How to make forgotten DB characters relevant again?

[Exline]

I’ve been thinking a lot about how beloved characters such as Goten, Trunks, Yamcha, etc. have barely been given any development in Dragon Ball Super. So many missed opportunities with these characters that could’ve brought them back in interesting ways. It baffles me how Toriyama doesn’t focus on the earthling’s anymore because of how unpopular they’ve become.. when.. he’s the one responsible for that. Giving the Saiyans so much focus in the current DB stories.

With characters like Goten And Trunks, I came up with the idea of Goten being the successor to the Great Saiyaman or become Saiyaman’s sidekick. Trunks could also develop into becoming the successor of the Capsule Corporation, providing new inventions and ideas for the company. They also idolize their father’s so much in their battles, so shouldn’t they be just as motivated to keep training and become progressively stronger as they age?

The only ideas I have for characters like Yamcha, Tien, and Chaotzu is for them to focus on teaching martial arts, making the World Tournaments much more interesting with incredible fighters. The main cast would enter the tournament and be surprised by fighters that are much more powerful and know Ki attacks such as Solar Flare, or the Spirit Ball. They are reaching an age where they may no longer be able to fight.

Anyone else have any interesting ideas on how to make old characters somewhat relevant again? Probably for a new series if here is one happening?

[Nero<>Akira]

Yamcha will never become relevant except at get togethers and jokes. That's what he is now. And Super has done plenty with the characters that some people complained about not being relevant anymore. The only characters that were left alone for the most part were Goten & Trunks. Tien simply didn't get great screentime.

[Xeogran]

I came up with the idea of Goten being the successor to the Great Saiyaman or become Saiyaman’s sidekick

But sir, Goten grew out of that. He finds Great Saiyaman to be pretty lame these days.

[Lionel]

In a way that's in keeping with Toriyama's antediluvian system for fights? Easy -- have the humans come back alive with their hard-core spiritedness for self-improvement and overcoming their own limits. Repeal this asinine exclusivist policy that only Saiyans are permitted to engage in the latest and greatest training regimens. Don't limit the availability of useful techniques such as the Kaioken to just one character. If you did that then the humans would probably make some enormous inroads towards catching back up with the Saiyans and gaining viability once again. I will admit that for them to hopefully match the Saiyans would require some serious out of the box thinking with their styles of improvement. One obvious solution would be raising the Kaioken to higher levels, assuming it's possible in the first place.

What you're proposing regarding the "martial arts" component of their personalities would require more than just a few techniques. It would take an overhaul of the system for their abilities and experience to play an important function in fights. Personally, I can't see Toriyama having the willingness or, dare I say, creativity to try something like that. It's easier to continue utilising what's already in place for him.

As for Goten and Trunks -- I personally couldn't care less about them as characters at the moment. Should they have investment applied to them? Maybe, but like with the mechanics system it would take a lot of work to turn them into meaningful supportive cast members of the narrative.

[PsionicWarrior]

Well among the few positives of TOP arc C17 had a good development, I mean he was not exactly the most predominant character from DB mythology was he lol

[Exline]

Yamcha will never become relevant except at get togethers and jokes. That's what he is now. And Super has done plenty with the characters that some people complained about not being relevant anymore. The only characters that were left alone for the most part were Goten & Trunks. Tien simply didn't get great screentime.

That's clearly a lack of creativity and poor writing if you cannot have a past fan favorite character become relevant again in the story. Characters like Yamcha and Chiaotzu were already being sidelined since the Buu Arc, but they atleast deserve proper send offs.

But sir, Goten grew out of that. He finds Great Saiyaman to be pretty lame these days.

Doesn't mean he cannot get back into it. I started liking Dragon Ball Super, got bored of it, then came back and regained interest again.

Well among the few positives of TOP arc C17 had a good development, I mean he was not exactly the most predominant character from DB mythology was he lol

No he was not. I'm glad he was brought back. I wish the same could be done with other fan favorites.

In a way that's in keeping with Toriyama's antediluvian system for fights? Easy -- have the humans come back alive with their hard-core spiritedness for self-improvement and overcoming their own limits. Repeal this asinine exclusivist policy that only Saiyans are permitted to engage in the latest and greatest training regimens. Don't limit the availability of useful techniques such as the Kaioken to just one character. If you did that then the humans would probably make some enormous inroads towards catching back up with the Saiyans and gaining viability once again. I will admit that for them to hopefully match the Saiyans would require some serious out of the box thinking with their styles of improvement. One obvious solution would be raising the Kaioken to higher levels, assuming it's possible in the first place.

