Do Characters Hold Back In Filler More Often?

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theherodjl
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Do Characters Hold Back In Filler More Often?

Post by theherodjl » Sat Sep 23, 2017 5:01 am

With all the fights that are depicted in filler having unusual or confusing outcomes among many characters, do you suppose that heroes and villains alike just prefer to hold back in some battles purely for their own pleasure or training?
Ex. Yamcha simultaneously defeats Olibu and another powerful fighter from the afterlife. It's established that Olibu was powerful enough to give a weighted Pikkon some trouble, Pikkon with his weighted clothing was as powerful as Base Goku which is worlds above Yamcha. Proof that Olibu was holding back for training training purposes?
Another ex. SSJ2 Goku manages to go toe to toe with Kid Boo initially. Despite the fact that Goku was only moderately stronger than Vegeta at best he managed to give Kid Boo a thrashing comparatively, while later in the fight it takes a SSJ3 Goku to achieve this same result. Proof that Kid Boo was holding back for pleasure?
One more, ex. Ultimate Gohan was somehow even with Bootenks for a short time despite the fight becoming one sided mere moments later. Obviously Bootenks had to be stronger as per the manga outcome, or was Gohan having a filler high and had confidence but after being shaken up by Boo he reverted to being weaker than his opponent?
Does filler make characters stronger or does it nerf them deliberately?
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Re: Do Characters Hold Back In Filler More Often?

Post by floofychan333 » Mon Sep 25, 2017 7:40 pm

I'd say you're probably on to something here. Though filler's not scrutinized for being hilariously inconsistent, inconsistency is a huge problem and this is an explanation that could rationalize the bizarre power inconsistencies of characters in filler.
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Re: Do Characters Hold Back In Filler More Often?

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sintzu
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Re: Do Characters Hold Back In Filler More Often?

Post by sintzu » Thu Sep 28, 2017 4:47 am

theherodjl wrote:SSJ2 Goku manages to go toe to toe with Kid Boo initially. Despite the fact that Goku was only moderately stronger than Vegeta at best he managed to give Kid Boo a thrashing comparatively, while later in the fight it takes a SSJ3 Goku to achieve this same result. Proof that Kid Boo was holding back for pleasure?
I think Kid Buu throughout the whole fight was just toying with everyone, both in filler and manga scenes. The only time I think he got serious was against the Genkidama but by then it was too late.

In terms of the question, characters hold back all the time. When Goku fought Cell for example, both were holding back at first then we found out later against Gohan that when Cell seemed serious against Goku, he was still not going all out.
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Re: Do Characters Hold Back In Filler More Often?

Post by theherodjl » Thu Sep 28, 2017 6:41 am

sintzu wrote:
theherodjl wrote:SSJ2 Goku manages to go toe to toe with Kid Boo initially. Despite the fact that Goku was only moderately stronger than Vegeta at best he managed to give Kid Boo a thrashing comparatively, while later in the fight it takes a SSJ3 Goku to achieve this same result. Proof that Kid Boo was holding back for pleasure?
I think Kid Buu throughout the whole fight was just toying with everyone, both in filler and manga scenes. The only time I think he got serious was against the Genkidama but by then it was too late.

In terms of the question, characters hold back all the time. When Goku fought Cell for example, both were holding back at first then we found out later against Gohan that when Cell seemed serious against Goku, he was still not going all out.
That's not a particularly great comparison to what I'm referring to. While the manga plays strength gaps and effort relatively straight, the anime goes out of its way to depict further content within fights that openly challenges the great power differences between fighters.
Cell vs Goku was an example that was addressed both in manga & anime that Cell was holding back, meanwhile the anime has certain battles like Yamcha vs Olibu that should not even be a fight going by manga logic. Add in the scene where Yamcha & Tenshinhan stop a Cell Jr and hold it in place, a single Cell Jr is as strong as SSJ Vegeta so that adds in some curiosity as to whether the Cell Jr decided to humor the Earthlings.
Then we get other scenes like Base Goku suddenly becoming strong enough to fight 50% Freeza for a brief scuffle right after he used up the Kaio-ken x20, that leads us to wonder if Goku's ability to absorb a great power might stem from instances such as that...or Freeza was just dicking around by making Goku think he could challenge him.
They all obviously got to be toying around for these expanded fights to make sense... Or filler is like steroids for certain fighters.
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sintzu
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Re: Do Characters Hold Back In Filler More Often?

Post by sintzu » Thu Sep 28, 2017 10:22 am

theherodjl wrote:They all obviously got to be toying around for these expanded fights to make sense... Or filler is like steroids for certain fighters.
The Cell Jr either was toying around or caught off gaurd while Freeza kept saying how he wouldn't use his full power so we can assume he underestimated Goku for those few seconds.

In any show you're not going to have a prefect system that makes sense all the time and DB is no different. We can make up every excuse in the book but when the writers want to build up tension or make a character look better than they are then logic may go out the window for a few seconds. Some do it better than others as I think the original DB never went too far with it to the point where you just couldn't make sense of it at all.
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Re: Do Characters Hold Back In Filler More Often?

Post by ekrolo2 » Thu Sep 28, 2017 10:32 am

The entire post SS line of Z movies has people hold back for the sake of theatricality. In Super Android 13, everyone's fighting the ANDROIDS in Base form and get wrecked for half the movie before remembering that Super Saiyan is a thing. Toei's love affair with this has reached maximum levels in Super.
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