Were the humans really useless?

[TheGmGoken]

I might be in the minority here but I don't see what everyone is saying that the humans were useless in future arcs. Besides Boo Arc where even Piccolo was useless I don't see what the people mean. In fact combat wise they wasn't the best but they certainly wasn't useful. Now comparing DB Part 1(Goku Arc - Piccolo Jr Arc) usefulness to DB part 2 they are useless. But to say they was useless in everything is what bothers me. Now as you read this you will realize that you see the same name. As he was most likely the only MAJOR support.

Saiyan Arc - The humans fought hard with Nappa. Tien fought until the end of his life and even surprised Nappa(To no damage). Krillin to be honest beat Nappa in a fight. Yes I count this as a Krillin victory. Without Vegeta help Nappa would have lost. Krillin also helped out in the Vegeta vs Goku battle. He's the first to use the GenkI Dami(Known as Genki Dama officially) and came up with the Namek idea.

Namek Arc - Krillin was pretty much useful in the Namek arc. He pretty much did helped Gohan in tight spots and had some great moments. Nice work Krillin. I'm starting to think people underestimate Krillin's fighting ability. The others...are trained with King Kai.

Cell Arc - Krillin was pretty much mail man. He had the Senzu Beans, The remote, and got a kiss. He finds Dr.Gero's lab and even KILL Cell. He helped 16(Which in case you ddin't know my good kanzenshuuers that means he caused Gohan to turn SSJ2) out and didn't allow Trunks to just leave him to die. He tried to stop Cell and avenge 18. Tien got to do his Ki blast canon and repel Cell. Wished it did cut off it tailed though. As it would have been a great character moment. Yamcha......and Chazo(DID he even appear in this arc?)....well was just...being house fighters.

Boo Arc - Mr Satan...nuff said.

So it appears to me that Krillin and Mr Satan were the most useful. With Tien being 3rd. So to say they were useless is quite ignorant IMO. They not helpful in fighting but are great supporters. Also shows that DBZ did not ignore their support characters. I never really got why people said they were useless like they did nothing after Dragonball.

Filler List(Can't remember all filler)
Krillin fought Imperfect Cell
The humans saved a burning village
That's all I remember.

Movie list
Krillin..somewhat in DBZ movie 1
Movie 2..once again Krillin
Movie 4 - once again Krillin only because of his funny moment
Movie 11 - Satan and Krillin.

Damn Krillin is pretty useful don't ya think?

[RandomGuy96]

Krillin also saved Gohan from lava in Movie 10. He got to destroy a couple of those powerful robots in Movie 6 (his most impressive feat in any media, 'cept video games of course). He distracted Salza while Gohan got the senzus to Goku in Movie 5.

What really bugged me about the humans: one, Krillin never really got to win a fight. Not even in filler. And no, the Saibamen and Freeza soldiers don't count. Two, Tien never got to be useful in combat at all after Goku beat him. And again, the Saibaman doesn't count.

[DynasticHunter]

I think people say Kuririn is useless because he is a easy target. But the guy did have some balls and I think people like to ignore the fact that he is one of the most useful human out of all them. Don't forget the Half-Saiyans they are human too. Its hard for the pure Humans to really do anything when they get outclassed by the Super Saiyan transformations, and they all do well on their own in my opinion. Except Yamucha.

[Jackal puFF]

Krillin's is in like every movie lol. But yeah this is why Krillin really is the strongest human. He hung in there.

[caejones]

I get the impression that, when people say "useless", they mean "never win any fights (or if they do, they're either filler, against unimportant henchment, or both)".
Which is a terrible definition of useless, although it seems like Toriyama didn't help much to redefine it (most of the time, humans either carry unconscious saiyans to safety, distribute senzu, or try to be distracting).

Chaozu, though? Dude was useless. I don't mean useless as in he couldn't stand up to the enemies. I mean useless as in he's got telepathy and impressive telekinesis, which were his main feature at his first appearance, other than the dodonpa (which he never uses outside of his fight with Kuririn), yet he never does anything the least bit useful with them. He supposedly tries to use his telekinesis on Nappa while Nappa's powering up, and it doesn't work (I'm pretty sure that it didn't work for the sole reason that it working would have given the earthlings the advantage from the get-go, which was not how Toriyama wanted things to play out).
But that didn't mean the smartest thing to do was sneakily suicide bomb Nappa! Hell, against Daimao, jumping out and screaming at the dragon and hoping he didn't get shot was pretty poorly thought out, too!
Of course, we did just see Chaozu lose his tournament fight out of shear stupidity (It's justified in that he's clearly a Japanese Vampire, and the way Kuririn beat him is the way you're supposed to defeat Japanese Vampires according to the last time I checked the internet's opinion several years ago), but I'd kinda hoped that Tsuru Sen'nin had taught them some tactics, or if not him, then Kami or Karin, at least. At the bare minimum, Chaozu could have been the "telekinetically move allies out of harm's way" guy.

