earlier in this post but I don’t think the Z Sword is exactly like it. With Excalibur, there was only one specific person who was able to lift it due to the spell placed on the sword. I believe the Z Sword doesn’t work this way. Gohan was unable to make the sword move even a little bit in his base form but once he transformed he was able to pull it out. If the Z Sword was specific to Gohan, it wouldn’t matter what form he was in. This makes me think that the person attempting to pull the sword out just needs to be strong enough to do it. No one was able to pull the sword out up until that point because they simply weren’t strong enough. After the sword is freed, Kibito is unable to lift the sword at all. When Goku attempts to lift it, he struggles at first but later swings it with relative ease. This makes me think that Goku also could have pulled the sword from the mountain if he tried to. The only thing that I’m not too sure about is the mountain itself. It seems like if anyone wanted to free the sword before, they could have just blasted the mountain to pieces leaving the sword available. This makes me think that the mountain must have been made indestructible by some spell. Either way, I really do think that anyone could have lifted the Z Sword just by being strong enough. What do you think?

     That’s my post for today. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to send me some questions that you want me to answer if you want (please no questions regarding Dragon Ball Super to avoid spoilers for anyone). Thanks for reading!

     During his battle with Gohan, Cell had become intrigued by Gohan’s prophecy of a hidden power. In an attempt to push Gohan to reveal this power, he created a squad of seven warriors to attack the others called the Cell Juniors. The Cell Juniors are a group of Cell’s children essentially. In terms of appearance, they are shorter versions of Cell’s perfect form except they lack his stinger-tail and are blue instead of green. They have very child-like personalities but possess every technique that Cell does (which is basically every technique) which makes them deadly. There are subtle differences between them and Cell, however. For instance, they seem far less durable than Cell is since Gohan was able to completely destroy most of them with a single kick or punch.

     Their power level compared to Cell also seems questionable. Cell himself states that each of the Cell Juniors are as strong as he is but simple logic would make this impossible. For one thing, they clearly follow his orders. He is able to command them to attack the other fighters and they listen to him without question. If they were stronger than him or just as strong as him, there would be no reason for them to listen to him, especially since they’re kids. Secondly, it wouldn’t make much sense on Cell’s part to create seven versions of himself. Had they been as strong as him, they could easily overpower him in some sort of mutiny. With that being said, this doesn’t mean that they weren’t strong.

     When the fight began, everyone started off cautiously against the Cell Juniors. Soon after, the pace picked up. After seeing an exhausted Goku being attacked, Piccolo springs into action and momentarily defeats his Cell Junior as well as Tien and Yamcha’s. This allows both Tien and Yamcha to jump in and protect Goku. At this point, things seemed okay but, of course, things took a turn for the worst. The only two fighters that seemed to stand a chance against the Cell Juniors were Vegeta and Trunks. For the two of them, their fights started off relatively even but again soon wavered as the Cell Juniors continued their assault. Vegeta’s Final Flash was even stopped with ease by one of the Cell Juniors. By the end of it, everyone was down for the count. The Cell Juniors were simply too much. That is, of course, until Android 16 convinced Gohan to transform at which point Gohan proceeded to decimate the entire Cell Junior team.

     Something I wish we could’ve seen was Goku at full power fighting a Cell Junior. That would have been the best way to measure their power. The Cell Juniors were clearly stronger than both Vegeta and Trunks but Goku was also clearly stronger than Vegeta and Trunks. It would be interesting to see if Goku at full power would still be outmatched by a Cell Junior or if he would make quick work of them just like Gohan did. Unfortunately, Goku was still exhausted from his fight since he gave his Senzu Bean to Cell instead of eating it himself so we’ll never really know.

     In terms of villains, the Cell Juniors were a pretty cool twist in the story. They did serve a purpose since they pushed Gohan to transform and I also like that they allowed other fighters like Piccolo, Tien, and Yamcha to get in on the action and land some decent shots.

     That’s my post for today. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to send me some questions that you would like me to answer if you want (questions without Dragon Ball Super spoilers please; pretty much just nothing Dragon Ball Super related please). Thanks for reading!

     Today I’m going to discuss one of my favourite fights from Dragon Ball Z that I never really hear anybody talk about: Majin Buu (a.k.a. Fat Buu) vs. Kid Buu. This fight is one of my favourites because it perfectly demonstrates how resilient of an enemy Buu is (when I say Buu, I mean all incarnations of Buu throughout the series). If you want to read a post I made that goes a bit deeper into that subject then you can read the post I made right before this one regarding a fight between Kid Buu and Vegito. To quickly summarize that post, I talked about how Buu isn’t dangerous because of the raw power he possesses. Despite having a high fighting power and innate fighting ability, what makes him dangerous is the fact that his exceptional regeneration capabilities make him practically invulnerable. This allows him to stall his opponent to a level of sheer exhaustion at which point he can then win the fight. The fight being discussed today perfectly demonstrates that concept so let’s get on to the discussion.