What you're proposing regarding the "martial arts" component of their personalities would require more than just a few techniques. It would take an overhaul of the system for their abilities and experience to play an important function in fights. Personally, I can't see Toriyama having the willingness or, dare I say, creativity to try something like that. It's easier to continue utilising what's already in place for him.

As for Goten and Trunks -- I personally couldn't care less about them as characters at the moment. Should they have investment applied to them? Maybe, but like with the mechanics system it would take a lot of work to turn them into meaningful supportive cast members of the narrative.

Yes!! The fact that the humans lost their motivation to keep fighting is just the worse way to end the stories of these beloved characters. They have so many options such as gravity training or Kaioken like you've stated. However their is no harm in generating a new technique that they can learn, just has to be explained and executed properly.

In the anime they've demonstrated how great Krillin was with strategies. Utilizing his Solar Flare x 100 & Destructo Disk Triple Blade against Goku was incredible. He was even able to knock out Gohan! It's great to see an Earthling capable of doing something rather than saying "If i entered the fight, I wouldn't be of any use." Earthlings (Humans..) are an intelligent species hat thrive to overcome any obstacles in their paths. Human ingenuity is their finest trait and should be utilized better to further their relevancy in the story.

However, I do understand that there are now so many characters for Toriyama to deal with. Like I've stated before, these characters should become Masters of the new generation of fighters. The World Tournament could involve fighters who learn techniques like "Destructo Disk", "Wolf Fang Fist", or "Tri-Beam". It'd be a surprise for the cast and would make the World Tournament be the major get-together for the cast of DB, like it should've stayed as.

[PsionicWarrior]

Well among the few positives of TOP arc C17 had a good development, I mean he was not exactly the most predominant character from DB mythology was he lol

No he was not. I'm glad he was brought back. I wish the same could be done with other fan favorites.

It was kind of a rethoric question mate, I certainly appreciated his development except for the sacrifice part which was in complete contradiction with everything before, one would wonder if the dude who wrote that line even watched the previous eps from TOP lol

Also having Gohan drop out before him was... a troll? Final fighters (excluding Freeza) were Goku, Vegeta and... C17? Freaking seriously?

[Exline]

Well among the few positives of TOP arc C17 had a good development, I mean he was not exactly the most predominant character from DB mythology was he lol

No he was not. I'm glad he was brought back. I wish the same could be done with other fan favorites.

It was kind of a rethoric question mate, I certainly appreciated his development except for the sacrifice part which was in complete contradiction with everything before, one would wonder if the dude who wrote that line even watched the previous eps from TOP lol

Also having Gohan drop out before him was... a troll? Final fighters (excluding Freeza) were Goku, Vegeta and... C17? Freaking seriously?

When I said no he was not i was agreeing with you saying "he was not exactly the most predominant character from DB mythology was he lol.

And yeah lol his sacrifice was the dumbest thing I've ever seen. He sacrificed himself a for a non-lethal blast that would serve to give Vegeta, who useless in the next episode, more time along with Goku. They were both out of stamina, while.. he's the only one with infinite stamina lol. Also he doesn't have a bomb inside him! It doesn't make sense to me that he can explode but 16 couldn't explode without his bomb.

[PsionicWarrior]

More like, did you EVER doubt one second he was somehow lacking humanity? We saw his relationship evolve with his sister in a touching way, he wanted to SDB to go on a cruise with his family, prior to that after so many years gap we rediscover him as a protector of nature with a family. Heck, even in Z these cyborgs had humanity, doing shopping, Trunks even said they weren't as evil as in his timeline. It made literally no sense as there was no ambiguity whatsoever. This is not Majin Vegeta we are talking about lol

[Akyon]

Chiaoutzu is easy enough if Toriyama could be bothered to do anything with his unique abilities. Having Chiaoutzu telepathically link everyone up so they can relay information rapidly over long distance is the most pedestrian use I can think for him, but if they released the arbitary limits of his telekinetic paralyisation, he'd easily be a fairly useful asset to any battle.

Actually, having the humans fight with more focus on team work and strategy would be really cool. Tien pinning an opponent down with his Tri Beam and having Krillin use the Destructo Disc on said opponent should be an instant win on nearly anyone who can't regenerate, since the two techniques kind of help one another; the disc is powerful but seemingly hard to control and easy to dodge, the tri beam has a lot of pushing power but no damage output on stronger opponents of which to finish them off. Throw Yamcha into the mix to momentarily stall the opponent with his Spirit Ball by blocking the opponents path, and we're good.

Talking of Yamcha, having him and Roshi reconnect would be pretty nice. Whenever Roshi talks about his students it's always Goku and Krillin, with Yamcha being forgotten about.
Dragonball Online had Krillin take over Roshi's role as head of the Turtle School, but with his family life and police career now I feel he'd be too busy to do such a thing. Yamcha meanwhile seems to have even retired from professional baseball leaving him with a lot of spare time. Having Yamcha and Tien be rivals again in a mentor sense could be pretty interesting. Yamcha's very laid back, and Tien is very studious. They'd work well off of one another better than I feel Krillin and Tien do.

