I honestly feel like this just muddies the waters here even more. Why is the word Earthling used all the time rather than Human? Is 18 not an Earthling? She is a cyborg created from a human woman with robotic/cybernetic enhancements manufactured from entirely terrestrial parts and means. Goku isn't an Earthling because he was born on Planet Vegeta? Okay, so, what, that means Gohan's only Half-Earthling? He's Half-
Human, certainly, but he's spent his entire life on Earth.

Okay, so Tien's
descended from three-eyed aliens. A species that apparently doesn't exist anywhere else in Universe 7 or in the remainder of the multiverse, and even though he's spent his entire life on Earth too, he's "not an Earthling." I just don't understand the qualitative point here, especially when there are many other weird creatures on Dragon Ball's Earth like Korin, Oolong, and Pilaf, all of whom are probably Earthlings (

), but Krillin is the strongest "Earthling," but, what, not necessarily the strongest human? It's really not making sense. The distinction seems to exist for the incredibly and pathetically unnecessary niche of allowing Tien to be placed in a separate category in terms of strength considerations to avoid triggering Tien fans when Krillin fans cling to Word of God
TM that Krillin is the strongest Earthling.
I think it's completely irrelevant at this point. By power scaling, Tien should be stronger than Krillin, but by feats it looks like Krillin is probably stronger, at this point, than Tien (which, I agree, I think is dumb). I love both characters. I am sad to see Tenshinhan so utterly disrespected by Super. I am also sad to see Krillin eliminated so quickly in the Tournament of Power. Let's stop with this meaningless Earthling =/= Human, Tien vs Krillin flame war. Also, I don't know that I've seen anyone here arguing that Krillin is stronger than Tien because "b-but he's the strongest Earthling! Toriyama said so!!" but if they have, then I'd argue that's honestly just as meaningless as well. Toriyama says a lot of crazy shit, he writes a lot of crazy shit, and a lot of things happen in the anime that just don't make logical sense. I don't think you can treat a statement like that as absolute truth, and I'd say it has no worth in this debate. A debate which is, itself, in my humble opinion, also totally pointless. It's sad and it gets the community absolutely nowhere.