     This fight took place near the end of the Buu saga (and I guess near the end of Dragon Ball Z). Kid Buu was on a rampage and was knocking down everything in his path. Both Goku and Vegeta were exhausted and had sustained quite a bit of damage. It was at this point that Hercule (Mr. Satan) ‘joined’ the battle and Majin Buu came to his rescue. The fight started out okay for Majin Buu as it seemed like he was getting in decent hits while taking a few himself. Throughout the fight, however, it was clear that Kid Buu had the advantage and Majin Buu started sustaining more and more damage. My favourite part of the fight is where Majin Buu splits into four copies of himself and just starts pummeling Kid Buu. Despite being outmatched he still managed to pull off something like that. This is where things get crazy. There actually is a point where Majin Buu just simply runs out of energy. He tries firing energy blasts at Kid Buu and nothing happens. The fight was pretty much over after that.

     This is what I’m trying to talk about when I say resilience. Since both fighters are Buus, it means that their abilities are working against each other. That is to say, that the resiliency that helps them survive is now exhausting them. It’s like they’re fighting a mirror. So now, we can subtract resiliency from the equation and it simply becomes a fight where the winner is the one who has more energy and power. It’s like if Kid Buu and Majin Buu were both the exact same car with the same enhancements, engine, etc. but Kid Buu has a little more fuel in his tank, if that makes sense. This means that his car will be able to keep going even after Majin Buu’s car stops. Keep in mind here that Kid Buu had been fighting Goku and Vegeta up until this point and still had energy to spare while Majin Buu had basically been sleeping the whole time. Since I didn’t mention it before I should probably state that Kid Buu obviously won this fight.

     Anyway that’s my post for today. Hope you guys liked it. Feel free to send me any Dragon Ball related questions that you want me to take a crack at (but please do not ask anything Dragon Ball Super related since I don’t want anything to be inadvertently spoiled for anyone including myself). Thanks for reading!

     “Could Vegito beat Kid Buu?” On the surface, this seems like a simple question. A lot of you may already think you know what this post is going to be about. A lot of you are probably thinking ‘YES obviously. Why would you ask such a simple question?’ But here’s the thing: my answer to this question is ‘no’. Here’s why.

     Just to refresh your memory, Vegito is the Potara earring fusion product of Goku and Vegeta. The only time we see him is during the fight against Buu after Buu absorbed Gohan. During this battle, Vegito embarrassed Buu by toying with him without breaking a sweat. In other words, he’s really strong. Do I think that Vegito is stronger than Kid Buu? Yes. Do I think that he can beat Kid Buu? No. Being stronger than someone and beating them are two entirely different things. If both Buu and Vegito were to fight, the battle would initially be lopsided in Vegito’s favour with Vegito easily overpowering Kid Buu. However, the problem arises when the battle is prolonged. The problem with Buu is that he is extremely resilient. You just can’t take him down easily. This can be seen in multiple battles involving Buu, some of which I’ll mention now.

     Battle 1: Majin Vegeta vs. Majin Buu (the first Buu we see on screen). When Vegeta first began this battle, he was at maximum power since he ate a Senzu Bean moments before. It was clear to see that Vegeta was overpowering Buu to start but the tide turned after a while. Again, the problems arise after enough time passes. Buu regenerated every wound and bounced back after every hit. Eventually, this took a toll on Vegeta and he started taking hits instead of dealing them. Even after Vegeta sacrificed himself, Buu came back without being phased.

     Battle 2: Gotenks vs. Super Buu. This fight wasn’t dominated by Gotenks but throughout their entire battle Gotenks dealt severe damage to Super Buu. Whether in his base form, Super Saiyan form, or Super Saiyan 3 form, Gotenks had moments where he did dominate the fight and dealt huge amounts of damage (for example: with his Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack). The damage simply increased after he transformed to Super Saiyan 3. Still, Buu regenerated each time and eventually outlasted Gotenks who had run out of energy.

     Let’s skip ahead a bit.

     Battle 3: Goku vs. Kid Buu. This fight was a marathon for good reason. However, Buu still outlasted Goku who put up a good fight. Was Goku stronger than Kid Buu? I’m not going to get into that right now but I do have an opinion on that. Either way, the theme repeated itself with Buu simply seeming invulnerable to everything. Everything except for a Spirit Bomb which is the key to this post.

