Kaioshin's character

[TheUltimateNinja]

The way he goes from calm, confident and mysterious to a cowardly fool almost instantaneously seems incredibly jarring, do you think this was for out of universe reasons like Toriyama changing his mind on what kind of character he wanted Kaioshin to be or does being close to the Majins just have that much of an effect on him?

[Akyon]

Possible In-Universe explanation; could be to do with him being surprised there were so many mortals that both rivalled and surpassed his own power.
Only he reacted to this news far better than Zamasu did.

[Ki Breaker]

Kaioshin definitely try his hardest to be the god..
It's pretty hard for him to seem godly when you are surrounded be mortals that can finger flick you out of existence

It's just this which makes him seem like a coward, he isn't though, he ia ready to give his life to save the creation, and did too in trunks timeline..
He even stayed with gowasu he was scared at first but still stayed strong..
I am not sure about this but he protected gowasu, bulma and mai form zamasus red blast by creating a barrier..

He is pretty good god, godly in a calm way

[kinisking]

Supreme Kaioshin gets WAY too much hate. He wasn't cowardly. He was cautious. Unlike the idiotic saiyans, he actually wanted to abide to plans. He did his best even with the strength he had.

[RandomGuy96]

The way he goes from calm, confident and mysterious to a cowardly fool almost instantaneously seems incredibly jarring, do you think this was for out of universe reasons like Toriyama changing his mind on what kind of character he wanted Kaioshin to be or does being close to the Majins just have that much of an effect on him?

He probably has PTSD relating to the monster that killed his family and beat him nearly to death when he was scarcely more than a child by his peoples' standards. Hence why he starts sweating and shaking at the mere sight of the Majin symbol, when bared by foes we know he can crush like a bug. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to have made that observation.

EDIT: Indeed I wasn't. Kamiccolo puts the whole issue into context:

East Kaioshin was the youngest, weakest, and least experienced of all the Kaioshin. He lived in a time of peace, when suddenly, a monster appeared out of nowhere, and killed all of his peers. He got lucky, killed the monster's master, and managed to ensure that the monster got sealed, but lacked the power to destroy it. So he hides it on Earth.

Kaioshin spends the next several thousand years doing the job of five Kaioshin's; something he obviously was not prepared for. For all of these years, the images of his dead friends (family?) are seared into his brain. He knows that, at any time, there is a chance that the monster can be awakened.

Thousands of years later, he finds out that the wizard who created the monster had a son, who is also a powerful magician. He knows that the son's goal is to free his father's creation. So, he sets out to find Babidi, while neglecting his observation of the universe. As a consequence, he is unaware of the growing power of the Saiyans on Earth.

He arrives on Earth, and, while outwardly appearing confident and mysterious, on the inside he is torn. He chooses to take a gamble, allowing a powerful fighter to fall in order to follow Babidi's minions back to his ship. Along the way, he gains powerful allies in the Saiyans, but due to his focusing on finding Babidi, he is unaware of their true strength.

They arrive at the ship, and Kaioshin sees the ruler of the Demon Realm, enslaved by Babidi. He notices that Babidi's henchmen all have the same "M" symbol that the monster did. Kaioshin, overwhelmed by his memories of the past, starts behaving irrationally, doubting the powers of his comrades, and overestimating his enemies, due to their association with the monster. He is further shaken when his allies, who are mere mortals, prove to be even stronger than he himself, the god of gods, is. In only a few hours on Earth, his entire perception of his place in the universe has been shaken, and he is clearly out of his depth. I don't generally like using GT, but his portrayal there is much more competent. People joke that he is terrified of anything with an "M" on it, and that's actually true, to a much closer degree than these people may think.

So, in conclusion, Kaioshin has a massive case of PTSD, and it's amplified by seeing foes who have some relation to Majin Buu.

[precita]

Also isn't it implied he's fairly young for a Supreme Kai? Elder Kai constantly lecturing him gives me that impression.

[TheUltimateNinja]

Supreme Kaioshin gets WAY too much hate. He wasn't cowardly. He was cautious. Unlike the idiotic saiyans, he actually wanted to abide to plans. He did his best even with the strength he had.

They could have skipped the Buu Arc if he just let Vegeta blow everything up.

[kinisking]

Supreme Kaioshin gets WAY too much hate. He wasn't cowardly. He was cautious. Unlike the idiotic saiyans, he actually wanted to abide to plans. He did his best even with the strength he had.

They could have skipped the Buu Arc if he just let Vegeta blow everything up.

We don't know what kind of events that could have let to. What we do know that we could have skipped the buu arc entirely if it weren't for Vegeta's whining and inability to cooperate.

[TheUltimateNinja]

Supreme Kaioshin gets WAY too much hate. He wasn't cowardly. He was cautious. Unlike the idiotic saiyans, he actually wanted to abide to plans. He did his best even with the strength he had.

They could have skipped the Buu Arc if he just let Vegeta blow everything up.

We don't know what kind of events that could have let to. What we do know that we could have skipped the buu arc entirely if it weren't for Vegeta's whining and inability to cooperate.

But we already knew from previous arcs that Vegeta is a whiny loser so that's nothing new, Kaioshin on the other hand was presented as a cool and collected guy who should have been able to read the situation.

[DBZAOTA482]

Supreme Kaioshin gets WAY too much hate. He wasn't cowardly. He was cautious. Unlike the idiotic saiyans, he actually wanted to abide to plans. He did his best even with the strength he had.

