TheChez.net

by ssjrem

Wow, would you really believe that it’s been over four months since I’ve blogged about Dragonball Z? It’s been all about Avatar and philosophy and shit lately? But who cares about that shit? We need to bring some DBZ back! Anyway, wasted potential is certainly something that is over abundant in Dragonball Z, so I’m going to count down the ten characters with the most, the characters who could’ve done so much more, but for whatever reason, they get cast to the side and never reach their full potential. It’s a shame. Dragonball Z is a show with lots of interesting concepts and ideas, too many of much aren’t really fully explored. Oh well. It doesn’t really make me love it any less. On to the list!

10. King Cold

All right, we start off the list with Freeza’s father. The Freeza family has a really obvious theme to their naming (Cold, Freeza, Cooler). Anyway, Cold pretty much does shit. We’re introduced to him as the father of the self-proclaimed most powerful being in the universe. Now, it’s never really answered whether or not Cold is actually stronger than his son, as there are good arguments on both sides, but even still, Cold kind of gets the shaft. He’s only around for about five episodes and gets completely dominated by Trunks. I’m not sure what more could have been done with him, but maybe he could’ve had a single transformation or at least put up a fight against Trunks. But instead, he’s just a chump.

9. Krillin

I’m not really the biggest Krillin fan and it annoys me a lot when people try to defend him for being a coward in certain situations. He’s a scrappy little guy that always manages to survive somehow, but I just don’t like him that much. But, yeah, like most characters in the series, Krillin just reached a certain point and turned to complete shit. He managed to make himself somewhat useful throughout the battle on Namek, but once they got back to earth, he was a complete waste of a character and did absolutely nothing. But somehow, he ends up with Android 18? And speaking of which….

8. Android 18

Girls don’t really get to do a whole lot in the DBZ world and a female fighter is even more rare. However, it’s not like 18 actually earned her immense power or anything. She’s just an android. Actually, the term android isn’t really the most accurate for these beings, but the Japanese term Jinzōningen doesn’t really have an English equivalent. The closest would be “artificial human.” But this is all beside the point. 18 does kick Vegeta’s ass, which is entertaining, but that’s about all she does. It would’ve been nice to see her maybe join the fight against Buu or something.

7. Yamcha

The three main humans in DBZ, Krillin, Yamcha and Tien all get pushed to the side completely; some just last longer than others.Yamcha is the first of the three humans to be relegated to pure shit status. He keeps pace with everyone to a degree during Dragonball, but then as soon as Saiyans arrive on the scene, he’s done. He gets blown up by a Saibamen and then doesn’t do a damn thing for the entire rest of the series. He ultimately retires after the Cell Games because he just couldn’t keep up anymore. Yamcha is probably the most human of all the DBZ characters; he even wanted to ask Shenlong for money. Yamcha, from the very beginning of Dragonball, was always two steps behind Goku, but it would’ve been nice to see him stick around for a while.

6. Goten

It feels odd to put a Saiyan on this list, considering just how much attention and screen time they do get, especially toward the end of DBZ, but even still, Goten doesn’t really do much of anything. He’s the second son of Goku and inherits a shitload more power than even Gohan did. And what does he do with it? Absolutely nothing. He gives up training because he’s just plain lazy. And then in GT, he’s even more of a lazy fuck and only does anything when he has no choice. It would’ve been cool to see an adult Gotenks in GT or something, but nope. Goten is just wasted.

5. Uub

Goku spends a lot of time in DBZ hoping to find some sort of successor. He keeps hoping someone will come along to be able to save the earth (or even the whole universe) when he’s gone. Gohan fails him. Goten and Trunks fail him. He ends up having to save the day himself anyway. So, he hopes that the evil Buu gets reincarnated as a good person. That is Uub, a young kid who should have at his disposal an unheard amount of power. So, has Goku finally found his successor? No. Uub does shit. He even fuses with regular Buu and then still gets his ass kicked. Goku steps in and saves the day again. Lucky for Uub and everyone else, Goku more or less becomes a God at the end of GT, so he’ll just step in whenever there’s trouble.

4. Videl

Another female fighter that does absolutely nothing. I don’t understand why it is that a couple times in the series, we get a powerful female fighter (Chi-Chi at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, Android 18, Videl) but then she just gives up fighting pretty quickly. Chi-Chi becomes a bitch, 18 does rather little, Videl just becomes a mother. Videl is interesting in that she’s just a regular human girl with at best only slightly superhuman abilities when she meets Gohan. He teaches her to control ki and fly. Yamcha, Krillin and Tien all showed that humans could get their power levels could get well into the thousands, but Videl probably topped at an utter maximum of 20 or so. I just feel like there’s so much more she could’ve done. She was a tomboy who really enjoyed fighting and training and then all of a sudden, she just becomes a motherly type who gives it all up? Sigh…..

