Ever since Super's release, people are very quick to dismiss all criticisms about power level inconsistencies. Why?

[Miracles]

Goku was holding back in SSJB and was only giving Krillin a sense of what it feels like when being confronted with such power. Hence why Kakarot said to him "what will you do now?" knowing Krillin can't compete with Blue but it's called Goku proving Krillin for the upcoming battle. To get use to this type of power.

Trunks had a power up due to rage boost. He also used the power of the people of that future world...It's called Genki Dama... This is nothing new in Dragonball.

The reason why people claim there is "inconsistency" because they just don't like how characters won or lost.

[TheMikado]

Did anyone ever care about power levels? Maybe it's more that the people who didn't care and the people who did are actually interacting now.

Here's what I will say, manga/anime tend to have themes. Be it he power of friends, love, romance, etc. At some point Toriyama seemed to make the entire theme of the Franchise about power. So much so that he invented multiple scales just for measuring power...the idea of power not being relevant to a series being themed around the power aspect is literally as bizarre as a romantic manga themed around love and saying relationships aren't an important aspect of it.

Since Goku found out he was from space, it's literally been a measuring contest on how's power level was higher and characters ultimately won almost entirely on their ki outputs. Of course their wer caveats to that to keep the story interesting, but raditz was defeated because he was hit with a ki blast larger than his power level, same with Vegeta, same with Nappa, the androids, Cell, Buu,etc. Krillin and Tein don't got the killing blow because their power level isn't high enough to defeat the enemy no matter the tactics. This is the epitome of the part of Dragonball called Z. The part that made it an international success and is most remembered today. So if the thing that makes the bulk of the series for many people is changed or altered what makes people think the people that were drawn in for those reasons will continue to like it? Serious question though.

[Asura]

I am 100% sick to death of all this "these people" and "those people" and "those fans". Stop generalizing a boogyman to argue against. Of course you're going to win that fight, when you completely fabricate someone out of thin air just to argue down.

Can you actually point to a specific person that's (1) 100% on-board with power scaling being an (the?) essential feature to their fandom, (2) has gone on-record with appropriate negative statements about GT for those specific reasons, and (3) is simultaneously defending Super for these egregious faults while propping up the author as their sole reason?

Or are you just making someone up in your mind? Are you attributing different quotes from different people all to the same imaginary person?

People are complicated creatures. We all like different things for different reasons. Sometimes these reasons change. It can be with age and general maturity, it can be due to exposing oneself to different literature, etc. Sometimes we like things in spite of what we otherwise hold up as valid reasons to otherwise DISLIKE something.

Equally sick of this "bad writing" stuff, especially the "stop lying to yourself" argument. "Bad writing" is entirely subjective. See again: people like different things for different reasons, and have different thresholds for these aspects affecting our enjoyment. It's not "excusing" bad writing; it's having different expectations.

Are you flat out telling me to start dropping names and starting witch hunts with the people I disagree with? Do you think I have a little notepad where I write people's names that don't agree with me on the internet? When one makes threads that generalize people, you generally get those sorts of people to come into the thread and explain their point of view. Hence, look at this thread. Lots of people that are quick to dismiss the criticisms about power level inconsistencies. They explain why. On the flip side, there are also people here who disagree with dismissing criticisms about power level inconsistencies. They explain why. Like I said, I don't have a journal of people's names that I write down across the internet whenever I see their opinion, but undoubtedly there are those here who share those same opinions, and they come out when a thread is created like this one.

People do like different things for different reasons. There's no reason why a discussion can't be had though to ask why they like X thing for Y reason. We could all just say that everyone has their own opinion and to never question another person's opinion, but then what would the point be of a discussion forum?