Yajirobe was badass, Ten was badass, Kuririn was... Kuririn, Yamcha was cannon fauder(sic), and Chaozu was Ten's pet. Sigh-o-ken.

[Marco Polo]

Humans were enablers. They may not have won many actual battles but they enabled the other main characters to win them.

Grandpa Gohan made Goku a good guy. Bulma brought Goku out of the woods. Master Roshi trained Goku. Chi-Chi gave birth to Gohan who has more potential than Goku. Bulma gave birth to Trunks who prevented everyone's death. Mr. Satan saved the entire universe, etc.

[TheMightyOzaru]

They're useless, yes, but they are very strong for their race. Master Roshi was thought to be the pinnacle of the Human race for the longest time. Now look at Krillin. He's packin' a BP well over 400x greater than Roshi's in just the Freeza arc.

[FoolsGil]

Useless? Well, they weren't written well...
Saiyan Saga, everything went to shit. Yamcha wasn't paying attention, you're down one man. Nappa reveals all your training is pointless, you're down two more men. Yajirobe finally gets off his ass to contribute. Perhaps he was the most useful, he took the chance when it was available, so Humans useful were hit and miss, mostly miss.

Namek Saga, Krillin got his focus out of battle. In battle, well he didn't use the Solar Flare/Destructo Disc Combo. He could've killed Dodoria, Recoome, and well it would have been nice if Freeza got more than his tail cut off. Even if he didn't have that combo it would have been nice to see him fight Recoome half as long instead of being dropped by a kick. Representing humanity alone, Humans were largely a miss due to wasted potential. What was the point of Guru releasing his potential again?

Android Saga, None of the humans know the Spirit Bomb. Yeah I would've said Kaioken, but if neither of them would not be able to kill Freeza with a Kaioken it would not matter...except to say it was nice they learned it. Spirit Bomb would have been a different case. Chaozu stuck behind, you're down one man. Yamcha wasn't paying attention, you're down yet another man. The Androids reveal your training was pointless....Except for Tenshinhan who pulls out a Tri Beam holding back Cell...Why didn't he use that against Androids 17 and 18 when first meeting them? He probably could have prevented a lot of bad things from happening. There was some filler of Krillin taking on Cell alone. Inaccurate or not, it was cool. With Tenshinhan and Krillin, I place this Saga in the center of hit and miss.

Buu Saga, practically everyone retires from fighting. You can't really fault any human here imho they went the way of Master Roshi, which makes this saga easy to rate this one a hit. At the end Tenshinhan pulls a Yajirobe, comes out of nowhere and shoots Buu's blast away that would have killed Dende, preventing inert balls. Humanity's proudest moment.

[mAcChaos]

Eh, I prefer how it is in DBZ since it feels more natural, as opposed to shows like Bleach where every single conflict is meticulously written so every single character squares off against an equally powerful one, every single time. It just gets old.

[sonikku956]

I think people say Kuririn is useless because he is a easy target. But the guy did have some balls and I think people like to ignore the fact that he is one of the most useful human out of all them. Don't forget the Half-Saiyans they are human too. Its hard for the pure Humans to really do anything when they get outclassed by the Super Saiyan transformations, and they all do well on their own in my opinion. Except Yamucha.

What about Chaozu?

[Kid Buu]

Saiyan Arc - The humans fought hard with Nappa. Tenshinhan fought until the end of his life and even surprised Nappa(To no damage). Krillin to be honest beat Nappa in a fight. Yes I count this as a Krillin victory. Without Vegeta help Nappa would have lost. Krillin also helped out in the Vegeta vs Goku battle. He's the first to use the GenkI Dami(Known as Genki Dama officially) and came up with the Namek idea.

Yeah, but Nappa was going to easily finish them off until Vegeta told him to wait for 3 hours. So without Vegeta, it could have gone either way.