Should TFS be blamed for the treatment of Yamcha?

[MozillaVulpix]

And even if they do exaggerate things, it's not like it's a parody's job to accurate portray every character in the same way they are in the original. And it's not like you see people complaining that they made Dodoria a girl, or turned the Namekian Elder into a psychopath, or any other actual drastic change in characterisation that they did to minor characters. Or maybe people do complain and I just don't see it.

[ABED]

Nope. Saying it's their fault grants them WAY too much influence. Popular? Sure, but they didn't start this. People have looked down on Yamcha for years.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

There was recently some explicit mention of his popularity over here, though. I can't remember where, when, or it what specific wording, but they were definitely implying some Western-fandom pandering. Or maybe I'm mis-remembering something, who knows.

It was an interview regarding the Dragon Ball Room, back when we first officially learned of its existence. By some means, they had determined that a certain look of a character determined their popularity far more internationally than in Japan (A conclusion I'd take with a grain of salt, because there's no way they could have determined this reliably unless they held a private, limited study or are pulling the numbers from merchandise sales).

[cheddarsword]

TFS didn't ruin Yamcha.

Yamcha didn't need any help making himself look bad.

1: Nearly lost to a hungry kid Goku.

2: Starts out being afraid of girls, then cheats on the girl that inadvertently helped him overcome his problem.

3: Loses every major martial arts tournament he enters.

4: Is killed by a kamikaze Saibaman.

5: Gets an android arm through his body.

6: Does nothing during the rest of the Android Saga AND Cell Saga while everyone else is out there risking their lives. EVEN KRILLIN!

7: Does nothing noteworthy and spends the rest of his life with his talking, flying, transforming, gender fluid cat.

And Team Four Star is to blame for this? LOLNO!

[Zephyr]

There was recently some explicit mention of his popularity over here, though. I can't remember where, when, or it what specific wording, but they were definitely implying some Western-fandom pandering. Or maybe I'm mis-remembering something, who knows.

It was an interview regarding the Dragon Ball Room, back when we first officially learned of its existence. By some means, they had determined that the look of a character determined their popularity far more internationally than in Japan (A conclusion I'd certainly question, because there's no way they could have determined this reliably unless they held a private study or are pulling the numbers from merchandise sales.)

Ah, that sounds familiar! I believe it was "power" that they'd said determined character popularity, though. I'll try to dig for it, just to be sure.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

Ah, that sounds familiar! I believe it was "power" that they'd said determined character popularity, though. I'll try to dig for it, just to be sure.

Is that right? I probably should google it, but I'm just going off memory, so you could be right. Or maybe is was a mention of something like "muscles", which could imply either.

Edit: What do you know, it's the first result on my search. You were right, it did say that strength determines popularity.

[Zephyr]

I found it.

It seems that the basis for what makes a character popular are slightly different overseas than in Japan: “Overseas, ‘strength’ determines popularity”, he says. One particularly large difference between Japan and overseas is the “incredible popularity” of the movie-original character Broli, who appeared as an enemy in three films (one of which featured a clone of him): “He’s got bulging muscles and gives Goku a tough fight, so the Super Saiyan version of Broli is popular.”

So they're under the impression that Broly's not nearly as popular in Japan. That's odd, considering the overabundance of films and internet memes, but we don't know what all they're basing that off of.

[GreatSaiyaJeff]

Partly, yes. Because their fanboys are a bunch of sheep and just spit out the memes / jokes from abridged as canon (like Piccolo is Gohan's real dad)

Yeah, that part is the one that annoys me. Don't get me wrong I love TFS, but the dad jokes make fans think that Goku is a bad father. Which is true in some aspects but not as bad as TFS jokes make it to be.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

So they're under the impression that Broly's not nearly as popular in Japan. That's odd, considering the overabundance of films and internet memes, but we don't know what all they're basing that off of.

By process of elimination, it had to have been merchandise sales or private polls. Those are the only professional methods they could get the numbers from. Unless they're just looking through twitter hashtags and determining from that, in which case, we can probably say that this DB Room needs to go away.

[Zephyr]

I also found what I was referring to with the Gohan thing:

Ultimate Gohan came back!
It is surely fans of all over the world will be delighted

[precita]

Yamcha didn't need any help making himself look bad.

1: Nearly lost to a hungry kid Goku.

2: Starts out being afraid of girls, then cheats on the girl that inadvertently helped him overcome his problem.

3: Loses every major martial arts tournament he enters.

4: Is killed by a kamikaze Saibaman.

5: Gets an android arm through his body.

6: Does nothing during the rest of the Android Saga AND Cell Saga while everyone else is out there risking their lives. EVEN KRILLIN!

7: Does nothing noteworthy and spends the rest of his life with his talking, flying, transforming, gender fluid cat.