Everything is subjective. Taste is subjective, yet we have incredibly fancy restaurants and chefs like Gordon Ramsay, and most people would agree that a hand-crafted meal from Gordon Ramsay probably beats that Whopper from Burger King you were about to eat. Writing is similar. You could write a Whopper, or you could write a Gordon Ramsay masterpiece. I'm not saying that Dragonball should be on a Gordon Ramsay masterpiece level, I'm just saying instead of a Whopper, maybe we can take it out to a nice seafood restaurant instead. There are certain structures and rules and literary devices used when writing a story. You can break away from this structure and these rules, but it doesn't look good, and most of the time the end result shows it doesn't look good (if you're exceptionally talented you can pull it off, and it would show, but DB Super definitely doesn't have that level of writing, nor should it). When DB Super breaks away from its structure and its rules and diverges off into different territories, creating confusion and potential plot holes, there's nothing wrong with pointing out that it's not good writing, and it needs to get back on to the path and follow the structure. We can't just say that taste is subjective to everything in life, otherwise we'd have no standards.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

At some point Toriyama seemed to make the entire theme of the Franchise about power.

I've never read or seen that Dragon Ball.

[TheMikado]

At some point Toriyama seemed to make the entire theme of the Franchise about power.

I've never read or seen that Dragon Ball.

Oh really? I suggest you check it out. What's the central theme of the version you've seen/read?

[Doctor.]

Without power level consistency, the series is really no different than your average cartoon with no internal consistency and runs entirely on plot convenience. Ben 10 is an example.

[VegettoEX]

I totally get the witch-hunt argument, and I've conceded to that several times over when I bring this up. I get it. I really do.

At the same time, I'm still convinced people are making up an imaginary argument to fight against rather than real people with real opinions. I've seen this over and over for almost two decades now, but I think it's getting worse than ever due to the entire world all watching new material at the exact same time. People read tons of threads, tons of posts, warp together a whole bunch of points, and go off to make their own argument against this mixture.

I'm not saying "don't have a conversation". Of course I'm not. I'm a bit concerned that anyone would suggest that or take that out of what I said.

People are saying why they don't feel the scaling affects the show. I can at least speak for me: I've done this over and over and over again (both in the past before the resurgence ever started, and now again in a post-Super world), to the point that I just don't have it in me anymore to trot out the same "defense" yet again over and over and over. (Maybe I just need to make one master Notepad file with it all written out? That seems like too much work...)

And yet... these "defenses" are subsequently ignored or dismissed because... "but my scaling". OK, but I'm literally explaining precisely why I don't think that's an issue, why it doesn't matter to me, and why else I find enjoyment in places. You don't have to like my answer, but my answer is my answer.

Totally disagree with your premise on "no standards". Everything is contextual. I'm not holding Dragon Ball Super up to the same standards as some indie press adult murder mystery. If Super was actually held up to those standards, it would no longer be Dragon Ball, with all of the baggage and history that comes along with it. I'll take a flawed Dragon Ball over something else. If I want something else, I'll go look for something else.

SIMULTANEOUSLY, I'm OK with Super experimenting! Trying new things! Being different! But still being the same!

See? That's what I mean. I'm a real person with real opinions and real internal conflicts over what I want. You can't just sum this all up in one nice little package to argue against. I don't always know what I want or what I like, but I'm generally happy to explain it later on, if someone's equally willing to take the time to have a real conversation about it.

Without power level consistency, the series is really no different than your average cartoon with no internal consistency and runs entirely on plot convenience. Ben 10 is an example.

That totally disregards all of the other amazing stuff put into the show. All of the characters, their motivations, their growth and development, and everything on the production level like the designs and animation and music. Why would you reduce something you ostensibly like down to a single point? That seems bizarre to me.

[Doctor.]

That totally disregards all of the other amazing stuff put into the show. All of the characters, their motivations, their growth and development, and everything on the production level like the designs and animation and music. Why would you reduce something you ostensibly like down to a single point? That seems bizarre to me.

I'm not disregarding everything else, but consistency is a very important part of any series. And Dragon Ball is a series that focuses predominantly on fighting. You expect the series to have some kind of internal consistency regarding the level everyone is at, but it doesn't. It breaks your sense of immersion.

