Most relatable traits of each Dragon Ball character? And which traits do you admire most?

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LoganForkHands73
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Most relatable traits of each Dragon Ball character? And which traits do you admire most?

Post by LoganForkHands73 » Mon Feb 06, 2023 9:01 pm

Goku
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As you can probably imagine, I started life as a shy and introverted type, but in recent years I've really come out of my shell. Around the time of the big Dragon Ball revival post-2013, the series started emphasising Goku's friendliness and excitability when it comes to the prospect of new people, something I found really relatable and infectious. When consuming art and media, I always fixate most on characters and personalities, and something I've learned to appreciate is that everyone you meet is another player in this massive, endless stage show we call Real Life. Everyone has their own inner world of thoughts, depths and feelings, most of which you'll never see, but it's fun to scratch away at the surface. Goku gets most excited about meeting strong martial artists like himself, just as anyone with a particular field of interest will be more enthusiastic about meeting likeminded people. So yeah, Goku may not often get the best writing attention out of the main cast, but I probably find him most endearing in the Universe 6 arc, where that trait of his really shines through.

Related to all that is his attitude of treating everyone exactly the same. Goku shows little to no reverence to anyone he meets, reserving the honorifics only for his martial arts mentors... and even then, he'll likely treat them with the same irreverence in every other regard. I've said in a previous post that this is one aspect of Goku that I've found myself unconsciously emulating to a degree in most social situations, and so far, I'd say it works pretty well! Forget all these playbook friend-making/dating strategies, just use the Goku technique (no, not the Kamehameha).

For a trait I admire, it's Goku's gut-instinctive approach to life. He rarely second-guesses himself and approaches everything with the same blasé confidence. I'm much more indecisive. Because of this, Goku proves to be the most adapted to Ultra Instinct. No one wants to hear me gush about how much I like Ultra Instinct again, but fuck it, here we go. Ultra Instinct is one of the best presentations of "the Flow" that I've seen in fiction. Honing your body to an extent that a task comes completely naturally without any conscious input is one of the coolest feelings imaginable, and it's something I've tried to apply to different areas. For instance, I love driving and I've been doing it long enough now that I can switch my brain off (not completely though, that would be a bit irresponsible) on most long journeys and have built up a good sense of direction. No shame in admitting that “KA KA KA KA KACHIDAZE” plays in my head whenever that happens.

Gohan
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Talking about Gohan in terms of relatability almost feels like a redundant exercise, since he's basically built from the ground up to be the most grounded and relatable Dragon Ball hero for the target demographic of young boys. The latter half of the manga is essentially Gohan's coming-of-age story. He's a shy, normal, bookish kid with great potential in a certain area and gets pulled in many different direction in his life before nailing down his identity, but mainly tries his best to fit in. Most kids watching Dragon Ball instantly identify with Gohan on some level, regardless of gender or circumstances.

If I had to pin down one trait that resonates most with me, it's probably Gohan's gentle, soft-spoken personality. Of course, that may sound contradictory to me relating to Goku's brash, irreverent personality, but I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. Gohan treats everyone with the same level of sincere politeness and dignity. In treating everyone the same, you don't have to be all like "Osu! Ora *insert name here*, waku waku suru zo" to everyone, you can just be nice and polite. Like Gohan, I'm not quick to start fights and understand his unwillingness to hurt others. I've tried martial arts before and one of the biggest hurdles to my enjoyment of the sports is worrying too much about hurting people, lol. The number of times I've had someone in a good BJJ submission hold, only to relent slightly because I think the other guy's forgetting to tap out, then proceed to get my ass beat... :lol:

One trait to admire is Gohan's ability to juggle the different aspects of his life, which is the angle they've pushed with his character ever since he became an adult. It's easy to roast Gohan for his habit of slipping on training, but let's be honest, how many people would be able to dedicate time to raising a family and studying for their job and simultaneously be the third or fourth strongest person on the planet? The only issue with Gohan is that he has such phenomenal potential in the latter area in a setting where the world is constantly in endangered by powerful threats, making him look more irresponsible.

Vegeta
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Some time ago, I remember making an entire thread talking about Vegeta's relatability or lack thereof. NGL, it was pretty cringe and not at all based. I talked about how Vegeta resonates with me because I get how he wants to prove himself so badly, which is still true to a lesser extent. But if there's one trait of Vegeta I really came to resonate with, it's his tendency to fall into the trap of flying high in April only to get shot down in May. That is to say, he fails a lot. Failure is something we all have to deal with, but there was a period just over a year back when I really started to see my life as a collage of manga panels of a battle-damaged Vegeta lying unconscious after a heavy beatdown from the villain of the arc. :lol: To cut a long story short, I was trying to get somewhere with my career and faced daily/weekly putdowns. Sometimes, like Vegeta, I'd think I was getting somewhere and have the cocky crooked smirk on, only for it to be wiped off my face a day later.

It was a rough time, but it neatly leads into Vegeta's most admirable trait, which is quite simply his stubborn refusal to ever give up. By taking a few cues from that Saiyan willpower, I was eventually able to get myself out of that rut.

Chaozu
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I know what you're thinking: "Chaozu, relatable? He barely has a single personality trait!" You would be correct, but in this one case, I'm not gonna say I relate to Chaozu myself, but I think we've all known someone like Chaozu. If you've ever been part of a decent-sized friend group, there's always that one guy on the side who pretty much only hangs out with one or two people in the group and stays on the outskirts from everyone else. Nobody knows much about him, he never hangs out individually with anyone outside of his peripheral circle, but he sits round the big table and occasionally puts a word in the conversation. He may drop in and out of the group for months at a time and come back no worse for wear. That's Chaozu.

Anything to admire about Chaozu? Ironically, I guess it's the fact that he knows his limitations better than most of the other Z-Warriors and quits when he realises that he really can't compete with the ever increasing threats they have to face. He officially retires in the three years between Future Trunks' arrival and the Android attack, having come to terms with the fact that the fight will be too dangerous for him, just as Piccolo warned. Yamcha probably should've listened as well. Chaozu didn't quit entirely though; he's happy to continue helping with Tenshinhan's training and he briefly came out of retirement to defend Earth from Moro's army of escaped convicts, most of which were closer to his power level.

Jiren
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I resonate somewhat with Jiren's trust issues. I can't say I've been seriously betrayed very often, but I was nonetheless raised with a certain cynical, suspicious survival mentality that makes it hard to fully trust anyone, including some close friends. Relying on yourself is sensible, to an extent. Of course, Jiren takes it to a fairly unhealthy extreme and it damages his few personal relationships. In life, it's almost impossible to get by without trusting anyone ever, unless you become a total hermit (which, judging by what little we see of Jiren's private life, probably isn't so far from the truth). Every time you get on a plane, you entrust some faith in the pilot to fly you to your destination without crashing.

Jiren's most admirable trait is his insane work ethic that allowed him to surpass the gods without relying on their power. No shortcuts, no bullshit, he just worked super fucking hard until he became the best of the best. A simple virtue, but one that Dragon Ball emphasises time and again. There's a reason Vegeta still thinks about Jiren, several arcs and two movies later.

So what are some of your examples? I’d love to hear them.