     The way that Goku and Vegeta were able to beat Kid Buu wasn’t to fuse together but rather to have Vegeta (and the fat Buu) stall Buu long enough for Goku to charge the Spirit Bomb. This is why I think that Vegito can’t beat Buu. Sure he can beat up Buu easily but eventually Buu will keep coming back for more. Vegito will end up exhausting his energy and Buu will retaliate. Vegito probably knows how to use the Spirit Bomb since Goku is a part of him but he wouldn’t have the ability to charge it without anyone to stall. The other Majin Buu (the fat version) was at the battle but during the actual battle he wasn’t able to outlast Kid Buu. It’s actually a really underrated battle (Kid Buu vs. the fat Buu I mean). Both of them have the same resiliency since they’re both Buus so the battle comes down to strength essentially. I think I’ll make a post about that in the future. Anyway, in the actual episode Goku wasn’t done charging the Spirit Bomb yet after fat Buu lost so Vegeta had to step in. The time it takes to charge the attack depends on the energy sent to the user, not the user’s power which means that we can assume Vegito would need the same amount of time to charge the same level of Spirit Bomb. This means that no one would be able to stall for him and Buu would end up attacking him before he finished it. This would lead to Buu defeating Vegito after Vegito exhausted his energy. 

     Some of you may be thinking that Vegito should be able to use another technique that would be strong enough to completely disintegrate Buu. I personally doubt this. The Spirit Bomb is regarded as the strongest attack in the Dragon Ball universe with good reason. Obviously, we don’t know which attacks Vegito would be able to come up with but I would think that you would need something almost as strong, if not as strong, as the Spirit Bomb to finish off a villain who is practically invulnerable to everything. Well that’s my post for today. The stronger fighter doesn’t always win the fight. Thanks for reading!

     The Kaio-ken is a powerful technique used most notably by Goku (in fact, it is ONLY used by Goku). It allows the user to multiply their own power level in order to gain substantial boosts to their speed and strength. As a cost, it deals a great amount of strain to the user’s body so this technique should only be used for a short period of time. Even though this technique is only seen being used by Goku, the technique was taught to him by King Kai while training on his planet. In addition to this, King Kai also taught Goku to use the Spirit Bomb (Genki Dama) but I won’t discuss that much here. It should be reasonable to assume that anyone who was able to reach King Kai’s planet (before it got destroyed...) should have also been taught these techniques. Yamcha, Tien, Piccolo, and Chiaotzu all reached King Kai’s planet after dying and, although they did receive training, none of them learned either of these techniques. Why? I’ve got a couple speculations.

     King Kai himself had stated that he couldn’t handle the Kaio-ken. Despite developing the technique, he was never able to master it and so never used it himself (it would be cool to see him use it though). So, King Kai merely kept this technique in reserve...until Goku came along. As we see later during the Other World Tournament Arc, Goku was unlike any other fighter that King Kai had seen before. Even so, King Kai didn’t immediately teach Goku any techniques. It was only after Goku had completed his tasks against Bubbles and Gregory that King Kai even considered teaching Goku anything. Considering what we discussed earlier, it’s not surprising that King Kai was reluctant to teach Goku the Kaio-ken. In exchange for a significant boost in power, the user’s body suffers a great deal of exhaustion which is why Goku’s body began failing him during his fight against Vegeta. Either way, King Kai clearly believed Goku could handle it and taught him the technique. Despite trusting Goku with the technique, King Kai put a restriction on it telling Goku that he couldn’t take it past a Kaio-ken x2 (but we all know that Goku was forced to use a Kaio-ken x4 against Vegeta).

