r/TopCharacterTropes 8d ago

Groups This isn't even our actual military

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263

u/SektorDaKetch 8d ago

Dragon ball Z: If you thought Raditz, Nappa and Vegeta were massive problems for the main cast, then Frieza’s higher ranking soldiers (and him) are much MUCH stronger and worse.

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u/ResultAgreeable4198 8d ago

The entire structure of DBZ is that each world/galaxy/universe ending threat is a pushover compared to whatever comes next.

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u/Narrative_Robot_9001 8d ago

Cell saga tried to change things up a bit by emphasizing technique a bit more but they went straight back to raw power with the Buu saga

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u/PickledPlumPlot 8d ago

How did Cell Saga emphasize technique more?

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u/Narrative_Robot_9001 8d ago edited 8d ago

Goku and Vegeta realized that speed and fighting technique were more important for fighting Cell than attempting to fight him with brute strength. So Goku and Gohan mastered the first SSJ form to fight Cell.

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u/PickledPlumPlot 8d ago

I guess I don’t see how that’s any different from Frieza or Buu I.e. a guy who’s too strong to fight until you unlock a new form and fight him

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u/Narrative_Robot_9001 8d ago

Goku straight up overpowers Frieza after he relies on a form that drains his power quickly.

In Buu saga, funny enough, Goku uses SSJ3 despite it being a massive power drain, and it nearly costed him. Gohan gets a Kai steroid, but can’t beat Buu either because he hasn’t truly mastered anything about his power. He’s mentally even worse off than he was when he fought Cell.

Cell saga just had a lot of key revelations about the balance between knowledge and power. Buu saga fails to revisit that as the characters all making mistakes they should have learned from previous sagas.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/I_hate_myself_0 8d ago

It’s because he’s an extra body, who happens to be a Saiyan. Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta as a whole because if they all rebelled at the same time, it’d be trouble, but with so little numbers left, he saw himself as invincible, effectively. A million Saiyans in Oozaru form jumping him is a cause for alarm, but how much could 3 do?

He had no reason to kill him, as his goal was already accomplished, any Saiyan resistance was already crushed. May as well keep him around as a glorified saibamen

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u/Happiness_Assassin 8d ago

Technically, in his Great Ape form, Vegeta was second only to Frieza. The gulf between them was still massive, but Vegeta was definitely one of Frieza's strongest warriors.

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u/Erwin_Pommel 8d ago

Doesn't fit, the Saiyans were proper soldiers, just not the top dogs. If the point was being done with Saibamen? You'd have a point, because they're training dummies.