Let me put it in these terms. Yeah, you have all these cool characters, with good motivation, whose growth and development we've seen. And then one of those characters is faced with an impossible situation we should be able to know he has no chance of beating. That kind of situation is supposed to make us root for the character more than ever, right? It's supposed to make you feel immersed and cheer for the character as if he's a real person. Well, then what does that all end up accomplishing, if he ends up escaping that situation in a way he shouldn't have had the ability to? It accomplishes nothing. It means it was superficial tension, superficial drama. It baited in the audience and then delivered a terrible outcome with no regards for consistency or logic. We're left to think that there's no use in rooting for the characters anymore, because no matter the situations they're in, the writers can just do whatever the hell they want. A story needs to be believable in some degree.

The power level issues affect other parts of the writing process as well, not just the flashy, superficial action-explosion parts.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

I wasn't specifically talking about you in that paragraph hence the word "folks", people replying in this very thread have done that is why I brought it up.

And for eg, people complained about Ikari came out of nowhere yet were okay when Trunks showed up in Z with SS or even better Goku getting super angry and suddenly turning Blonde with spikey hair and green eyes because that certainly didn't come out of nowhere!

Trunks was an entirely new character introduced at the time in Z. We know how he went Super Saiyan, we know why he went Super Saiyan. We quickly learn right after who Trunks is, which is that he's Vegeta's son. The manga and the anime both explain this to us. This wasn't an inconsistency, or a surprise that didn't make sense.

In the Goku situation, it didn't come out of nowhere at all. Literally the entire Freeza saga was foreshadowing the Super Saiyan legend. It wasn't inconsistent, it wasn't an ass pull, it was planned and foreshadowed for us.

In comparison you have Super Saiyan Rage/Ikari which still has no explanation, had no foreshadowing, didn't even have a name given to it in the anime, and no one could really deteremine how powerful it was because of how inconsistent Trunks' power was throughout the entire arc that made it rise and fall on a moment's notice to fit the plot.

"Trunks was an entirely new character introduced at the time in Z." There you go just proved my point, you are doing exactly what you are complaining what people are doing in Super, justifying plot points. And I am pretty sure the Trunks special aired a year after he appeared in the show so no we didn't know how or why he went SS just that he can. Okay then explain Vegeta, it was established in the Freeza arc why Vegeta wasn't able to get SS and then boom shows up with it in the next arc. Goten and Trunks get SS, it is then sweeped under the rug and we were never given how or why they were able to do it, the closest was in Goten's case when he at least found out it was through light training with Chichi. Goku then gets SS3 out of nowhere and despite it previously being established that SS2 was him going all out against Vegeta and yet fans have been throwing stuff like "oh he was holding back against Vegeta for x y z" for years exactly what you are complaining people are doing with Super when in actual fact it has been happening long before Super.

[The Monkey King]

Not caring about blatant power level inconsistencies is now seen as the "cool" and "mature" thing for some Dragon Ball fans to do.

You will find a lot of said people on this website where some users really like to go against what they perceive casual fans to like about the show.

For example you'll have many posts calling Goku nothing but a dumbass martial arts hillbilly with zero depth while ignoring all his heroic traits in the manga all because more casual fans perceive Goku to be a straight up hero.

You will also find a lot of these users defending Gohan being given the hard shaft for so long making fans sound silly for wanting a character in an action, adventure, martial arts anime to participate in some action and do some martial arts by saying something like "Gohan's a scholar and has a family you should be happy for him if you only like him when he's punching people you were never a true Gohan fan"

This is basically a way for said users to feel a sense on superiority when comparing themselves with other Dragon Ball fans and that caring about power levels is beneath them and that they enjoy Dragon Ball on a superior level that lesser fans couldn't understand.

In order to do this they will even defend bad writing to the death just to achieve this warped sense of self-satisfaction.

They will never admit that with Dragon Ball Super's piss poor writing all sense of tension and suspense has reached an all time low for the series (this is a series named after wish granting balls for god's sake it's gotten that bad) this is because now characters can just 'get stronger' no explanation needed they just 'get stronger' and ascend to God tier power out of nowhere just because. While the manga at its worst had magic water and zenkai bargain sales.

