Osmotic Ki Theory

[Regarder]

My theory is that fighting around or with people who have very high or unusual ki raises the capacity for you to achieve the same thing, so if you have a character who is quite weak and hits a wall, but then they spend time interacting with or fighting against a much stronger character, their potential for power can be influenced. This explains in-universe how weak characters seem to be making up huge gaps between themselves and characters with God Ki. The second part of the theory is that God Ki, being weird compared to normal Ki has an even greater potential to do this. If God Ki is inside your body, a skilled fighter like Goku can aclimatize to that power, but in addition, it also has that influence unknowingly and in a smaller way on anyone who is a fighter that is exposed to large amounts of it.

[KBABZ]

Could be, although personally I always saw it as Goku inspiring those around him as they saw him pushing past his limits. It happens a fair bit in OG DB where Yamcha, Krillin and Tien feel that they can keep up with Goku, and it occurs a few times in Z as well where they are encouraged to train because Goku is too (as well as the fact that the Saiyans are coming to kill them all). And of course Vegeta wants to do so after the Saiyan Saga; if he never fought Goku he probably never would have gone much further than he was before he met him. When a character becomes written out of the picture from a combative sense, it's because they explicitly give up in the face of Goku, Vegeta and their opponents, which is what happens to Krillin and Yamcha by the Buu saga.

[DragonBallLove]

I think your theory is true in a psychological sense. Truth is, there are no real limits, for no one, be saiyans, humans or whatsoever. Limits are on their mind, on their soul, if you want. And those limits, the same as BP, serves as narrative devices to be broken and dismissed constantly. Power scaling was never meant to be coherent because the characters, more or less, are always catching up with the "fighting zeitgeist" of any given moment.

[dario03]

This is what I've thought for a long time. I think its a big reason for why the kids are so strong too. I also think being able to sense ki helps with it a lot.

[KBABZ]

I always figured that Goten and Trunks being stronger than normal was the mix of Saiyan and Human blood, although I don't think that was actually confirmed anywhere.

[emperior]

I think that just watching high-level battles can make someone better. That's also why Z-Fighters could see Gohan vs Cell, for example. In the RoF arc, Roshi implied Krillin must have gotten much stronger by watching incredible fighters such as Goku, Cell, Buu etc... so this thing has been recognized at least once in-universe. By training their eyes watching fast battles it can probably improve ki perception and reflexes. This would also explain why everyone could watch the U6 tournament battles, and it would also explain why the Budokai tournament announcer could follow the battles.

[nickzambuto]

This is what I've thought for a long time. I think its a big reason for why the kids are so strong too. I also think being able to sense ki helps with it a lot.

Is your avatar what Vegeta sees in his dreams?

[dario03]

This is what I've thought for a long time. I think its a big reason for why the kids are so strong too. I also think being able to sense ki helps with it a lot.

Is your avatar what Vegeta sees in his dreams?

Its a glimpse of the future.

[Pantalones]

Part of ki is mental/spiritual (things like courage and "being in one's right mind" were listed as factors that make up one's overall ki), so it seems logical to me that something as simple as having thoughts along the lines of "I can get strong like this guy did if I go through the same training" or "that level of power is possible after all, I just have to find a way to reach it" could definitely be a factor in being able to increase one's power.

We know that a loss of hope can make it hard or impossible to put out your full power (Gohan vs. Super Perfect Cell; the arm injury was only one factor, Gohan was able to overpower Cell anyway once he got his motivation to fight at full strength back), so it would make a lot of sense that the reverse is also true -- believing or knowing that you can get stronger makes it easier to actually get stronger.

[KBABZ]

We know that a loss of hope can make it hard or impossible to put out your full power (Gohan vs. Super Perfect Cell; the arm injury was only one factor, Gohan was able to overpower Cell anyway once he got his motivation to fight at full strength back), so it would make a lot of sense that the reverse is also true -- believing or knowing that you can get stronger makes it easier to actually get stronger.

I was about to mention that after the first paragraph! Haven't recently rewatched that episode through Kai, the idea that Gohan's doubts and worries over not just himself, but his attack destroying the planet, now makes much more sense and justifies Goku having to encourage him and say it's fine twice.