     With all that being said, why didn’t King Kai teach the technique to the others? I have two reasons for this. Reason one (not a great reason): Goku is a Saiyan and an experienced fighter. King Kai was already pretty knowledgeable on the Saiyan race since they resided in his quadrant. He probably knew that Goku was able to physically handle the Kaio-ken simply because Saiyans were good at recovering after taking damage. In addition to that, Goku was basically a fighter for his entire life at that point and had nearly died multiple times including having a hole blasted through his chest by Piccolo (I’m talking about the time during the World Tournament and not the time that actually killed him). In other words, he knows how to handle damage to his body. Now, Tien, Chiaotzu, and Yamcha are all human. No offence to humans, but I am a human and I know that we can’t handle the kind of stress given by this technique (even fictional humans couldn’t handle it). Piccolo on the other hand is Namekian and should have been okay using this technique so this reason doesn’t really work for him. My second reason is the one I really believe in though. Reason two (a better reason): to put it bluntly, the technique is dangerous. King Kai watched Goku’s entire battle against Vegeta and showed sincere concern when Goku took the Kaio-ken to level 4. As a result, Goku was barely able to stand after blasting Vegeta into the sky with his Kamehameha. After seeing this, it’s possible that King Kai made the decision right there never to teach the technique to another fighter because he didn’t want to be responsible for causing them that kind of damage. It was already known how dangerous this technique was and it was never intended to be used for extended periods of time; it was meant as a finishing move to end a battle. It’s interesting to note that during his battle with Frieza, before Goku started charging the Spirit Bomb it was seen that he basically had the Kaio-ken going non-stop during the entire battle just to try and keep up with Frieza. I don’t know what Goku is made of but that’s insane. If I were to pick one of the humans to teach the Kaio-ken to I would pick Tien. I think it would be cool to see Krilin use the technique too but there was never an opportunity for him to learn it. Just a bit of trivia that I picked up from the Dragon Ball Wikia page: in a couple video games both Krillin and Yamcha are able to use the Kaio-ken which is pretty cool.

     Anyway, that’s my post for today. It’s no secret that this has been my first post in a long while (a year I think). I did notice however that people are continuing to follow me and like my posts and that those who were here since the beginning are still present. To those people, and people who will follow in the future I would like to say thank you. I’m not going to say that I’m going to be back posting daily because I simply can’t promise that. I will, however, post every now and then whenever I get time because I originally started this blog just for fun so I’ll continue to blog just for fun. As for a schedule, it’s simply whenever I get time. That may be a couple times a week or a couple times a month. Either way, I’m ‘back’. One rule that I will follow is that I will not be posting anything regarding Dragon Ball Super as of yet. My reasoning for this is that I don’t want to post spoilers for anyone by accident. I know that most people are not caught up on all the episodes - including myself; I’m a few episodes behind - so I don’t want to spoil anything because I do like the new series and I wouldn’t want anything spoiled so I won’t risk inadvertently spoiling anything for you guys. I also unfortunately won’t be answering any messages/questions like I used to. This is just because there may be a time where someone asks a question but I don’t post for a while so I don’t want to seem like I’m ignoring that person’s question. Anyway, stay tuned for more posts. Thanks for reading!

     Here’s post number 2 in my 2 part post where I speculate the consequences of Krillin killing Vegeta. There are actually two points in the series where Krillin had a chance to kill Vegeta. In part 1, I discussed what would happen if Krillin killed Vegeta as he was fleeing Earth (if you haven’t read that post, feel free to check out the post right before this one). In this post, I’m going to discuss the second time in the series where Krillin could have potentially killed Vegeta. Without further ado, here we go.

     After engaging in battle with Frieza, the team of Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin, and Gohan had hit a wall against Frieza’s power. Both Krillin and Piccolo had been greatly wounded as a result during the battle and were healed by Dende. This gave Vegeta an idea. He aimed to abuse the Saiyan ability of the Zenkai boost (the ability that gives Saiyans an automatic power boost after surviving near-death injuries) by asking (or rather, forcing) Krillin to injure him. Krillin fires an energy blast straight through Vegeta and he’s left greatly wounded. His plan works and he is healed by Dende. Although he gains the power boost, he is still no match for Frieza and is beaten with ease. But, what if Vegeta was killed by Krillin’s attack? Perhaps he would have been killed solely by Krillin’s energy blast or perhaps Dende wasn’t able to heal him in time or refused to heal him. Either way we’ll assume Vegeta died. Needless to say, the team wouldn’t be able to stand against Frieza on their own. They may be able to rely on a short burst of power from Gohan again but he had just exhausted a lot of power retaliating against Frieza’s third form so he may not be an option. Their best bet is to stall for time until Goku comes back and then the story can proceed as it was supposed to (since Vegeta died when Goku showed up anyway). Goku would defeat Frieza and be ‘stranded’ on Namek just like in the original story. Here’s where the changes happen.

     Since Vegeta presumably died here, that means that Trunks wouldn’t be born in the future to come stop Frieza in the past. That doesn’t matter, however, because, as he did in Trunks’ future timeline, Goku would take care of Frieza with ease anyway. The trouble starts a few months down the line where Goku is attacked by the heart virus. Not only will Trunks not be able to warn Goku about the virus and give him the medicine but he also won’t be able to warn anyone about the Androids (most likely 17 and 18 instead of 19 and 20) leaving the remaining fighters essentially dead. Gohan may or may not survive again but it doesn’t matter at this point since we all know what happened to Future Gohan against the Androids. The Androids would wreak havoc on the planet until Cell came and absorbed them leaving Cell to essentially rule the universe in this scenario...that is until the possible appearance of Buu (assuming Cell doesn’t just blow up the planet before then) in which case Buu would rule the universe. Thanks for reading!

