Who is the most useless DB character?

Supa Saiya-Jin Tullece · Post by **Supa Saiya-Jin Tullece** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 8:16 pm

I think that Vegeta was pretty damn useless, and was just used to generate plot and show how powerful Goku was in comparison.

I mean, even though he was four times faster and stronger, and then trained for a year straight, he was still surpassed by Goku by shitloads, who didn't even train for an an entire year.

And then he fought Cell, and owned him, and then was raped by Perfect Cell, to show how strong Perfect Cell was, to later show how much stronger than Vegeta Goku was, to show how much stronger than Goku Gohan was.

So, my conclusion is Vegeta is nothing more than a scale to measure the power of other characters (Arlian Civilization, Nappa, Goku, Bardock, Zarbon [pre and post transformation], Dodoria, Guldo, Recoome, Jeice, Ginyu, Freeza's 1st, 2nd, and 4th forms, Goku, SSJ Goku, Androids 19/20, Cell, Perfect Cell, USSJ Trunks, SSJ/2 Gohan, SSJ2/3 Goku, Fat Buu, Super Buu, Vegito, Kid Buu, Super 17, and Omega Shenron).

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 8:30 pm

^ That was kinda my point about how he is pretty linear in a fight. He either has it, or he doesn't. Other characters often show a struggle, fluctuate, get stronger (or weaker) etc. Vegeta seems to be pretty stable. If he starts off stronger, he wins. If he starts off weaker, he loses. Like you pointed out, compare Vegeta/Perfect Cell to Goku/Perfect Cell. They went through the same level of training, and Vegeta was arguably stronger going in.

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 8:41 pm

Supa Saiya-Jin Tullece wrote:I think that Vegeta was pretty damn useless, and was just used to generate plot and show how powerful Goku was in comparison.

You make a really good point, and I think that's why most of Vegeta's bad moves come in the latter half. I mean, look at him on Namek, he takes out three of Freeza's best and steals the DBs from right under Freeza's nose.

After Goku goes Super Saiyan, though, Vegeta becomes the whipping boy. He's the only character who can 'realistically' keep anywhere close to Goku (Gohan too, at points), so when he gets hammered, it's a signal that the new villian is a Big Bad Dude.

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 8:50 pm

I always just figured it was when he started hanging out with the Z Senshi. He was a pretty good villain, but the most ineffective anti-hero ever.

ssorcd · Post by **ssorcd** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:55 pm

Vegeta is definately more interesting as a bad guy. I just loved his killing spree as Majin Vegeta.

Super Sonic · Post by **Super Sonic** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 1:26 am

I also agree. I also think that both Drummond and Sabat were at their best as him during season 1 and 2 when they were evil.

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:42 am

Last night on CN they showed the episode just after Cell absorbs #18. Which... was literally over 50% reaction shots. Nevertheless... I think it was pretty apparnt that Cell Saga Vegeta's only interest was in proving that he was the lord of the badasses... and he probably would have gone on a killing spree had he killed Cell, but he knew Goku would reach an equal or greater level of power before leaving the RoSaT, so he wanted to make sure that when Goku came out, Vegeta had already proven he was ready for him. Didn't work out so well, though... XD

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:49 am

caejones wrote:Last night on CN they showed the episode just after Cell absorbs #18. Which... was literally over 50% reaction shots. Nevertheless... I think it was pretty apparnt that Cell Saga Vegeta's only interest was in proving that he was the lord of the badasses... and he probably would have gone on a killing spree had he killed Cell, but he knew Goku would reach an equal or greater level of power before leaving the RoSaT, so he wanted to make sure that when Goku came out, Vegeta had already proven he was ready for him. Didn't work out so well, though... XD

Haha I was watching that too. I thought it was funny when Krillin verbally validated everything Rocket Man said about him XD

Contra Deus · Post by **Contra Deus** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:17 pm

Vegeta can be a complete dumbass, no doubt about it. Sure, during the Namek arc, he comes off as this cool x-factor who manages to smoke Freeza's best men and steal the dragonballs right out from under him; he even performs moderately well against Freeza in his first form, but when Freeza transforms, Vegeta's whole act officially falls apart. He pretty much makes an ass out of himself for the rest of the Freeza arc (and throughout the rest of the series, mostly).

If we're talking about useless characters, Yamucha deserves a dishonorable mention. He's willing to give his life (and does) to protect Earth from the Saiyajin, but when he's climbing the mountain toward Freeza and King Cold, he permanently takes leave of his gonads and freaks out like some amateur. He's nothing more than dead weight from that point on. He exists for the sole purpose of getting his ass kicked and lugging the injured around.

Glad to see all that training with Kaiou-sama amounted to a fat lot of nothing.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:43 pm

Contra Deus wrote:If we're talking about useless characters, Yamucha deserves a dishonorable mention. He's willing to give his life (and does) to protect Earth from the Saiyajin, but when he's climbing the mountain toward Freeza and King Cold, he permanently takes leave of his gonads and freaks out like some amateur. He's nothing more than dead weight from that point on. He exists for the sole purpose of getting his ass kicked and lugging the injured around.

