If you were to re-develop these characters...

[Netter75]

A lot of characters in this series fade from relevancy after a while (Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha, Videl, 18, etc.) and we miss them because of the personalities and actions they exhibited during their time on the show. However, other now-background characters have been close to useless from the beginning. These guys can easily be excised from the story with little to no issue.

I was talking with a friend the other day about DB and we were discussing how we would reinvent certain wasted characters on the show in order to make them a bit more relevant, either to the action or to the plot. It turned out to be a fun conversation and I'm curious to see what others have to say on the issue.

I'm going to list the three most lacking IMO, all of whom have interesting abilities and foundational personalities but never really reached their full potential in the show as independent characters:

1. Puar
2. Chiaotzu
3. Launch

So, how would you personally rewrite these three characters to be more well-rounded and more relevant to the plot of DB and DBZ (or even Super)? You can change anything about their personalities, backstories, abilities, etc.

[DBZAOTA482]

Not interested in Puar or Chiaotzu in the slightest. They both served their (minimal) purpose but I would like Lunch to be handled differently. It would cool if the story took her sneezing schizophrenia seriously and have it be a major conflict within her character while she assumes the identity of two different women... as a result of a dark past. Also, her crush on Tien would be nice to see as she pursues a hardened and stoic martial-artist who apparently so aromantic he makes Goku and Vegeta look like casanovas.

Not only that but have her and Muten Roshi develop a (non-romantic) relationship with her being probably the only woman he doesn't objectify (struggling) and he gives advice to her. This could also further develop Roshi as a deeply lonely man which caused his perverted tendencies.

[fadeddreams5]

Puar is easy to make relevant, given his shapeshifting powers. Just need to create situations where stealth or espionage is needed.

Chiaotzu and Tien should learn to combine their powers. Not through fusion, but through synergy. Unfortunately, this requires Tien to be relevant too. To do so, he needs to become more powerful through training or discovering his alien routes. Ideally, he should have his moment in a situation where the Earth faces a threat, and the saiyan characters are not present.

Launch shouldn't be made relevant at all. Useless gag character. A cameo episode should suffice.

[ABED]

Chaozu was quirky when we first meet him. He couldn't count and he called Kuririn "baldy" even though he himself only had a single strand of hair. I wish Toriyama would have kept those sort of characteristics. His personality lasts about the tenure of a Spinal Tap drummer.

[Akyon]

I'd probably have had Chiaotzu's telepathic powers be a bit more powerful. With such powers he'd be able to locate characters who don't give off the usual ki; androids, gods, etc. Heck; he could of been super handy to communicate plans between the Z fighters over the entire planet.
I'd of probably have kept his rivalry with Krillin too so they can have some banter.

Since Trunks seems to channel ki into his blade, would Puar's shapeshifting allow him to become a handy weapon for fighters to power up? It'd be neat if Puar's powers got an upgrade allowing him to gather the properties of whatever he turned into.

Launch I have no clue. Mai used guns but managed to still be important in the Zamasu arc so I guess it's not impossible, but I feel her abilities aren't as useful as the others.

[Marty Kirra]

I've been waiting for this topic!

So Launch/Lunch (we'll just go with Lunch for now) is one of my favorite characters. But often times, when she's brought up, there's always the group that says "well she is just a gag character", and they wouldn't be wrong. However, late into Dragon Ball she was noticeably pretty chill (in that she wasn't shooting everyone), plus she was in her "bad" form for a majority of the time. So what happened?

I think it's that her "bad" form is the most interesting out of two! I mean with her good form, she's really docile and complacent, which in a shonen anime is kind of boring. Really, the closest thing we have now to Lunch's bad side is...Chi-Chi, occasionally? So Lunch's personality actually does fill a semi-void in cast dynamics.

Without rewriting her backstory, I would say that from the end of DB onwards, bad!Lunch is her permanent state, however, while she's still a firecracker, she's just not nearly as violent as she was before. I think outside of her maybe coming to Namek with the gang, unfortunately there's just so much to rewrite to have her involved, so let's just stick to Super!

To keep it really simple, I would replace Mai with Lunch. Lunch is unaccounted for in the future timeline and I think a lot of Mai's future personality traits would mesh better with Lunch. The only thing that'd have to be altered really is her romantic angle with Trunks, but I think that's perfectly fine. Have Lunch be a badass mother figure to the rebels!

I would like to see her more in general, even if it's just in group scenes, but that probably won't happen, and plus lately it looks like they're sticking to good!Lunch anyways if she does show up, which...meh.

[floofychan333]

If Puar and Oolong actually used their shape shifting abilities after the Pilaf saga rather than sitting around doing nothing at Kame House, then they'd be better characters.

Lunch would easily still be at least in the background now if she hadn't been forgotten about. If she finally married Tenshinhan then that loose end would tie itself up. Also, Bad Lunch could have fought the Saiyans with her power.

However, I don't really see any realistic way of saving Chiaotzu other than having him (and Ten) use the Dodon-pa, (yet another great technique completely forgotten about!!!)

[Esfír Dedragón]

I would have probably have made Launch as some kind of mother-figure to Goku when he was a kid. I can see her teaching Goku how to read/write and giving him some knowledge of how the world works, even if he still doesn't completely understand or is indifferent about it. Assuming that she still chases after Tien Shinhan, I can see her being involved in some interesting comic relief in trying to win his heart over.

Chiaotzu... ehh... he's a unique case. I would prefer to see his psychic powers be used more often and have some kind of power up. I always imagined him as some kind of an "eternal child" with some complicated backstory. I liked that one Dragon Ball movie where it was revealed that he's an Emperor.

Puar is even more complicated. Like, what else can she/he/it do? I can't think of anything else besides shape-shifting.