***EDIT: I realized that I made a mistake on this and I’m posting it as an edit to admit my fault. During their battle with Frieza, after Frieza’s final transformation there was a point where he was firing energy beams at the fighters and killed Dende. He also fired a beam at Gohan but Vegeta intervened at the last minute to save Gohan. Right there is another key point. If Vegeta had died before that point then Gohan would have died which monumentally changes the complexion of the series. Goku would show up to see that his son was dead and may transform right there. He may not even transform at all.***

     Yup, you read the title correctly. This entry is actually part 1 of a 2 part post that I’m planning to do about this topic because there are actually two points in the Dragon Ball Z storyline where Krillin had a chance to kill Vegeta. Let’s start with the first one for this post.

     After being completely overwhelmed by the combined efforts of Goku, Gohan, Krillin, and Yajirobe, Vegeta was left inches from death and crawling towards his spaceship in an attempt to escape. Just as he was about to enter his ship, Krillin appeared behind him with Yajirobe’s sword ready to strike. He was stopped by Goku’s plea to spare Vegeta and not sink to the Saiyans’ level and with that Vegeta was allowed to leave the planet alive. But what if Krillin ignored Goku’s wish and killed Vegeta anyway?

     Needless to say, Vegeta proved to be a valuable ally on Namek. It wasn’t as if both parties planned to meet on Namek so the absence of Vegeta would still leave Krillin, Gohan, and Bulma on Namek as originally planned. Goku would also still be on his way. The problem first starts with Frieza’s right hand men: Dodoria and Zarbon. In the original storyline, Vegeta took care of both of them while becoming stronger in the process. However, without Vegeta I doubt Krillin or Gohan would be able to stop Dodoria or Zarbon if they had come in contact with them. The same could be said even if they received the power boost from Guru. So as early as that, Krillin killing Vegeta would lead to their own deaths. Assuming that they were able to defeat both Dodoria and Zarbon, this would still leave them with another problem: the Dragon Balls. Originally, Vegeta had found himself on Frieza’s ship after being healed and managed to steal all of the Dragon Balls that Frieza had found up to that point. It would be interesting to see if Gohan and Krillin could pull off that kind of heist but I doubt Frieza would allow that to happen easily. If they were to succeed, this would trigger Frieza to summon the Ginyu Force. Without a doubt, Krillin and Gohan would team up to fight Guldo again and this would lead to their deaths. Vegeta was the one who saved both Gohan and Krillin from dying against Guldo’s abilities and without him they would have been helpless. I doubt that they would get past Guldo without Vegeta but for the purpose of this post we’ll assume that they do. At this point, they will be annihilated by Recoome. Goku would show up and take care of Recoome and Burter causing Jeice to call Captain Ginyu. Goku would lose his body to Ginyu and without Vegeta there to help, Gohan and Krillin will be defeated by Jeice and Ginyu. If you’re keeping track, so far Krillin killing Vegeta has led to the potential of him dying at least three times. NOW, assuming that some kind of super miracle happened which allowed the team of Goku, Gohan, and Krillin to survive past their encounter with the Ginyu Force, things are still pretty bleak without Vegeta. Remember, Vegeta was the one who knew about the rejuvenation chamber (medical machine) that healed Goku so without that knowledge the team would probably have to simply wait for Goku to rest naturally (remember at this point they didn’t know that Dende could heal people). Frieza would most likely show up and kill them all with ease (and that’s potential death number 4 if you’re keeping score at home). Since the wish to bring Piccolo back to life and to Namek originally happened before Frieza showed up then Piccolo would probably still show up to fight Frieza. However, if he allowed Frieza to transform then he would probably be defeated as well which leaves Frieza to rule the universe unopposed.

     I’m going to stop the post here and continue it in the next post where I discuss the second time where Krillin could have killed Vegeta (and I’ll also discuss future events that never happen as a result of Vegeta’s death like Trunks never being born). Thanks for reading!

     So, some of you may have heard some news today regarding our favourite series, Dragon Ball. No big deal really. It just seems that there’s going to be a new Dragon Ball series coming in July. That’s all. NEW DRAGON BALL ANIME IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     Not much is known about the new series. It has a tentative title of “Dragon Ball Super” and apparently will continue the storyline after the two newest movies (’Battle of Gods’ and ‘Fukkatsu no ‘F’’) disregarding the events of GT. I don’t know if there will be a manga running alongside it or not however. Other than that, I don’t really have much to report but I’m sure that more news will be revealed soon.

