Do sneak attacks really work in Z?

[emperior]

... a tiny rock thrown at Goku at low speed managed to make him scream in pain while he was sleeping as a super saiyan - an event that wouldn't even warrant blinking at if he was on guard. Pretty sure we can scale this to full on death from a bullet. Also all the other examples people have given.

It was a filler,they can't stay ssj while sleeping.But we could consider fillers as anime canon,it was a very stupid decision to keep his power bellow 10,imagine goku dying because of a random accident before cell game.

So we now know the Z-Fighters are as vulnerable as a farmer when they aren't using their ki. This doesn't mean someone like Krillin can kill Goku from behind, as Goku would quickly power-up sensing Krillin's attack, and would be sent flying at best.

It was what I thought too,but that bullet scene ruined everything. Goku realised he was being targeted but he was was not fast enough to power up to 15. Then,someone like Krillin can kill goku from behind since he is far away faster than a bullet.Back then in Z,goku could power up to ssj3 before Buu attack him,and he returned to base in front of Buu while mocking on him,note than Buu is faster than light and he was less than 10 m away from goku.

Chiaotzu's dodonpa and Lunch's machine gun could be the most mortal attacks of DB universe,since nobody knows they exist.

Yeah, it's total bullshit that Goku got scraped even though he saw it coming.

I think him getting scraped was meant to show how his body wasn't well trained anymore. It seems like he had no intention of blocking the bullet.

[dragonballer]

I think him getting scraped was meant to show how his body wasn't well trained anymore. It seems like he had no intention of blocking the bullet.

yes,that's exactly the intention of the writers,but it makes no sense,how could goku be hurt by a bullet? not even the so famous "I don't train" gohan would have this problem. And I think goku had the intention of blocking,since he bored to turn around and raise his arm.

[The Monkey King]

Sure they were great for getting the drop on the opponent and potentially turning the tides of battle in Z

But in new Dragon Ball sneak attacks have become non sense BS. With the infamous laser scene and Goku skin being broken by a bullet even though a sniper rifle couldn't do that to him as a child.

[AvatarReiko]

What happens in Super is that Goku not only drops his guard, he drops his ki entirely

But Goku was still transformed as SSJ blue at the time. If he had dropped his Ki entirely, he would have reverted to base.

I said Super, which fixed the scene from the movie, even if I thought it was fine in the movie too, because it was never stated Goku can't drop his ki while transformed, considering he did it before the Cell Games when he mastered the form to be as natural as his normal state.

He was still powered up though. Him mastering the form only took the strain of the SSJ transformation to the point where it felt natural.