3. Trunks

Trunks gets a higer place than he would ordinarily because of the fact that he’s two separate characters, both of which have wasted potential. Present Trunks, much like Goten, doesn’t really do all that much. At least he’s more useful in GT. Still would’ve been nice to see him achieve super saiyan 2 or something. And then Future Trunks is a significantly cooler character, but he’s only around for one saga. I really have no idea why I left Future Trunks off my top five DBZ characters blog; he’s actually one of my very favorite characters. Anyway,I just think it would’ve been a lot more logical to have Trunks be the one who takes down Cell. After all, he’s the one that came from the ruined future and wanted to kill the androids. Have Trunks take down Cell and then Gohan can still save the day in the Buu saga. I love DBZ to death, but there are a lot of things I would’ve done differently.

2. Tien

I’m a big Tien fanboy. It seems to me that one is either a big fan of either Krillin or Tien. You can’t really, really like both of them. And there are endless debates over who’s stronger. In my opinion, Tien at any point in the series save for a few months in the Freeza saga, would tear Krillin apart. It would be more of a massacre than a fight. Krillin becomes a complete waste of space after the Freeza saga ends, but Tien still manages to have one more moment of glory. Before that, he actually attempts to fight the Androids, as opposed to cowering like Krillin does. Anyway, he locks Cell in his sights and unleashes a torrent of Kikohos (Tri-Beams) on the android, actually holding him off for several minutes. Then, he shows up in the Buu saga and saves Dende from a blast from Buu. If he had killed Dende, then the dragonballs would’ve disappeared and they’d be fucked.

Tien always goes into these battles and gives his all, no matter outmatched he is. He actually did manage to beat Goku in the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai back in Dragonball. And then he gave him a good fight at the 23rd. He, unlike Krillin and Yamcha, never stopped training. He always kept improving, always kept getting better. But it never pays off. He never really gets a true moment to shine. And he only appears for about a half second in GT. But GT is retarded most of the time. I love Tien and just wish that he succeeded in doing more in DBZ. All right, now, my number one pick is probably going to be rather unexpected and I can already tell a lot of people won’t really agree with it at all, but it’s my opinion. So, here we are, number one!

1. Pan

That’s right, Pan. It’s pretty much unanimous throughout the DBZ community that Pan is just an annoying little girl. She’s pretty much univerally hated and has very few fans. I’m one of them. I don’t really get it, but I just kind of liked her. And perhaps it’s partly because she is kind of annoying that she has wasted potential. Let’s look at the facts here. Gohan was born with an incredible amount of power, so much so that he actually generated a higher power level than his father when he was only four. Gohan’s normal power level was only one. At the end of DBZ, when he fathered Pan, his power level would have to be at least one billion, probably far, far higher. And we see that Goten and Trunks inherited much higher levels of power because their fathers sired them at much higher power levels. They even inherited super saiyan like it was nothing. So why should Pan be any different? Yes, I realize that she’s only a quarter saiyan and that dilutes her blood somewhat, but it shouldn’t have that drastic of an effect.

And if the end of DBZ is anything to go on, Pan was already pretty powerful and was capable of flying around the world despite being only four years old. She also seemed interested in fighting and training, a stark contrast to her father. In GT, the series finally could’ve had a powerful female fighter, but Pan doesn’t do much of anything. She could’ve been immensely powerful and actually helped out Goku in the battles. She should’ve had at least super saiyan 2, maybe even three. It would’ve been fascinating to actually see a female super saiyan. There was so much more that could’ve been done with Pan, but she just turned into kind of a whiny brat. It would’ve been great to really see a female warrior out there kicking some ass as a super saiyan. But that’s just how I feel. There wasn’t really time to do anything with Pan in DBZ, but the possibilities with her in GT were endless and that’s where I find myself especially disappointed. Sigh…

That’s my list. Kind of curious to hear some thoughts on the whole thing. Four months without a DBZ blog is far too long. Well, I did have that Goku vs Superman thing, but that doesn’t really count. So, anyway, those are my Dragonball characters with wasted potential. I’ll be back on Sunday with my usual box office wrap up thing, as Avatar looks poised to top the charts for the sixth straight week, the longest streak since, guess what, Titanic’s epic 15-week dominance. With that, I’m done. Peace out.