So; has anyone else thought about how ridiculously lucky the Z fighters have been overall?

[Molock13]

It seems like ever since day one. Whenever Goku fights someone hugely powerful and wins, someone else comes along who dwarfs the other guy. Then he beats him and a new person comes along who dwarfs him. Rinse, lather, repeat. But what if someone arrived early? Like for example what if when Raditz didn't return Frieza came himself to see what happen? What if Raditz arrived before Goku had fully grown up? What if the androids activated before they went to Namek? In all these cases the Z fighters would have most likely lost and earth would be destroyed or under enslavement.

[lancerman]

It seems like ever since day one. Whenever Goku fights someone hugely powerful and wins, someone else comes along who dwarfs the other guy. Then he beats him and a new person comes along who dwarfs him. Rinse, lather, repeat. But what if someone arrived early? Like for example what if when Raditz didn't return Frieza came himself to see what happen? What if Raditz arrived before Goku had fully grown up? What if the androids activated before they went to Namek? In all these cases the Z fighters would have most likely lost and earth would be destroyed or under enslavement.

Yeah it's the conceit of the series that all these coincidences happen in just the right order so that they are at the right strength level to combat them.

Best example would be that they would all be dead if Goku got back to Earth in time to defeat Nappa and fend off Vegeta because they would never go to Namek and they would have no shot against the Androids without Super Saiyan. And without Namek happening it's highly unlikely Trunks is born to even give a warning. But obviously in real life, if the story was written that way, we'd also have the villains scaled down to something appropriate.

[MegaBossMan]

It seems like ever since day one. Whenever Goku fights someone hugely powerful and wins, someone else comes along who dwarfs the other guy. Then he beats him and a new person comes along who dwarfs him. Rinse, lather, repeat. But what if someone arrived early? Like for example what if when Raditz didn't return Frieza came himself to see what happen? What if Raditz arrived before Goku had fully grown up? What if the androids activated before they went to Namek? In all these cases the Z fighters would have most likely lost and earth would be destroyed or under enslavement.

I suppose this example does actually happen somewhat; it's easy to assume that Lord Beerus is far stronger than anything Golden Freeza was capable of, and naturally we know Beerus precedes the gilded despot. Generally, he seems to surpass most every fighter after that (though Fused Zamasu is vague) up until the conclusion of Super with the entry of Jiren. That may just poke a hole in the traditionality of the Dragon Ball franchise, though again, the Z Fighters were again insanely lucky with Beerus being the sort to spare them. Had he not shown up and they had to deal with Freeza, we'd be singing a different tale right now. Though I suppose that's no fun....

[PFM18]

you see, it isn't luck it is plot armor!

[Saturnine]

It seems like ever since day one. Whenever Goku fights someone hugely powerful and wins, someone else comes along who dwarfs the other guy. Then he beats him and a new person comes along who dwarfs him. Rinse, lather, repeat. But what if someone arrived early? Like for example what if when Raditz didn't return Frieza came himself to see what happen? What if Raditz arrived before Goku had fully grown up? What if the androids activated before they went to Namek? In all these cases the Z fighters would have most likely lost and earth would be destroyed or under enslavement.

It's called the "Sorting Algorithm of Evil" and is a well-known trope.

[SupremeKai25]

I thought you were referring to another type of luck. The luck that the Z Fighters had when Goku, AFTER EVERYTHING HE WENT THROUGH IN 12 EPISODES, still had that stupid Zeno Button in his pockets. So much luck, and I feel sorry for Infinite Zamasu. Such a powerful and intimidating villain, he totally deserved to win, because he had OUTSMARTED and OUTPLAYED everyone. But since Goku was given a bullshit instant win plot button, Infinite Zamasu had to lose.

Generally, he seems to surpass most every fighter after that (though Fused Zamasu is vague)

He never surpassed Fused Zamasu, given how Fused Zamasu merged with the very fabric of the cosmos and grew so much in power that he didn't only become his own twisted reflection of justice and order made manifest, but managed to transcend time and space on his own. This ties back to my previous argument about the Z Fighters having been REALLY lucky that Goku somehow still had the Zeno Button in his pockets. That was ridiculous, personally, I mean, how many times did Goku get hit by ki blasts, or punched, or kicked, etc. after episode 55? So many times. And he never lost the Button? It's just unbelievable.

The Future Trunks arc was a rollercoaster of lucky moments. For example, if Vegeta hadn't found the strength to fire one last ki blast conveniently powerful enough to disrupt Black and Zamasu, then they would have all died in episode 57.

[nato25]

I get what your saying but then ths villains would just have been made weaker to adapt to the power level of the zwarriors. That being said, most of the time the enemy does seem insurmountably strong, they normally lead to their own demise (Freeza tortures and kills krillin for fun, cell tortures gohan, buu messes around heaps etc.

[SsjCookie]

you see, it isn't luck it is plot armor!

This!
Any reality where Goku is alive or involved it will always have heaps of this.
Except in the time-line of Future Trunks of course, where everything that could go wrong... actually happened.

Goku died.
Gohan died.
The Z fighters all died.
No more Dragonballs.