How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

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How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by Polyphase Avatron » Sat Nov 10, 2018 7:45 pm

For pretty much every other race we've seen (Saiyans, Namekians, etc.) ki use is such a common thing that everyone takes it for granted. But on Earth, only a handful of people know how to do even the basics, like strength/speed amping, flight, blasts, etc. It's not like it's a super rare talent - anyone can learn with a little instruction, as shown with Videl. And there were multiple martial arts schools on Earth that were even famous for teaching ki techniques (the Turtle and Crane schools). Back in DB, Roshi was actually a world-famous martial arts master. His teacher Mutaito was also famous. So why weren't there many more people coming to him and the Crane Hermit for training? Learning these techniques could make an ordinary person more dangerous than an army, even back in DB. Knowing this was possible, why wouldn't everyone try to learn? These techniques have been known for hundreds of years at least even before the beginning of DB. But by the time of the Cell saga most people think it's all a hoax, despite the fact that the wars with Piccolo and his offspring, for example, should be well-documented in history.

Logically, there's no real reason why every Earthling shouldn't know how to use ki at a basic level, just like practically every other race we've seen on any other planet.
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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by KBABZ » Sat Nov 10, 2018 8:42 pm

I think it's part of the Wuxia roots of the setting. In those tales, being able to control and use your ki is something associated with advanced martial arts, this sort of "other" level to it all. Fighters like the wrestlers and whatnot that we see at the various tournaments (and of course Mr. Satan) represent how most normal people see fighting on Earth, but characters like Master Roshi, Tsuru Sen'nin, Korin and Kami have elevated beyond that into ki-based fighting, which is why it's always considered so amazing to attendees when they perform those acts. Even characters like General Blue aren't able to do it. And in most Wuxia, the further you go into martial arts, the further detached you become from normal people, which I think is reflected in the way Goku and Vegeta, the pure-blooded Saiyans, are so detached even from their own families due to how strongly they focus on fighting and bettering themselves.

The fact that alien races like Namekians and Frieza's fighters are so adept with ki useage shows how seriously they take fighting and how much "stronger" they are compared to Earth, who aside from a few select individuals don't take fighting anywhere near as seriously as the rest of the Universe (a lack of major space travel would certainly be a factor). What's interesting of course is that because Frieza's men use Scouters, almost all of them have devolved ki fighting into math and brute force; they took the art out of martial arts and turned it into a jock pissing content. Compare that to our heroes who know far, far better than that.

As for why there weren't a lot of people going to them for training, it's established in the first Tournament Arc that Roshi almost never takes on any new students (we know of a grand total of four of them), and Tsuru Sen'nin only has two on top of that.

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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by Polyphase Avatron » Sun Nov 11, 2018 12:45 am

KBABZ wrote:I think it's part of the Wuxia roots of the setting. In those tales, being able to control and use your ki is something associated with advanced martial arts, this sort of "other" level to it all. Fighters like the wrestlers and whatnot that we see at the various tournaments (and of course Mr. Satan) represent how most normal people see fighting on Earth, but characters like Master Roshi, Tsuru Sen'nin, Korin and Kami have elevated beyond that into ki-based fighting, which is why it's always considered so amazing to attendees when they perform those acts. Even characters like General Blue aren't able to do it. And in most Wuxia, the further you go into martial arts, the further detached you become from normal people, which I think is reflected in the way Goku and Vegeta, the pure-blooded Saiyans, are so detached even from their own families due to how strongly they focus on fighting and bettering themselves.

The fact that alien races like Namekians and Frieza's fighters are so adept with ki useage shows how seriously they take fighting and how much "stronger" they are compared to Earth, who aside from a few select individuals don't take fighting anywhere near as seriously as the rest of the Universe (a lack of major space travel would certainly be a factor). What's interesting of course is that because Frieza's men use Scouters, almost all of them have devolved ki fighting into math and brute force; they took the art out of martial arts and turned it into a jock pissing content. Compare that to our heroes who know far, far better than that.

As for why there weren't a lot of people going to them for training, it's established in the first Tournament Arc that Roshi almost never takes on any new students (we know of a grand total of four of them), and Tsuru Sen'nin only has two on top of that.
Well in DBS Tenshinhan was running a dojo with many students. If word got out that he could teach people to fly and such, there would be a huge amount of applicants.
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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by Regarder » Sun Nov 11, 2018 9:55 am

Polyphase Avatron wrote:If word got out that he could teach people to fly and such, there would be a huge amount of applicants.
It wouldn't be believed. Mr.Satan has a world wide cult and his whole thing is that flying is a fake and stuff. I guess reporters could go down there, but even if they showed it on TV, people wouldn't believe it, just like they didn't believe the small amount of the Cell Games that made it through visually, or like they didn't believe what went on at the later Budokais simply because Satan says so. He's considered to be the Earth's savior, so people are just going to assume that visual trickery is as advanced as he says it is (Hell, maybe it is. For all we know CGI is seamless in Dragonball world; hey, they have other amazing technologies like capsules, so why not?).