And these fans will defend it with by saying stuff like "it was fun" and "haha this is gonna get Power Level fans so mad xD"

But DBS really has a strangely dedicated defence force, like some will never admit that Goten, Trunks and Marron not ageing a day since the series began and Future Trunks' hair being blue all of a sudden is just silly.

He also used the power of the people of that future world...It's called Genki Dama... This is nothing new in Dragonball.

Case in point right here.

Please Miracles, please tell me how Trunks used the spirit bomb without it being a slap in the face to the original manga and makes sense because you really, really can't

[Asura]

People read tons of threads, tons of posts, warp together a whole bunch of points, and go off to make their own argument against this mixture.

Alright, so why is this a bad thing? You read different posts here, you read different opinions on another website, you talk with people you know in real life and etc. and you get a consensus for how the fandom as a whole feels about a certain subject. If you're creating a boogeyman that doesn't exist, then surely after making the thread, you would not find people with those same opinions, and the thread would either falter or just be filled with a bunch of "Where have you heard that?" posts. However, if the opinion does exist, then people will go into the thread to defend it, and to defend those generalizations, proving that these are real opinions people have, and not just something made up by warping together a whole bunch of points. This thread for example has a bunch of people defending the power level inconsistencies, all for various reasons.

I'm not saying "don't have a conversation". Of course I'm not. I'm a bit concerned that anyone would suggest that or take that out of what I said.

I wasn't implying that you said not to have a conversation, but rather continuing on where your train of thought could possibly lead to in order to show a point of yes, people like things for different reasons, but there shouldn't be any kind of reason as to why you can't ask and discuss those sorts of things.[/quote]

People are saying why they don't feel the scaling affects the show. I can at least speak for me: I've done this over and over and over again (both in the past before the resurgence ever started, and now again in a post-Super world), to the point that I just don't have it in me anymore to trot out the same "defense" yet again over and over and over. (Maybe I just need to make one master Notepad file with it all written out? That seems like too much work...)

And yet... these "defenses" are subsequently ignored or dismissed because... "but my scaling". OK, but I'm literally explaining precisely why I don't think that's an issue, why it doesn't matter to me, and why else I find enjoyment in places. You don't have to like my answer, but my answer is my answer.

And that's fine, you can have your answer, you can have your opinion, but there are things that perhaps you and others must acknowledge, which is that you can't have your cake and eat it too. If you're going to take the stance of not caring about power scaling/power levels, you can not simultaneously say that the show is being consistent. I'm not saying you're doing this, but there are some people (in this thread, even, not generalizing) who try to play it off as if Super has been treated with the same consistency in regards to power scaling/levels that Z has, and that is undeniably just not true. I can say it's not true, because it's not just an opinion anymore, but a fact. If you count all the times Z has been as inconsistent and nonsensical (without any explanation) with regards to its power scaling and compare it to Super, you'd have a much lower number than you would in Super.

But the bigger question here and the point of the thread was not "why do you care/don't care about power levels" but rather why does it seem as if most people all of a sudden don't care about them in regards to Super? Why did we not see this kind of defense in regards to GT? And you might say you didn't personally care when it happened in GT either, but there's no doubt that GT clearly did not have many people defending its broken power scaling, and still doesn't. Is the answer just bandwagon, or is it something else?

Totally disagree with your premise on "no standards". Everything is contextual. I'm not holding Dragon Ball Super up to the same standards as some indie press adult murder mystery. If Super was actually held up to those standards, it would no longer be Dragon Ball, with all of the baggage and history that comes along with it. I'll take a flawed Dragon Ball over something else. If I want something else, I'll go look for something else.

SIMULTANEOUSLY, I'm OK with Super experimenting! Trying new things! Being different! But still being the same!