It's far too late now, but I always felt alternatively giving each human a useful specialist abilities that they've been stated to have in the past and ramp it up to eleven;
Yamcha focusing far more on speed like Dyspo for example and having him able to run rings around the Saiyans(even if he cannot lay a finger on them)
Krillin being more talented at ki manipulation than everyone else and being able to think on the fly
Tenshinhan having a bottomless sack of techniques and being able to overwhelm with the sheer quantity
Chiaoutzu's telekinesis actually being able to do stuff to stronger opponents
Yajirobe being able to take an unnatural amount of damage(as Goku described him as being insanely tough) to the point if all else fails his body can be a meatshield capable of absorbing damage that'd even hurt Goku and Vegeta.
Roshi's experience allowing him to form counter strategies to even the most difficult foes

Gohan I really want to see be a smarter fighter. The idea of a scholar fighter could be really interesting if done right; using his knowledge of physics or chemistry in the heat of battle to create huge upsets. I'm definitely not against Dragonball Online's idea of having him translating ki manipulation into laymans for the average man either...I think that'd have a lot of potential for interesting storylines.

I'm honestly stumped on Goten...he's still such a blank slate still there's not a hell of a lot to bounce off of.

[Miracles]

Simple. Have them train with King Kai, drink super god water and say they are geniuses; the reason why they are boxing with Blue level opponents.

[darzap]

The attempt to make 8 characters relevant again (anyone but Goku and Vegeta who were relevant the whole time) consumed pretty much the entire set of tournament of power opponents that was not hogged by Goku and Vegeta. Having a big cast of relevant characters might just consume to much screen time and enemies to be feasible for the simple story telling of Dragon Ball, which usually involves one big villain with one or two hands full of henchmen.

[Exline]

Chiaoutzu is easy enough if Toriyama could be bothered to do anything with his unique abilities. Having Chiaoutzu telepathically link everyone up so they can relay information rapidly over long distance is the most pedestrian use I can think for him, but if they released the arbitary limits of his telekinetic paralyisation, he'd easily be a fairly useful asset to any battle.

Actually, having the humans fight with more focus on team work and strategy would be really cool. Tien pinning an opponent down with his Tri Beam and having Krillin use the Destructo Disc on said opponent should be an instant win on nearly anyone who can't regenerate, since the two techniques kind of help one another; the disc is powerful but seemingly hard to control and easy to dodge, the tri beam has a lot of pushing power but no damage output on stronger opponents of which to finish them off. Throw Yamcha into the mix to momentarily stall the opponent with his Spirit Ball by blocking the opponents path, and we're good.

Talking of Yamcha, having him and Roshi reconnect would be pretty nice. Whenever Roshi talks about his students it's always Goku and Krillin, with Yamcha being forgotten about.
Dragonball Online had Krillin take over Roshi's role as head of the Turtle School, but with his family life and police career now I feel he'd be too busy to do such a thing. Yamcha meanwhile seems to have even retired from professional baseball leaving him with a lot of spare time. Having Yamcha and Tien be rivals again in a mentor sense could be pretty interesting. Yamcha's very laid back, and Tien is very studious. They'd work well off of one another better than I feel Krillin and Tien do.

It's far too late now, but I always felt alternatively giving each human a useful specialist abilities that they've been stated to have in the past and ramp it up to eleven;
Yamcha focusing far more on speed like Dyspo for example and having him able to run rings around the Saiyans(even if he cannot lay a finger on them)
Krillin being more talented at ki manipulation than everyone else and being able to think on the fly
Tenshinhan having a bottomless sack of techniques and being able to overwhelm with the sheer quantity
Chiaoutzu's telekinesis actually being able to do stuff to stronger opponents
Yajirobe being able to take an unnatural amount of damage(as Goku described him as being insanely tough) to the point if all else fails his body can be a meatshield capable of absorbing damage that'd even hurt Goku and Vegeta.
Roshi's experience allowing him to form counter strategies to even the most difficult foes

Gohan I really want to see be a smarter fighter. The idea of a scholar fighter could be really interesting if done right; using his knowledge of physics or chemistry in the heat of battle to create huge upsets. I'm definitely not against Dragonball Online's idea of having him translating ki manipulation into laymans for the average man either...I think that'd have a lot of potential for interesting storylines.

I'm honestly stumped on Goten...he's still such a blank slate still there's not a hell of a lot to bounce off of.

