Taking character statements seriously.

[Nazi Cola]

I came across this interesting take on the series and wanted some opinions on it. I've seen folks argue we shouldn't simply take statements made by characters as true until proven guilty, so to speak, but never have I seen someone actually go this deep about it.

I am trying to drag you away from this concept of "characters are infallible, except when they are not". If Mr Satan makes 10 statements and 9 of them are proven false, then we should treat the 10th claim very skeptically, even if it is not explicitly wrong, because the character has no credibility. You want to say that any characters speak equally with Toriyama's voice, except for those cases where he pardons them and allows them to be wrong, and relax their omniscience for the purpose of plot. The characters don't know what Toriyama knows; their statements must be grounded in what they know, not some mysterious supply of objective information that only Toriyama would know. If Goku and the Supreme Kai make two power evaluations, do they stand on equal ground? No, because Supreme Kai is endlessly wrong in his evaluations and has not a whiff of credibility, while Goku has almost always been right.

P.S. I wasn't sure if this qualified for OOU or IU, so I just stuck it here.

[goku the krump dancer]

I don't remember Cell lying about anything, he told Vegeta that once he attained his perfect form he'd crush him and well... thats exactly what happened. He told Piccolo that once he attained his perfect form, no one would be able to beat him and up until Gohan turned SSJ2 it was nothing further from the truth.

So he says he had enough power to blow away the Solar System and for what its worth I believe it. Now exactly how he would go about accomplishing such a feat is totally up to the viewer of corse..

[Kaboom]

No, characters aren't infallible (probably not even the narrator is 100% of the time), but it's not like we should just disregard everything at a whim. Personally, I follow this very simple approach.

"A character's statement CAN be taken as fact if it's uncontradicted. However, it only SHOULD or MUST be taken as fact if it's actually proven."

[Axiom]

But But but...that would mean Gotenks fanboys would have to admit Goku was stronger. (we already know to be weaker than Goku)

[dbzfan7]

But But but...that would mean Gotenks fanboys would have to admit Goku was stronger. (we already know to be weaker than Goku)

Gotenks has fanboys? Even the people who have Gotenks stronger hate him.