I'm not expecting a masterpiece, it's just disappointing when something is done in a way that is counter-productive to the narrative it was establishing. I'm okay with Super experimenting too, but we're at 80+ episodes. They should have figured out what works and what doesn't by now. Not to say anything they're doing now in this arc is bad or doesn't work, but just a note for the future juuust in case. You say you'll take a flawed Dragon Ball over something else, but why on Earth would you have that mindset to begin with? How about instead of a flawed Dragon Ball, you just want Dragon Ball? If there's nothing else, then I'll take the flawed Dragon Ball too, but I wouldn't be happy with it, I wouldn't say "Ah, it's all we've got so..." I mean yeah, whining about it here isn't going to change anything obviously, but I see no reason why being critical of it and wanting it to be more than a flawed product is a bad thing. Some people here (at least one in this thread) always say stuff like why are so many people who hate Super still discussing it and etc. and I don't think it's because those people hate Super (although some do), but rather they just see a flawed product that they think can be made better.

See? That's what I mean. I'm a real person with real opinions and real internal conflicts over what I want. You can't just sum this all up in one nice little package to argue against. I don't always know what I want or what I like, but I'm generally happy to explain it later on, if someone's equally willing to take the time to have a real conversation about it.

Well that's a bit confusing if you don't always know what you want or like, but I'd be welcome to hearing your opinion, although I have a feeling we would agree on many of the points (in regards to should power scaling being relevant)

[Asura]

"Trunks was an entirely new character introduced at the time in Z." There you go just proved my point, you are doing exactly what you are complaining what people are doing in Super, justifying plot points.

I'm not following your logic, like, at all. How is the introduction of a new character related to anything I've been complaining about in regards to justifying Super's plot points? You're going to have to explain that to me.

And I am pretty sure the Trunks special aired a year after he appeared in the show so no we didn't know how or why he went SS just that he can.

We learn from him as soon as he's introduced that he comes from a timeline where everyone has been killed, and that he is the son of Vegeta. We can obviously put 2 and 2 together to figure out how he is a Super Saiyan. Good luck putting 2 and 2 together to figure out why or what the hell Super Saiyan Rage is, especially with the whole God ki aspect that makes things even more nonsensical.

Okay then explain Vegeta, it was established in the Freeza arc why Vegeta wasn't able to get SS and then boom shows up with it in the next arc.

And then it was explained exactly how he achieved Super Saiyan, right after he transformed into it against #19. There wasn't a specific reason Vegeta wasn't able to go SSJ during the Freeza arc, although the most obvious reason would be power, and a lack of intense rage. Not an inconsistency or a plot hole at all.

Goten and Trunks get SS, it is then sweeped under the rug and we were never given how or why they were able to do it, the closest was in Goten's case when he at least found out it was through light training with Chichi.

I'd say this is a close comparison, but still different, due to the introduction of God ki in Super. The biggest plot hole with Super Saiyan Rage stems from the fact that it seems to use God ki, which is never explained as to how he got it. In Goten & Trunks' case, SSJ already existed, and we knew what the requirements were. Still bullshit, everyone complains about it, but still different from Super's case. Not as much of an inconsistency or plot hole that it is just stupid.

Goku then gets SS3 out of nowhere and despite it previously being established that SS2 was him going all out against Vegeta and yet fans have been throwing stuff like "oh he was holding back against Vegeta for x y z" for years exactly what you are complaining people are doing with Super when in actual fact it has been happening long before Super.

Don't really see how that has anything to do with the examples I listed in Super. Trunks accessing God ki and somehow knowing the genki dama are infinitely more nonsensical than any of the examples you listed.

[RalfHookman]

I swear, if I had to choose to erase one day from human history it would be the day Akira Toriyama created a concept of a "scouter". For real, I think he just regrets this. That day doomed this franchise and fandom. The days of suspense during battles just ended because a lot of fans are just putting everything into numbers and math. Maybe spend the time you put into estimating someone's power level into solving one of the millennium problems. THEY PAY FOR THE ANSWERS.

Have anyone of you noticed how threads that on the first eye glimpse seem to be not about power level problems by the 5th post turn into them? This is ridiculous!!!

