A Few Random What-If Thoughts

[Michsi]

Dunno. I think that Good Lunch at least would be a much better morality pet than Blooma. I mean, come on, Blooma?!

I think Bulma is alright for someone like Vegeta and they do fit when looking at certain aspects. She might not be the most kind-hearted person in the show, but she is enough of a good guy for this trope to work. Lunch on the other hand is either too soft and sweet or too aggressive and violent. Not to mention that I do tend to see them as separate characters and I was talking about blonde Lunch mostly so when I think about them put together, I mostly think about him and the blonde.

[Michelle91]

Here another popular one:

What if Vegeta had been turned to stone by Dabra instead of Piccolo?

Oh yeah the infamous if Piccolo was fallen under Babidi control instead? I think Piccolo would kill Pui Pui no different then Vegeta would have done while Goku vs. Yakon and Gohan vs. Dabra would be pretty much as they were.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Gokū kills Freeza in Namek
In the original story, Freeza just barely survives Gokū's final blast on Namek before the planet explodes. What if he hadn't lived? Without Freeza and Cold going to Earth for revenge, would Gokū have lasted long enough in the original timeline to help out with the androids? Would it even make a difference? If he didn't, how would Trunks' first appearance be with no Freeza?

Due to Freeza not attracting the rest of the super-warriors, Trunks would meet and warn Gokuu alone. It wouldn't make a difference to his heart virus.

Gokū lives in the Cell Games
What if Gohan managed to kill Cell before he blew himself up? How would the Majin Boo arc have gone with an alive Gokū (who would not have learned Fusion in the afterlife)? Would Vegeta still have succumbed to Babidi's magic if Gokū hadn't humiliated him by sacrificing his life?

Gohan still wouldn't be allowed to train with Gokuu, especially in a time of peace. Vegeta would probably be closer to Gokuu, since the latter wouldn't have the somewhat significant advantage of afterlife training, but still succumb to Bobbodi's magic because he's still not his match. This would give him the upper hand against Gokuu. Vegeta would sacrifice himself, and later Gokuu stalls Boo by telling him that someone would fight him in a day, even without Fusion. Gokuu decides to check the afterlife for Gohan, their last hope, and discovers him in the Kaioushin Realm. Gohan breaks the Z-Sword, receives the old Kaioushin's power-up and returns to Earth to defeat Boo, who doesn't have Gotenks to absorb.

Piccolo survives against Nappa
What if Gokū arrived just early enough to give the dying Piccolo a senzu? Without the Earth Dragon Balls disappearing, they probably wouldn't have needed to go to Namek (although Jiaozi would still be dead) which would mean they wouldn't meet Freeza. Would Freeza become immortal? Or would he just be stuck with useless balls since he doesn't speak Namekian? Would Vegeta survive in Namek by himself? Would the folks back on Earth get slaughtered by the androids?

Gokuu and co. train for a potential rematch with Vegeta after they heal in the hospital. Vegeta gets killed on Namek and, when Freeza can't get the password for the DBs, he blows up the planet along with the Namekians. In a year, they revive Yamcha with the DBs, but since Chaozu has already died before, both he and Tenshinhan remain dead in the afterlife.

Later, Gokuu dies from his heart virus and the rest of them are killed by the Androids.

Piccolo Daimaō doesn't manage to spit out an egg
Piccolo doesn't live long enough to spit out an egg. God dies along with him, there's no Piccolo Jr, and Jiaozi, Muten-Rōshi and Kuririn stay dead. No Dragon Balls. How boring would the 23rd tournament be? How would Radits' coming turn out?

Gokuu gets married to Chi-Chi, and later wins in the final against Tenshinhan. Everyone dies against Raditz.

What if Vegeta had been turned to stone by Dabra instead of Piccolo?

Oh yeah the infamous if Piccolo was fallen under Babidi control instead? I think Piccolo would kill Pui Pui no different then Vegeta would have done while Goku vs. Yakon and Gohan vs. Dabra would be pretty much as they were.