What plan? The only "plan" that purple pussy had was to be a coward and gang up on Babidi's men.

If he had a plan then he would've kept an extra close eye on Earth... the very planet he left Majin Boo's shell at which he knew was evolving.

[Akyon]

Probably wouldn't have hurt to seal Majin Buu on a planet with NO life on it at all to avoid any energy gathering possibilities.

Super has made me warm up to the guy(seeing him in Super's manga was a huge plus), but at one point he was my most disliked character due to his inability to act at pivotal times.

[Kamiccolo9]

Probably wouldn't have hurt to seal Majin Buu on a planet with NO life on it at all to avoid any energy gathering possibilities.

Super has made me warm up to the guy(seeing him in Super's manga was a huge plus), but at one point he was my most disliked character due to his inability to act at pivotal times.

Did Earth have any life when Kaioshin sealed Buu?

[Lord Frieza]

It could just be a case of "he's just like us". He was raised as a god and his manner reflects this but underneath it all is just a nice, normal guy trying to do his best.

[Cipher]

Kaioshin is A-OK with me. His greatest failing is that he expected the Saiyans to act like reasonable people in the interest of protecting their planet.

He seems more cowardly than Goku, Gohan and Vegeta in the beginning of the arc because he's the only one with a clue how terrible Boo is, and everyone else refuses to take things seriously until he's been released. While he's asking repeatedly for them to not play around with the possibility of providing Boo more energy, Vegeta is putting two and two together regarding the fact that the three of them are the strongest beings in existence, and letting it go to his head.

[Akyon]

Probably wouldn't have hurt to seal Majin Buu on a planet with NO life on it at all to avoid any energy gathering possibilities.

Super has made me warm up to the guy(seeing him in Super's manga was a huge plus), but at one point he was my most disliked character due to his inability to act at pivotal times.

Did Earth have any life when Kaioshin sealed Buu?

...you know; that's a valid counter argument.

...wait do the Kaioshin create life? Why'd he put life on the planet if that's the case?

[XdragondudeX]

I too feel like he gets too much flack in the dragonball community, he's not a perfect character by any means but I respected him for wanting to strategize, rationalize and take necessary pre cautions. He was a selfless character, and i'm a sucker for characters like that like Gohan and Goten. Supreme Kai was doing the best with whatever scenario was presented by him, he had no knowledge of Goku, Vegeta, or Gohan's level of strength at all.

[nickzambuto]

Fans who hate on Kaioshin don't take into account the entire point that when Boo was released, he proved Kaioshin was right the whole time. All his pleading, fear, and "cowardice" was completely justified when Boo actually was released, and proved he was just as unstoppable as Kaioshin made him out to be, completely toying with the saiyans despite their great power. This makes Goku and Vegeta look like total braindead idiots and Kaioshin as the only guy who actually knew what he was talking about, but was unfortunate enough to recruit self-centered saiyans onto his team. Kaioshin might come across as cowardly initially, and completely ignorant to the true power these saiyans possess when talking about how overwhelming this Majin Boo creature is, but the "twist" is that he ended up being right all along and the saiyans were overconfident.

[Nejishiki]

Did Earth have any life when Kaioshin sealed Buu?

...you know; that's a valid counter argument.

...wait do the Kaioshin create life? Why'd he put life on the planet if that's the case?

Yes, Kaioshin says Earthlings were beginning to walk when Boo was created. Further down the line, he recounts that he left Boo's ball alone because it was inaccessible to Earthlings at the time. The ultimate angle is that life, primitive as it was, had been present when Bibbidi arrived. It had to be since the wizard intended to unleash Boo on the planet and Kaioshin refused to move his ball after killing him.

[nickzambuto]

Did Earth have any life when Kaioshin sealed Buu?

...you know; that's a valid counter argument.

...wait do the Kaioshin create life? Why'd he put life on the planet if that's the case?

Yes, Kaioshin says Earthlings were beginning to walk when Boo was created. Further down the line, he recounts that he left Boo's ball alone because it was inaccessible to Earthlings at the time. The ultimate angle is that life, primitive as it was, had been present when Bibbidi arrived. It had to be since the wizard intended to unleash Boo on the planet and Kaioshin refused to move his ball after killing him.

Perhaps this was a smart move. Kaioshin probably put Boo's ball on Earth because he knew that galaxy as a whole was incredibly weak and no matter how much time passed, there would never be individuals strong enough to awaken Boo. If he placed Boo in some other galaxy or area of the universe, where life was stronger, it would be more of a risk. But he knew the humans would never evolve to possess that level of power, so it was fine. Somebody might say that if that was his logic, he should have just placed Boo in a completely dead galaxy, but perhaps it was something of an intentional gambit, him hoping nobody would ever suspect to find Majin Boo on such a lowly, minuscule planet as Earth, whereas anybody searching for Boo would likely assume that Kaioshin placed him in a dead galaxy.

[Nejishiki]

I think you might have misread that. Bibbidi planted Boo's ball there himself. He was killed before he could do anything with it. Kaioshin, by his own admission, left the ball alone. He didn't transport it at all or else it would have been destroyed millions of years ago already. The point comes up later when he's paranoid that any shock could break his seal. I don't think it was likely he was thinking about any of that. He just wanted to keep it inactive. Actually, Kaioshin and Kibito keeping tabs on it are precisely how they discovered Bobbidi's presence, thanks to him moving it. Their lifelong motive was to stop anyone from awakening Boo at all instead of dealing with the ball itself.