Thanks for reading!

     Everyone at some point in their lives has imagined themselves as their favourite characters from their favourite stories/series. It doesn't matter if you like Superman, Pokemon, or Dragon Ball; you probably imagined yourself with the same abilities as those characters. Like most people, I loved Dragon Ball as a kid and imagined myself as a character in the series countless times. I was reminiscing about this a few days ago and then realized something: what would it be like if Dragon Ball characters existed? I'm not necessarily concerned with how the world would change but more concerned with what would they look like? Specifically, as a Super Saiyan. How would it look if you were just walking down the street and you saw someone spontaneously change?

     In Dragon Ball Z, the Super Saiyan transformation is iconic and recognized by fans and non-fans alike. The user's hair turns blonde; a glowing aura is formed around them (with sparks in the cases of Super Saiyan 2, 3, and 4); their eyes turn green and depending on the stage there may be increase in muscle size. There could be an earthquake and damage to the surroundings accompanying the transformation but let's ignore that. The change in eye and hair colour don't really interest me as much as the aura and muscle changes do.

     Aura: This is where things get interesting for me. The aura is probably the coolest part of the transformation since it actually IS the indication of a transformation. I have two ways of thinking about how this would look in real life: light and fire. Let's start with fire. I speculate that in real life it would look like someone was on fire. They wouldn't be in any real pain or danger of course but I think if you saw a Super Saiyan in real life you might just think that a person was on fire. My other way of looking at it (light) just means that I think the person would just be generating so much light that we wouldn't be able to see them clearly at all. It would be like looking at a lightbulb for a long time.

     Muscle Growth: After reaching Super Saiyan 2 and beyond, muscle growth wasn't really a problem because they learned to channel their energy into increasing speed rather than strength alone. However, prior to that the muscle growth component was quite prevalent (think about Future Trunks' battle against Cell). I used to always pretend that my muscles were getting pumped up like in the show when I was a kid but now that I think about it, it might look quite terrifying in real life. It would be like the Hulk was running around. Just think about someone transforming and then increasing their muscles to the size of Broly's...that's scary.

     Despite all these things, I still really wish we could transform haha. It's hard to imagine what a real life Super Saiyan would look like (or imagining how any fictitious character would look in real life for that matter) which is why I guess Hollywood has such trouble translating our favourite childhood franchises to the big screen. Some turn out great (eg. The Avengers) and some, not so much (eg. Dragon Ball Evolution). 

     Wishing that Dragon Ball was real is still pretty high on my list, if not at the top, right alongside Pokemon haha. Anyway, this post wasn't really anything other than a thought I had. Feel free to send me some random thoughts too haha. Thanks for reading!

     Time for another segment where I answer one of your questions. This one comes in from perfectkai. They ask:

     "Hello! I read your post on Kaioshin and are combat level and I found her very interested! :) Do you think Kaioshin site will appear in the new film Fukkatsu no "F"? and if so, do you think it will have an important place, or will be seen as a bit like "battle of gods"? :) Thank you! :) (Sorry for my bad English I'm French)

                                                                                - perfectkai

     First off, your english seems just fine to me. Whether or not Kaioshin is in the movie or not, we have to remember that since the movie takes place after the Buu saga then that means that he'll be fused with Kibito already as Kibito Kai.  If I had to speculate on it, I would assume that he would make a minor appearance in the movie just like he did in Battle of Gods but probably not have an important or integral role. King Kai would probably also make an appearance in the movie and probably have more of a role than Kaioshin. But like I said, that's just me speculating on the plot. We can't really say for sure what kind of role any character will have until more details are released. I can't really think of a way where he could be involved since he has nothing to do with Frieza.

     Anyway, that's my best attempt at answering your question. Keep those questions coming everyone. I enjoy answering your questions. Thanks for reading!

***POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD: The basic plot of the movie will be discussed in this post. If you wish to avoid any spoilers then please do not read the post.***

     By now, many of you have probably heard that there will be a new installment to the Dragon Ball series in the form of a movie next year. Dragon Ball Z: Revival of "F" will be the fifteenth Dragon Ball Z movie following the successful Battle of Gods. 