Glad to see all that training with Kaiou-sama amounted to a fat lot of nothing.

Well, to the guy's credit, he was only just then sensing Freeza, in his true form, for the first time. I mean, at least Vegeta, Kuririn, Piccolo, and Gohan had been witness to it already, so it wasn't as much of an impact on them.

It's like suddenly seeing a skyscraper for the first time when you've never seen any building larger or more impressive than a mud hut. I'd be intimidated too.

Kunzait_83 · Post by **Kunzait_83** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 10:30 am

Thanos6 · Post by **Thanos6** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:13 am

Based on my experiences in college, with DBZ just starting the Androids/Cell arc around the time I began, I can tell you Vegeta was definitely the favorite of most everyone there. I'm going to try and quantify why I think that was...

First, his ambiguity. We were used to heroes and villains joining forces, but usually it would take only a few issues/episodes and then the team-up would either be over or the villain would have seen the light. Here, though, you basically had Vegeta as a bad guy on the good guys' side for two or three whole seasons (from the Ginyu Force up through Cell). Back then, to us, that was pretty cool.

The whole "relationship with Bulma" was another interesting bit. Did they really see anything in one another at the time or were they just horny? (Though we did all feel sorry for Yamcha)

Once the whole Cell saga was done, we also liked how he had evolved, a bit, from not caring if Bulma and Trunks got killed by Dr. Gero, to going completely ballistic when Cell killed Mirai Trunks. This continued up through the early Buu saga, with him actually being a good father and even "uncle" to Goten (evolution in action again; I don't think Freeza or even Cell saga Vegeta would let Kakarot's son call him "uncle").

That's also one reason a lot of us hated the whole Majin Vegeta thing, it was his character taking a backslide. After Trunks beats Goten, and Vegeta has this big smile on his face and claps Goku on the shoulder, I think at that point he would have been willing to settle for "beating Kakarot by proxy." That scene is why I think Toriyama came up with the idea for Majin Vegeta at sometime after that.

Fortunately, the sacrifice bit made up for it.

Then he came back, and after Vegetto he had finally seen the light, as shown by the "you're number one" speech, willingness to gamble his very existence (and the argument with Goku about showing the Elder Kaioshin pictures of Bulma

).

At least, that was why we liked him, even when he was being an ass.

And yes, the sparkly ki blasts didn't hurt.

ssorcd · Post by **ssorcd** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:51 pm

Thanos6 wrote:The whole "relationship with Bulma" was another interesting bit. Did they really see anything in one another at the time or were they just horny? (Though we did all feel sorry for Yamcha)

Poor Yamcha. First Vegeta steals his girl. Then Android 20 punches a hole in him.

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:54 pm

ssorcd wrote:Poor Yamcha. First Vegeta steals his girl. Then Android 20 punches a hole in him.

Coulda been worse. Coulda been the other way around.

Contra Deus · Post by **Contra Deus** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 7:22 pm

Kunzait, that was a great post; very well thought out. Yamucha did have his moments in DB, but remember that in all the Budokais, he always got KO'd in the first round and ended up watching from the sidelines for the whole tournament. His performance against the Cell Jrs. made no sense since they were supposed to be almost as strong as Cell, who could've atomized Yamucha with a sneeze

(Of course, that wasn't nearly as ludicrous as Yamucha going toe-to-toe with Olivu and Paikuhan in the afterworld. Either one of those guys alone should've been able to flatten Yamucha with a pinky).

Super Sonic · Post by **Super Sonic** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:26 am

Sorry if this is necro-posting, but I'd also have to say Erasa and Sharpener are pretty useless despite appearing in the opening shot of everyone. With them there, they're pretty much like the Flintstones' cat.

Godo · Post by **Godo** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:23 pm

Contra Deus wrote:Kunzait, that was a great post; very well thought out. Yamucha did have his moments in DB, but remember that in all the Budokais, he always got KO'd in the first round and ended up watching from the sidelines for the whole tournament. His performance against the Cell Jrs. made no sense since they were supposed to be almost as strong as Cell, who could've atomized Yamucha with a sneeze

(Of course, that wasn't nearly as ludicrous as Yamucha going toe-to-toe with Olivu and Paikuhan in the afterworld. Either one of those guys alone should've been able to flatten Yamucha with a pinky).

Well, to the anime's defense, they didn't look all that serious. They were playing around tourturing the Z-senshi.

kingvegito · Post by **kingvegito** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 1:28 am

most useless character?? umigame!!

the original ero-sennin · Post by **the original ero-sennin** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:12 am

kingvegito wrote:most useless character?? umigame!!

I disagree Umigame is an immensely important character. Were it not for Umigame Son Goku would never have met Muten Roshi. And, that would not have been very good for the series at all. So, Umigame? Yep, he pretty much rules.

Thanos6 · Post by **Thanos6** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:33 am

Also, Umigame himself saves his master and Lunch/Launch from the RRA at one point. Yes, really. Yes, in the manga.

Kanzenshuu

Who is the most useless DB character?

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