The only thing I could give you here is he didn't do much in the Cell saga in the middle, but he showed up at the Cell Games when he could have stayed behind and had to survive Cell Jr's and helped defeat Cell in the anime.

I fail to see how "losing every martial arts tournament" is something bad when we know the finals would always turn out to be Goku and his strongest opponent at the time. Yamcha always impressed the people he fought or put up a good fight before going down. Roshi and Kami both compliment him especially.

[DBZAOTA482]

Not exactly but they certainly help set the "Yamcha sucks" image in stone.

[Ki Breaker]

TFS is to be blamed for it as much as school is to be blamed for idiots..

It's not their fault people associated with them are a bunch of apes having not enough sense to understand what they are all about

[cheddarsword]

Yamcha didn't need any help making himself look bad.

1: Nearly lost to a hungry kid Goku.

2: Starts out being afraid of girls, then cheats on the girl that inadvertently helped him overcome his problem.

3: Loses every major martial arts tournament he enters.

4: Is killed by a kamikaze Saibaman.

5: Gets an android arm through his body.

6: Does nothing during the rest of the Android Saga AND Cell Saga while everyone else is out there risking their lives. EVEN KRILLIN!

7: Does nothing noteworthy and spends the rest of his life with his talking, flying, transforming, gender fluid cat.

The only thing I could give you here is he didn't do much in the Cell saga in the middle, but he showed up at the Cell Games when he could have stayed behind and had to survive Cell Jr's and helped defeat Cell in the anime.

I fail to see how "losing every martial arts tournament" is something bad when we know the finals would always turn out to be Goku and his strongest opponent at the time. Yamcha always impressed the people he fought or put up a good fight before going down. Roshi and Kami both compliment him especially.

Which basically affirms his existence. He's only there to make everyone else look even more impressive.

Look at it like this.

Yamcha fights Tien and is not only outclassed, but Tien is both brutal AND strong enough to break his leg in one attack. This sets Tien as the bar that must be overcome. Now Goku steps into the ring to face this monster of a fighter, and struggles hard. Incredibly hard. Tien is actually so good that they're practically even, only winning on a technicality.

Yamcha sucks, but it's because that's his role in the series. He's a measuring stick. Problem for him was, after Gero "gave him a hand", his days as a measuring stick came to an end.

Enter Vegeta. Yamcha's replacement in more ways than one!

"What? Yamcha can't cut it? Maybe Goku can!" became "What? Vegeta can't cut it? Maybe Goku can!"

[dario03]

Yes.

And in other related news...
Nobody ever thought Goku was a bad dad until TFS. And Spaceballs is to blame for Ewoks being in Return Of The Jedi.

[Soppa Saia People]

The internet basically ruined the Dragonball fandom forever everything, news at 11.

That's a bit more accurate.
Anyway I feel like TFS is normally pretty nice to Yamucha. Kuririn is the main punching bag.

[Metalwario64]

Nobody ever thought Goku was a bad dad until TFS.

I'd say currently he's a better dad than Chi Chi is a mother, since he at least spends time with his sons (even if he eventually leaves for several years), and he encourages them to have some fun, whereas current Chi Chi is a monster who fights everyone over everything and wants her way all the time, and she's back to being obsessed with her son (Goten) doing nothing but study.

Chi Chi was okay throughout the manga, even if she didn't really understand the stakes, and while the anime hurt her bad during the Android-Cell arcs, she was back to being okay in the Buu arc. Super has made her a terrible human being who literally does nothing but yell, fight and disagree with everyone.

[DBZAOTA482]

Nobody ever thought Goku was a bad dad until TFS.

I'd say currently he's a better dad than Chi Chi is a mother, since he at least spends time with his sons (even if he eventually leaves for several years), and he encourages them to have some fun, whereas current Chi Chi is a monster who fights everyone over everything and wants her way all the time, and she's back to being obsessed with her son (Goten) doing nothing but study.

Chi Chi was okay throughout the manga, even if she didn't really understand the stakes, and while the anime hurt her bad during the Android-Cell arcs, she was back to being okay in the Buu arc. Super has made her a terrible human being who literally does nothing but yell, fight and disagree with everyone.

So Chi-Chi is the monster when Super Goku guaranteed the deaths of trillions solely for the sake of a good fight and doesn't seem to give two-shits about those who are suffering because of it?

Not to mention he was never there for his unborn children and doesn't even know what kissing is. Super Goku is an even bigger monster as he made Chi-Chi into a monster.

So they're a match made in hell...

[Metalwario64]

Goku is terrible in Super too, but I mean solely at parenting, he's having a more productive relationship with his sons.

Chi Chi just outright terrifies everyone.

[DBZAOTA482]

Oh, I see...