     There really hasn't been much revealed about the movie but I'll discuss what is known. The movie takes place sometime after Battle of Gods. In addition, Beerus and Whis are seen in the poster for the movie and the trailer which means that they must be in the movie as well. The basic plot involves the revival of one of the most iconic villains in any series (the "F" in question): Frieza. A couple of Frieza's remaining henchmen, Tagoma and Sorbet, are the ones who come to Earth in search of the Dragon Balls. They succeed in having their wish granted and Frieza is revived. The promos for the movie are calling this the "worst wish in history" which sounds awesome to me. Apparently, Frieza's army is completely reassembled and Goku and the others go up against a thousand soldiers. That's all we know at the moment.

     I've seen a lot of complaints from people suggesting that Frieza shouldn't have been the one revived but I for one am psyched to see Frieza back. I've said it before and I'll continue to say it: Frieza is the most important villain in Dragon Ball Z. There really isn't any other villain that would have sufficed or even made sense in lieu of Frieza. One of the complaints I hear that really irritates me is "Why didn't they bring back Cell or Buu since they're stronger?" Honestly, how would that make any sense? The way that Frieza gets revived is that some of his loyal henchmen bring him back. No one would want to bring Cell or Buu back. First off, Cell is completely Earth based (by which I mean that no one outside of Earth would know about Cell) so no one would want to bring Cell back. In addition, the only ones who would want to bring Buu back would probably be Bibidi or Babidi but they're both dead. I assume that Babidi's spell wears off after he dies which means he doesn't have any servants who would bring Buu back for him. Even if he did, Buu killed Babidi so he wouldn't want to bring Buu back. So, aside from Frieza being the best one to bring back (in my opinion) there really isn't any other stronger option.

     I'm curious as to how strong Frieza actually is compared to the others after all this time. Frieza was known for not training at all since he felt like he was the strongest but after encountering Goku his mindset might have changed. In addition, I had a theory. The Dragon Balls on Earth allow the users to have two wishes granted. I figured that they could use the first wish to bring Frieza back and then the second to boost his power or even finally grant his immortality.

     I'm sort of disappointed in one thing. Prior to the posters and trailers being released for this movie, there were rumors circling that Vegeta would be the main protagonist which was an idea that I really liked. But from what I can see from the footage released (this is purely speculation) it looks like Goku is the one who gets to fight Frieza and not Vegeta. Hopefully I'm wrong and Vegeta will get some integral part in the movie but only time will tell. I'm always pumped for new Dragon Ball content whether it's a new movie, new manga, Dragon Ball Heroes, etc. and this is no different. Hopefully we get more content in the years that follow. Thanks for reading!

     During the Majin Buu saga, Goku and the others enter the World Martial Arts Tournament. At the tournament, Kibito and the Supreme Kai appear to acquire Goku and the others' help in defeating Babidi and his forces. Except, they don't really reveal themselves right away. When I first saw them as a kid (and I'm sure 99% of people who watched the series for the first time felt this way too) I thought that they were the new villains. I mean seriously. They just looked menacing. The Supreme Kai even used a fake name (he entered the tournament as Shin (a play on words for Kaioshin)). As part of the tournament, Piccolo was matched up against Shin. I was really psyched up as a kid watching this because I thought it was really cool that Piccolo would be the first to get a shot against this guy (who I thought was the current villain at the time). But, we all know that as soon as Piccolo realized that Shin was the Supreme Kai, he backed out. It was kind of strange because I was disappointed that he backed out but also intrigued about why he backed out. Anyway, here's where my question comes in. Could Piccolo have defeated Shin if he actually fought?

     Let's look at some facts here. In a post I did yesterday, I speculated that Piccolo would probably have a power level around Semi-Perfect Cell's at this point. I think that's pretty fair. Now we only have to look at the Supreme Kai's power. The only fight we see him in is his fight against Majin Buu. He got demolished in that fight but to be fair he was up against the main villain. It's kind of hard to gauge his power from that one fight but there is some other evidence that may show his power. When he was describing all of Babidi's henchmen, he seemed especially fearful of Dabura. On top of that, Goku mentioned that he thought Dabura's power was comparable to Perfect Cell's if not higher. Both Vegeta and Goku remarked that Gohan was weaker than he was against Cell when he was fighting Dabura so this could be an accurate measurement. Since the Supreme Kai was scared of Dabura, a fighter with the power level of Cell, then that means that his power must have been lower than Dabura's. Now we're getting somewhere. We have Piccolo (a fighter who I speculate as being near or stronger that Semi-Perfect Cell) and the Supreme Kai (a fighter weaker than Dabura who is comparable to Perfect Cell). Both of their powers are in the same ballpark it appears. This means that if Piccolo did try to fight the Supreme Kai, he could have at least put on a good show. That's a shame.

