Kaioshin Appreciation Thread

[nickzambuto]

This guy is probably the most hated character in Dragon Ball. While he doesn't have a vocal outrage against him like say Broly, Broly also has a lot of fans that even it out. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say something nice about Kaioshin. It's pretty much universally agreed that he sucks.

But I've always liked the guy. He's cool and stylish, but also extremely good and nice. Today we talk about the reasons to appreciate him.

Epic Lore and Concept

On a conceptual level, we are talking about the head god to all the other deities. The God of Creation, who stands opposite the God of Destruction. His role within the Dragon Ball universe is massive, and everybody respects him. Piccolo holds him in the highest esteem, and cares deeply about him, shown when he was screaming for Kaioshin against Majin Boo and continued keeping an eye on him and bringing him up. To me if Piccolo vouches for a guy, they're good with me.

He also introduces Majin Boo into the story and kickstarts that whole arc in a very natural way. His backstory of being the youngest of five Kaioshin and the only survivor from a brutal war with Majin Boo eons ago is epic and fits right into the Dragon Ball world, and sets Majin Boo up as this behemoth, god killing monster.

Kaioshin's existence adds a lot of dimensions to the Dragon Ball world, but his personality understates it. Which leads me to my next point.

Purehearted character

Kaioshin is a really nice guy and an example of a true hero. He values all life, and didn't consider participating in the tournament on Earth beneath him. He participated in every aspect of the sport and spoke cordially with everyone, up until the point where he had to leave. That said, he still has an air of style and mystique about him.

People give him shit for being bad at his job supposedly, but I want to point out that the saiyans are insane monkeys and instead of helping made Majin Boo's revival almost impossible to prevent. Yet he readily forgiven them all and took the blame. He was actually the first person to reference he was bad at his job, making the character very genre savvy and aware.

Fight commentating skills

Kaioshin is one of the best fight commentators in Dragon Ball, on par with Piccolo and Kaio. But those guys are his subordinates and creations, so Kaioshin has even more of a wealth of wisdom and knowledge to call upon. His ability to explain fights and events as they are happening is clear and expressive. He gets you into the drama by screaming. I always liked how he just flat out called the saiyans freaks.

Tell us why you like Kaioshin?

[Shaddy]

Shin was kind of thrust into the Kaioshin position way before he was supposed to be, and it shows. I find it kind of hilarious that a big part of the reason Dragon Ball's universe and mechanics are so broken and nonsensical at points is because the absolute god is a small child, and half the people under him were murdered (or had their teachers murdered) before they learned how to run a universe properly.

There's something poetic about how so many characters in this series are just kind of dumb or bad at their jobs but have to keep trucking along like everything's fine anyway, it's both a metaphor for Toriyama's own writing style and even life as a whole.

[KBABZ]

I don't consider Kaioshin to be bad at his job, more that he was completely blindsided by both Buu's horrible potential and the exponential power gains exhibited by the Saiyans. He thought he came in with a handle on things but it turned out he was woefully under-prepared. You could say that he has a bad habit of never doing very much, but to be honest that's true of literally all Kai, not just Kaioshin (not to mention Kami).

[SupremeKai25]

I think many people hate him because he was very underwhelming. When he first appeared at the World Tournament, most people assumed that he would be the next big villain, since he had such a sinister grin and eerie feeling to him. He failed to live up to the expectations of the majority of people.

He doesn't stand out as a character. He has no unique powers, he doesn't play any major role in the storyline, and he doesn't have such an original backstory. Like every Kai in this show except Zamasu, he is just another generic good guy who only spectates fights because he is too weak to make a difference. And that is exactly what Supreme Kais are. Useless Gods who only watch and rely on others to destroy evil. They are not proactive, something that Zamasu, in his strong sense of justice, couldn't understand.

He is also kind of stupid. Why did he take so long to realize that he could give Goku and Vegeta his Potara so that they could fuse and defeat Fused Zamasu?

[Mister_Popo]

I really liked him in the Buu Arc for his bravery and intelligence, but he felt underused as a character in the Goku Black Arc.