Piccolo would kill Pui-Pui, Gokuu would kill Yakon, and Gohan vs. Dabra would be a stalemate until Gokuu jumped in to help, eventually allowing Gohan to win. Gokuu and Gohan transform into Super Saiyans to destroy Boo's shell, while Kaioushin kills Bobbodi. Later, Gokuu and Vegeta have their long-awaited rematch, with Gokuu emerging as the victor and Vegeta slinking off to sulk for a while before training again to surpass him.

[Michelle91]

If Piccolo did some fall under his control then I would imagine that Gohan would try to make him snap out of it. And if Buu somehow Buu is reborn again then Goku would teach the fusion dance to Vegeta since he would still be alive. They could fuse into Gogeta then Gogeta kills both Buu and Babidi in a single attack. Goku and Vegeta have a quick rematch then everyone lives happy ever after.

[Piccolo Daimao]

If Piccolo did some fall under his control then I would imagine that Gohan would try to make him snap out of it. And if Buu somehow Buu is reborn again then Goku would teach the fusion dance to Vegeta since he would still be alive. They could fuse into Gogeta then Gogeta kills both Buu and Babidi in a single attack. Goku and Vegeta have a quick rematch then everyone lives happy ever after.

Dabra didn't even notice the evil within Vegeta until he started complaining during his fight with Dabra, so how would he notice what little evil Piccolo may have in him?

And the reason that Vegeta was taken over in the first place is because he literally succumbed to it so he could fight Gokuu. I don't think Piccolo's that selfish to deliberately succumb, and because he's not pure evil like Dabra, he'd be strong enough to resist, if it happened.

[Fox666]

I don't think Babidi can possess anyone with some degree of evil (i.e. Bulma and Kame-sennin). I think they must be truly evil, like Vegeta (deep inside) or Darbra.

And Piccolo at this point was nowhere close to being considered evil.

[Michelle91]

What if Buu absorbed Kaioshin instead of Dai Kaioshin?

So let's say that Buu was able to absorbed Kaioshin instead Dai Kaioshin. What would the Buu saga be like, would Goku be strong enough to take down Buu as a SSj3?

[Fox666]

I doubt so. He probably would be even stronger than the bulked up one, which is even stronger tha Evil Boo.

[Kendamu]

GOKU AND THE CAR
I don't think Goku winning the 22nd Budokai would've mattered too much. That very day is when the Piccolo Daimao arc kicks into gear. I can see Goku winning and everything turning out extremely similar to how it really did go down. The only real way I could see a change in how the rest of the story plays out is if Goku didn't forget his stuff and Krillin wasn't killed right then and there. Either way, Goku wouldn't have time to get cocky because he'd have to train up to defeat Daimao and that would lead into his training to defeat Piccolo Jr. at the 23rd Budokai.

YAJIROBE WINS! OR KURIRIN. EITHER OR.
There's so many major changes in who the power player is on Namek that it's really hard to tell exactly what would've happened. I think that it'd be most likely that Gohan and Kuririn would've probably tried to stay in hiding as much as possible with one Dragon Ball in their possession. Freeza wouldn't have likely brought in the Ginyu Force as he probably wouldn't have run out of scouters so fast. I'm sure that, had they been found, it would've been by someone such as Kui. I mean, maybe Dodoria and/or Zarbon might've been sent out to find them, but it's more likely that it would've been someone like Kui, who Goku would've stomped without trouble. Looking at it from that angle, would the Ginyus been able to arrive before Goku directly went up against Freeza? Also, would Goku have taken enough damage to Zenkai his way to being strong enough to become a Super Saiyan after Krillin's eventual death against Freeza? It's a huge can of worms I can't even really fathom... and that's without even really getting into Goku and Krillin's strained relationship.

YAMCHA PAYS ATTENTION
This is the reason I even answered this thread. The whole bit about strategy playing a role and fighters staying alive long enough for Goku to arrive really adds to what this fight could've been. Many people might think that everyone who was dead might still be dead by the time Goku gets there, but at the same time strategy played a huge role in a group of much weaker and already injured fighters being able to take down Vegeta. I think the same might apply in keeping most of the good guys alive until Goku arrived. In any case, they'd probably still go to Namek anyway to bring back whoever might be dead by the end of the battle. Or, at the very least, they'd go to Namek hoping to stop Vegeta from attaining immortality there. It'd play out like one of the alternate ways you can beat Super Saiya Densetsu for Super Famicom.