Maybe it is hard for me to understand this, but I never valued Dragon Ball for power levels or total consistency. It was always for enjoyment and the characters. Their adventures and relationships. That's also why most of my favorite characters are not strong, but they add their personalities to the general product. First example - Mr. Satan. He is weak compared to Z Warriors, but he is fun. We saw his character development. Same goes for Kuririn, who started all this shitstorm that we have now.

Whenever I read posts or comments, every time I have to see essays about consistency of power levels. And I want to vomit. I don't know what is worse. Power levels debate or animation debate. They are more cancerous than GT hate trend or Shunsuke Kikuchi vs Bruce Faulconer BS.

[Miracles]

Please Miracles, please tell me how Trunks used the spirit bomb without it being a slap in the face to the original manga and makes sense because you really, really can't

Because a genki dama is filled with the hopes of all the earth [canon].
That world hoped for Trunks to defeat Zamasu and so it was.
Nothing complicated about it.

[Simere]

I swear, if I had to choose to erase one day from human history it would be the day Akira Toriyama created a concept of a "scouter". For real, I think he just regrets this. That day doomed this franchise and fandom. The days of suspense during battles just ended because a lot of fans are just putting everything into numbers and math.

The idea of power, of one character being stronger than another, would and did exist before the concept of scouters. It's kind of hard to escape that fundamental nature of reality...

The only thing scouters did was give a scale to work with, but we would have created our own anyway as we still do today.

[TheMikado]

That totally disregards all of the other amazing stuff put into the show. All of the characters, their motivations, their growth and development, and everything on the production level like the designs and animation and music. Why would you reduce something you ostensibly like down to a single point? That seems bizarre to me.

I'm not disregarding everything else, but consistency is a very important part of any series. And Dragon Ball is a series that focuses predominantly on fighting. You expect the series to have some kind of internal consistency regarding the level everyone is at, but it doesn't. It breaks your sense of immersion.

Let me put it in these terms. Yeah, you have all these cool characters, with good motivation, whose growth and development we've seen. And then one of those characters is faced with an impossible situation we should be able to know he has no chance of beating. That kind of situation is supposed to make us root for the character more than ever, right? It's supposed to make you feel immersed and cheer for the character as if he's a real person. Well, then what does that all end up accomplishing, if he ends up escaping that situation in a way he shouldn't have had the ability to? It accomplishes nothing. It means it was superficial tension, superficial drama. It baited in the audience and then delivered a terrible outcome with no regards for consistency or logic. We're left to think that there's no use in rooting for the characters anymore, because no matter the situations they're in, the writers can just do whatever the hell they want. A story needs to be believable in some degree.

The power level issues affect other parts of the writing process as well, not just the flashy, superficial action-explosion parts.

To piggieback off of this the power theme and scaling as the engine which drove the later and arguable most popular part of the Dragonball franchise.

Goku being so outclassed that he had to team with Piccolo to save the world and still sacrifice himself. Piccolo being so desperate to save the world from the Saiyans that's he trained Gohan his arch enemies son who has so much raw power that it trumped years of technique and experience. Goku and the others trying hard for a year and still not being enough to take out the Saiyans. Them going to Jamel because Piccolo sacrificed himself to save Gohan. Goku going to Namek because they were severely overpowered and Goku going enraged against an over powering Frieza, the android overpowering to the point where Goku personally trains his son. The list goes on and on and on.

The point is the power levels in the "Z" era drove the narrative. It's not about power "numbers" which are what the scouters produces, but measurements of power and by extension the level of threat the protagonists face.
The power levels are a tangible representation of the obstacles the characters must face on their journey.
Without them Piccolo would have no reason to recruit Gohan or Goku to send Gohan to fight Cell. Without them Krillins stand against Perfect Cell or Frieza is far less impressive. There is so much meaning behind the power levels representing the obstacles they face and over come that the story literally formulates around them overcoming them. You really and truly cannot have the later half of the Dragonball series without power levels because they are literally the driving force of the narrative. Just imagine if literally every character had a legitimate chance at beating Cell? Yamcha or Master Rossi could have been the hero without working for it. The power levels represent characters struggle and journey. You take that from them and you take their motivations, their interactions, there developments. You literal take the soul of the latter half of the Z series, the most popular and successful aspect of it by far internationally.