    It's also pretty interesting to note that if the tournament carried on to the next round, Krillin would fight the winner of this match. Although on second thought, it wouldn't get that far anyway since Goku and Vegeta were slated to fight in the first round.

     Well that's my post for today. I kind of wish that this fight could have taken place but like I said earlier it kind of gave the story a little bit of a mysterious element when Piccolo quit the fight. I'll be trying to post daily for the next few days so stay tuned for those. And also feel free to send in some questions to me too. Thanks for reading!

     Woah...this is my first post in months. Anyway, let's get to it! This post comes from one of my followers,  nonapkinsilickmyfingers777. They ask:      "If you're up for it, could you explain how strong Piccolo is compared to a super saiyan. During the cell saga he was pretty tough I think he freaked Vegeta one episode."

                                                          - nonapkinsilickmyfingers777

     Thanks for the question. Piccolo really is the only fighter who managed to stay close to the front of the pack in terms of power when the Saiyans started widening the gap. That's also the reason that he's one of my favourite characters in the series. Before I start, I should probably mention that we can't really use the term "Super Saiyan" as a measuring stick. What I mean by that is there's no power level that equals a Super Saiyan (eg. Goku's first transformation was clearly stronger than Goten's first transformation). The Super Saiyan transformation is simply a boost on top of their base power (if anybody is interested about this, check out my post from a while ago titled "The Super Saiyan Transformation"). So, all that being said, I'll just do my best to track Piccolo's strength throughout the series.

     From the end on Dragon Ball to the start of Dragon Ball Z, Piccolo actually was one of the strongest Z-Fighters if not the strongest. He was clearly the second strongest person on Earth at the end of Dragon Ball when he fought Goku and this is still true when Raditz arrived (his power level was slightly above Goku's at that point but Raditz was stronger than both of them). As the series progressed, Piccolo asserted his dominance once again by going toe-to-toe with Frieza. However, shortly after that the Super Saiyans arrived, but Piccolo didn't let that slow him down. My first comparison will be between Piccolo and Android 20 (Dr. Gero). Even though they weren't the Androids from Trunks' prophecy, Androids 19 and 20 still had considerable power. I would say that they were most likely stronger than Frieza. If I use Frieza as a measuring stick for Goku's power level when he was a Super Saiyan, then this would mean that when Piccolo was beating down on Dr. Gero, he was at least as strong as Goku was when he first transformed. It isn't really shocking to hear that Piccolo was ever that strong, especially after we recall his next power boost after fusing with Kami. After this, he was able to go head to head with Imperfect Cell and Android 17 who were both definitely stronger than the average Super Saiyan. Like you mentioned, there actually was a scene where Piccolo was powering up after Imperfect Cell managed to escape and Vegeta got startled to the point where he powered down from Super Saiyan to his base form. You might have even heard the phrase "he scared the Super Saiyan out of Vegeta." Now, here's where things get tricky. After the Cell Games had been announced, Piccolo took his turn in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Prior to going in, he wasn't able to beat Imperfect Cell's fully charged form. After he came out, his power did increase as expected. Trunks even said that he couldn't even recognize Piccolo's powers; as if he was a different person. Vegeta of course joked about Piccolo not being any different and remarked that he must have been sleeping in the chamber instead of training. Anyway, as I said this is where his power gets a bit cloudy. The next time we see him fight is against the Cell Juniors  (and he did quite well against them at first) but we can't really draw any conclusions from that because he was essentially going up against Cell. After the Cell Games was the 7 year period of peace. We can assume that Piccolo trained during this time but he probably didn't train that much since there wasn't any real reason to. He definitely didn't train as hard as Vegeta did. So, factoring all these things in together I'd be willing to say that Piccolo was at least as strong as Semi-Perfect Cell by the end of the series. I wouldn't be comfortable with saying that he ever got to the point of being as strong as Perfect Cell but I wouldn't be shocked if he did. If I speculate that he was as strong as Semi-Perfect Cell, that would make him as strong as Vegeta and Trunks were as Ascended Super Saiyans or at least very close. That's impressive.

     Well that's my opinion on how strong Piccolo was compared to the Super Saiyans. He definitely kept close during the entire series even as Goku and the other Saiyans started exponentially increasing their power. That's my post for today. I haven't been posting as often as I would like because I've been busy. I should however be able to post a few more times at least during the next couple days so stay tuned for that. Thanks for reading!

     Well, this blog is a year old today. Just want to say a quick thanks to all my followers and everyone who likes / reblogs my posts! I originally planned to do one post a day which would have left me at 365 posts today but I ended up with less than half that total haha oh well. Thanks again for the support everybody! Thanks for reading!