More generally, as space aliens were introduced into the story, the Earth was made more normal even beyond contrast. In-universe, this gives the subtle impression that the divide between the cities and the rural areas is a gigantic chasm with little city folk really venturing much outside or knowing how weird things in the Earth's wilderness can be.

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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by dbgtFO » Mon Nov 12, 2018 4:29 am

There are only a little over 100 Namekians in U7 and the Saiyans numbered in the thousands at best before their annihilation as opposed to the Earthlings who likely number in the billions like in real life.
Furthermore all of the Namekians on Namek are the direct offspring of The Eldest and so it would be easier to carry on his teachings and knowledge than with the Earthlings, who as a race are very far ahead in areas like civilisation compared to the other two, who less than a few hundred years ago went through circumstances that massively dwindled their numbers and likely resulted in only those with strong ki remained.

I believe that the earliest average Earthlings might have had a better understanding of ki than the current average Earthlings, but that it eventually became lost to time as civilization sprang up and so only those who specifically went out to learn from the old masters would gain this knowledge, while everyone else would focus on other things deemed more important.

This is exacerbated by the fact that the gods don't normally meddle in human affairs, but are strictly observers and will only take in those that are worthy of their teachings.
Thus on a mostly peaceful world, where there hasn't been a cataclysmic event to necessitate the learning of ki to protect one self, it simply hasn't been practised amongst most of the population and is only concentrated among a tiny group of people who sought it out.

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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by Polyphase Avatron » Mon Nov 12, 2018 12:59 pm

dbgtFO wrote:Thus on a mostly peaceful world, where there hasn't been a cataclysmic event to necessitate the learning of ki to protect one self, it simply hasn't been practised amongst most of the population and is only concentrated among a tiny group of people who sought it out.
The war with King Piccolo and his offspring doesn't count?
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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by dbgtFO » Tue Nov 13, 2018 2:51 am

Polyphase Avatron wrote:
dbgtFO wrote:Thus on a mostly peaceful world, where there hasn't been a cataclysmic event to necessitate the learning of ki to protect one self, it simply hasn't been practised amongst most of the population and is only concentrated among a tiny group of people who sought it out.
The war with King Piccolo and his offspring doesn't count?
...oops :lol:
In that case super powerful people did show up and beat him, but I guess Piccolo didn't decimate Earth's population by as much as what happened to the Saiyans and Namekians.

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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by Apslup » Fri Nov 16, 2018 7:40 am

I guess because Ki hasn't really been exposed to most Earthlings like it was to Namekians and Saiyans. At the start of Dragon Ball, the only people who could teach Ki to others were Kame-Sennin and Tsuru-Sennin, meaning that not many people other than Martial Artists at their School could learn Ki.

In Dragon Ball Online, Gohan writes a book about Ki Control and it becomes a best-seller, which spreads knowledge of Ki to the masses and is why every character in that game can use Ki.

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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by DragonBallFoodie » Sun Nov 25, 2018 4:08 pm

Because most Earthlings aren't trained by kung fu masters.
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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by BWri » Fri Dec 07, 2018 8:08 am

Gohan didn't write his book yet.
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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by PFM18 » Fri Dec 07, 2018 7:16 pm

BWri wrote:Gohan didn't write his book yet.
Is this a reference to DBO or something?

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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by BWri » Sat Dec 08, 2018 4:40 am

PFM18 wrote:
BWri wrote:Gohan didn't write his book yet.
Is this a reference to DBO or something?
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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by TheZFighter » Sun Dec 09, 2018 5:43 pm

I'd guess similarly to why most Earthlings in our world don't know how to use ki.
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Re: How come most Earthlings don't know how to use ki?

Post by Rubens » Wed Dec 12, 2018 9:30 am

I suppose part of it is because earthlings are born inherently with a very low battle power when compared to other races, so even regular martial artists lack that natural ability to harness ki; for example, when they first meet Dende on Namek he tells them all namekians are taught to fly at an early age - in other words, it sort of gives the impression that for most alien kinds the ability of using ki is a basic knowledge, such as walking, etc. Earthlings, however, due to their natural difficulty to harness ki, demanding then intense training to achieve that, probably grew unware of it.

What I find particularly fascinating about the "old Dragon Ball Earth" lore are the martial arts schools that actually taught plenty of students how to use ki, most notably Mutaito's and how they impacted over the rest of the people, which is all speculative. Either way, my assumption is that king Piccolo wiped out those schools and a good portion of humankind, so the knowledge of ki manipulation faded into a handful of people.

My expectation is that Tenshinhan's dojo in Super, Gohan's book about ki in DB Online, and other elements of the franchise contribute to a future where ki usage becomes a widespread knowledge among earthlings.
TheZFighter wrote:I'd guess similarly to why most Earthlings in our world don't know how to use ki.
That's my guess too. Toriyama based part of early DB off of the real world so it makes sense that it was built that way.
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