[Araki]

It's actually the opposite. Some people are desperate to nitpick about power levels now. As if huge power difference always meant instant pulverizing in Dragon Ball. God forbid if Satan survived Cell's attack these days.

I also found baffling how can some people miss the fact Goku and Kuririn were simulating the tournament, where killing is not allowed, so obviously Goku needs to hold back. That is an important aspect of the tournament as it favors the weaker fighters, and even Kuririn pointed that out.

[Simere]

It's actually the opposite. Some people are desperate to nitpick about power levels now. As if huge power difference always meant instant pulverizing in Dragon Ball. God forbid if Satan survived Cell's attack these days.

I also found baffling how can some people miss the fact Goku and Kuririn were simulating the tournament, where killing is not allowed, so obviously Goku needs to hold back. That is an important aspect of the tournament as it favors the weaker fighters, and even Kuririn pointed that out.

Why didn't being weaker do Krillin any favors fighting Goku in the Tenkaichi Budokai?

[precita]

The problem is they made Goku and Vegeta too strong, too fast. There's no way for the rest of the cast to catch up, so they have to artifically make them look stronger than they are.

As others have said, power levels dictate the plot. Yamcha should have been able to kill Nappa and Vegeta if power levels didn't matter. Vegeta could have killed Freeza on namek, etc.

[Hit!!]

I saw someone ask this in a thread somewhere, and it got me thinking as well. Why, all of a sudden, now that Super is a thing, do people suddenly dismiss any kind of criticisms about power levels (not even power levels, just consistency in power) as a non-factor?

Super has had a ton of problems with power relativity. I'm not even talking strict power level numbers here, I just mean in proportion to who is stronger than who and how. That seems to have been completely done away with in Super. The Future Trunks arc was the worst offender of this, but the events of last night's episode (84) in where Krillin actually manages to fend off a Super Saiyan Blue Kamehameha for awhile, has once again gotten people up in arms. Now, let me just state that I don't have an arm in this race. I see both sides and the points they both bring up are valid. Although personally I'm a bit disappointed that they even showed Krillin holding off a SSB Kamehameha, and not for reasons of power levels, but because the entire fight up until then was showing that Krillin was using technique and strategy to win instead of raw power. But then he just goes head to head in a raw power struggle. It kinda defeated the entire purpose of what they were building Krillin up for during the fight.

But back to the question, why is it now like this with Super? People are tired of power levels, and I get that, but I don't understand how so many people don't even care about power relativity or consistency, and will make up a zillion excuses as to why this inconsistency in power somehow makes sense (Goku was holding back, Trunks had Goku and Vegeta giving him power, He totally could have magically learned the spirit bomb from King Kai, Zamasu was already weak, Krillin's been training, etc. etc.)

I don't remember anyone making these excuses for GT. "Why is base GT Goku so powerful?" "How could base GT Goku do things SSJ4 couldn't?" "How is SSJ4 Vegeta as strong as SSJ4 Goku?" No one really tried to rationalize these questions, most just admitted it didn't make sense and wasn't great writing, which is just what it boils down to. So why is it all of a sudden different for Super? It really feels like people are just way too lenient on Super sometimes, because they're afraid that if they criticize it, they might have another GT on their hands. I have never seen people make as many excuses for an anime series, valid or not, than I have with Super (Berserk 2016 is a close second, but Super is lightyears ahead of that pile of shit), and the question is why?

Because i've made peace with the fact that Dragon Ball doesn't give a fuck about power levels at this point and i just enjoy the good moments for what they are. Also because i'm sick and tired of Goku and Vegeta being the only relevant Z fighters left in the show. If a little inconsistency is required to bring the old crew back into relevance, then so be it.

Ever since that episode of DBZ where Ten Shin Han was holding semi perfect cell back with his kikoho, i knew power levels were bullshit and just went with the fucking flow.