[batistabus]

On the podcast, it was mentioned that Goku wouldn't have been able to train at 100x gravity because there were other people on the ship, but I don't think that's why he would've done it. Sure, Goku likes to train, but the whole reason he pushed himself so hard before arriving was because he was coming as back-up. Kuririn, Gohan, and Bulma were screwed, so he had to go save them. If the "what-if" trio went all at once, they wouldn't be expecting any problems. Goku wouldn't have trained because he wouldn't think he needed to. Because of this, he would've been far outgunned.

Anyway, if Kuririn killed Vegeta, I think Goku would be grumpy at worst. Maybe he'd brink it up randomly and stick his tongue out at Kuririn for a few chapters, but I don't think he'd be much more upset than that.

[Piccolo Daimao]

On the podcast, it was mentioned that Goku wouldn't have been able to train at 100x gravity because there were other people on the ship, but I don't think that's why he would've done it. Sure, Goku likes to train, but the whole reason he pushed himself so hard before arriving was because he was coming as back-up. Kuririn, Gohan, and Bulma were screwed, so he had to go save them. If the "what-if" trio went all at once, they wouldn't be expecting any problems. Goku wouldn't have trained because he wouldn't think he needed to. Because of this, he would've been far outgunned.

Anyway, if Kuririn killed Vegeta, I think Goku would be grumpy at worst. Maybe he'd brink it up randomly and stick his tongue out at Kuririn for a few chapters, but I don't think he'd be much more upset than that.

You know, I've always wondered why none of them counted on Vegeta going to Namek too, which he flat-out mentioned he was going to do. I mean, there was the possibility of him wasting another potentially long trip to Earth to kill Gokuu and co., thinking that they wouldn't have the technology to travel to another planet. But immortality was his primary goal, not some petty revenge trip.

Of course, in the story itself, Vegeta only wanted immortality to have an eternity for battle, but this was later retconned when Freeza was introduced so that Vegeta wanted immortality primarily to defeat Freeza. I assume this is why, after Vegeta was blasted into the sky by Gokuu's Kaiouken x4 Kamehameha, Viz changed the translation of his line "I'm the strongest warrior in the universe!" to "I'm the strongest Saiyan warrior in the universe!" Not that the former was a plothole or anything; it's Vegeta we're talking about here.

[soulnova]

Can I post another what if? What if...Bardock followed Goku to Earth instead of trying to stop Freeza? Would they friend Gohan? Would they kill him? And would there still be a legend about a super saiyan?

Given Bardock still had his visions, I believe he would leave Kakarot with Gohan to fulfill the prophecy. Keep and eye on him but let him develop alone. I really don't know if he would intervene with Raditz (he's his son too after all) but Goku -needs- to die to get to King Kai and learn Genki-Dama and Kaoi-ken for the Frieza fight.

There's a very good fanfic that follow a similar idea.

[Michelle91]

What If Trunks died instead of Gohan and Gohan went back in time?

Do you think Gohan would have killed both Freeza and King Cold like Trunks did or would he left Goku to finish off both of them? Since Gohan is smarter then Trunks then I would imagine that he would try to keep things the same. Without Trunks then I don't know who Vegeta would train with in the ROSAT?

[Mystic Gohan]

What If Trunks died instead of Gohan and Gohan went back in time?

Do you think Gohan would have killed both Freeza and King Cold like Trunks did or would he left Goku to finish off both of them? Since Gohan is smarter then Trunks then I would imagine that he would try to keep things the same. Without Trunks then I don't know who Vegeta would train with in the ROSAT?

Gohan would still kill them imo. Also if Future Gohan came, he would train with present Gohan and Goku could train with Vegeta haah. They could have a fight again!

[Michelle91]

If Gohan chooses to train with his present self first then they would likely kill off Cell before absorbed #18. I think Kuririn would have told both Gohan's that #16 and #18 are not evil. I guess the Buu saga would play out differently since Goku is still alive and the Buu saga would be similar to the what if in the second sparking game if Buu was never released from his egg. With Goku alive then Vegeta would have keep his mouth shut during Gohan's fight with Dabra.

[Mystic Gohan]

I don't think Future Gohan would let 18 live tbh.