Humans - wasted potential in movies

[coola]

After i watched TFS Celloween Commentary it made me think, anime staff really liked to make humans looking cool in fillers, even if it didn't make any sense powerwise (Tenshinhan & co vs Ginyu Force, Kuririn vs 1st form Cell, Yamcha vs Olibu etc.) yet in movies, where they didn't have to worry about canon, Kuririn is almost always buttmonkey, and anyone not Saiyans and Piccolo, are cannon fodder trash easily beaten by main villain minions. Pretty wasted opportunity to make humans useful...

[Revolution]

Seeing as humans like krillin, Tien, etc are already far beyond what any normal human can achieve I don’t see why they can’t grow the limits of what the human characters can achieve too, maybe not saiyan levels but definitely room for growth..

Roshi is pretty advanced with some of the things he achieves so I don’t see why they can’t have the other humans grow beyond that too.

They definitely get disrespected in the movies, guess they just focus on limited characters in a shorter run like a film to make it more “exiting”.

[Bloodthroe]

Honestly, the cast was getting too big once they started adding all the saiyans. Makes sense to keep the humans out as they can't really help the saiyans.

[Revolution]

They should do a bottle neck special where only the humans are there to face the threat and see what levels they can get to.

[Alruneia]

Yeah, I have to agree. With some (most) of the old Toei movies, it was like they came up with a basic idea and character cast, and then pressed what they had through the same mould every time, leading to characters always having the same roles because "they were supposed to", probably becuase that's what they figured the audience wanted. (Which maybe it was, I don't know.) Krillin was always the butt of every joke, Piccolo always showed up to do one cool but overall pointless thing, things like that. I think those movies came out every 6 months or so? They didn't really have the time or drive to properly get creative and break the mould, and that's the result.

[Lionel]

The mechanics in Dragon Ball are quite linear. If you're not strong then your prospects for narrative contribution are limited. They don't have the technical expertise of Bulma nor can they heal like Dende. Frankly their efforts to make a difference have been limited to just ferrying the battered Saiyans off or giving them Sensu beans ever since the Cell arc.

I don't like it but what can you do? It doesn't seem like Krillin or Tenshinhan are in any hurry to reach out to Whis for training. They aren't going to have their potential unlocked or learn the Kaioken; nor will they use the Potara Earrings to amplify their strength via fusion. Why? Ask Toriyama, even though I doubt if he's really given the matter much thought himself.

[FoolsGil]

After i watched TFS Celloween Commentary it made me think, anime staff really liked to make humans looking cool in fillers, even if it didn't make any sense powerwise (Tenshinhan & co vs Ginyu Force, Kuririn vs 1st form Cell, Yamcha vs Olibu etc.) yet in movies, where they didn't have to worry about canon, Kuririn is almost always buttmonkey, and anyone not Saiyans and Piccolo, are cannon fodder trash easily beaten by main villain minions. Pretty wasted opportunity to make humans useful...

When it came to Krillin in the earlier movies, they were really trying too hard to make him Goku's goofy sidekick. It was a shame. At least by this point of the franchise with Resurrection.F and Dragonball Super² Hero things have immensely improved with the writing and giving humans things to do.