-That's an interesting way of using Chaozu's potential, but it sounds similar to King Kai's method of telepathy, which is far greater than Chaozu's.
-I also like what you mentioned about the other Earthlings as well, but the Dragon World is based around the fact that a higher Ki means higher speed and power. Apparently Burter was "the fastest in the universe" but Frieza immediately claimed that title all in an episode.
-Yes! That's what I was trying to imply with my idea for Tenshinhan and the other Earthlings becoming Masters for the next generation of World Tournament Fighters

The attempt to make 8 characters relevant again (anyone but Goku and Vegeta who were relevant the whole time) consumed pretty much the entire set of tournament of power opponents that was not hogged by Goku and Vegeta. Having a big cast of relevant characters might just consume to much screen time and enemies to be feasible for the simple story telling of Dragon Ball, which usually involves one big villain with one or two hands full of henchmen.

Yeah that what I was feeling might happen. And its much more interesting to come up with new characters than keep focusing on the old. I wasn't trying to imply that they be able to take on Fused Zamasu, but give them something to do at least instead of sitting on the sidelines. Like in Yo Son Goku! Special, where there was a disaster occurring and everyone participated in keeping everyone safe (Yamcha, Krillin, Yajirobe, Piccolo, and even Roshi.) Or at the very least give these characters proper send offs.

[Saturnine]

There is a very easy way to do that, but it's one Toei would never try. Introduce an appropriately weak villain, but take Goku and Vegeta out of the equation.

Too bad they always need to be in an arc for some reason. Naruto wasn't that stupid about cramming the main characters everywhere.

[Muffin Man]

There is a very easy way to do that, but it's one Toei would never try. Introduce an appropriately weak villain, but take Goku and Vegeta out of the equation.

Too bad they always need to be in an arc for some reason. Naruto wasn't that stupid about cramming the main characters everywhere.

Seriously, this. It worked pretty well for the Garlic Jr. saga. It's a shame we didn't get at least one canon story like it.

[Doctor.]

It's not very difficult.

a) Give them roles in the plot in which their strength isn't necessary to succeed and, instead, it's their intelligence or other personal traits that pull them through;
b) Develop their strength increases gradually, over the course of various arcs, until they're at the same level as the top dogs (instead of a huge, immediate power boost) if you're writing a scenario in which strength is necessary.

That's all you have to do really.

[Lionel]

Under the present circumstances of the system that's already in place, I'm gonna suggest Kaioken, Whis training, god ki, and potential unlocks galore for all of the earthlings. I think without Kaioken they might surpass SSJG with all the other mentioned permutations already in place. Some innovated multipliers could hopefully put them above blue and perhaps in range of SSJBE Vegeta and SSJBKKx20 Goku.

Ultra Instinct is another kettle of fish. Out of all the earthlings, Tenshinhan would be the most committed but he suffers from the same setbacks that ail Vegeta. He's an emotionally wound up and zealously dedicated fighter. I think he and the prince would find themselves in the same position as each other. Krillin apparently has to deal with apprehensiveness and anxiety because he's not as confident as his companions. Fear would very much pose a hindrance to his ability to learn UI. Yamcha suffers from dedication issues but I don't see anything outright wrong with his temperament in a fight except maybe for some overconfidence whenever he's sizing up his opponent. Chaozu doesn't have the same intelligence as the others, similar to Goku, but his fighting style is prohibitive and makes learning Ultra Instinct difficult. If he were to try getting it then his best approach would be to somehow automate his telekinesis and ki abilities.

[lancerman]

There is a very easy way to do that, but it's one Toei would never try. Introduce an appropriately weak villain, but take Goku and Vegeta out of the equation.

Too bad they always need to be in an arc for some reason. Naruto wasn't that stupid about cramming the main characters everywhere.

Seriously, this. It worked pretty well for the Garlic Jr. saga. It's a shame we didn't get at least one canon story like it.

I'm willing to bet if you asked this board to rank the anime sagas from DB and DBZ, the Garlic Jr saga would be at the bottom of the majority of lists.

[HeroR]

There is a very easy way to do that, but it's one Toei would never try. Introduce an appropriately weak villain, but take Goku and Vegeta out of the equation.

Too bad they always need to be in an arc for some reason. Naruto wasn't that stupid about cramming the main characters everywhere.

Seriously, this. It worked pretty well for the Garlic Jr. saga. It's a shame we didn't get at least one canon story like it.

I'm willing to bet if you asked this board to rank the anime sagas from DB and DBZ, the Garlic Jr saga would be at the bottom of the majority of lists.

That was more of a problem with execution than idea.

[Saturnine]

Yeah, I've heard dozens of reasons quoted for that arc's shittiness, but the lack of Goku was never among them.