Most Useless Character

[Kamiccolo9]

Who do you feel is the character with the least impact on the series? (And I'm talking about "main" named characters, not people like man #4 from chapter 42.)
I'm gonna say Chiaotzu. You could take him out of the series, and nothing would really be changed.

[dbzfan7]

Videl. (excluding Battle of Gods)

[TheMightyOzaru]

Chaozu.

[RandomGuy96]

Useful as in just the least impact?

Well, not Chiaotzu. He's somewhat important to Tien's character, being his morality chain, and the only person he genuinely cares about at first. He is also used to show the hopelessness of the fight against Nappa.

I'd probably say King Cold. He's supposed to be emperor of the galaxy (though presumably Freeza and Cooler are the real ones...) and someone who rivals Freeza in power. You'd think that the emperor of the galaxy would be an important character. But no, he's a complete jobber and nothing else. And he's completely pointless. He only does two things: rescues Freeza and jobs to Trunks. For the first point, King Cold was completely unneeded; it could've just been a random group of soldiers. For the second, Trunks didn't need to kill this guy we've never heard of to be impressive. He had just killed a powerful and pre-established villain (though I'd argue that wasn't necessary either).

Furthermore, may as well have not existed. None of the main characters ever even knew his name. He shows up, dies, and that's it. No impact whatsoever. Everyone just forgets about him, while Freeza is still remembered long after his death, even by the main characters who are by now much stronger than him.

[Kamiccolo9]

Useful as in just the least impact?

Well, not Chiaotzu. He's very important Tenshinhan's character, being his morality chain, and the only person he genuinely cares about at first. He is also used to show the hopelessness of the fight against Nappa.

I do grant you that King Cold was pointless. I was thinking of recurring characters though, although I guess I didn't make that very clear.
Roshi was doing a good job of turning Tien against the Crane Hermit even before he threatened Chiaotzu. I'm pretty sure he would have defected eventually even without that. And Tien never does anything useful as a result of his feelings for Chiaotzu anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Tien would have still beaten Tao, even if Tao hadn't hurt Chiaotzu. Chiaotzu's sacrifice against Piccolo Daimao was pointless, and Nappa was doing a pretty good job of making everyone look helpless even before Chiaotzu blew himself up.
Pretty much the only thing that Chiaotzu was good for was fixing the brackets at the Budokai's, and by the end of the series, they had Buu to do that for them.

[RandomGuy96]

Useful as in just the least impact?

Well, not Chiaotzu. He's very important Tenshinhan's character, being his morality chain, and the only person he genuinely cares about at first. He is also used to show the hopelessness of the fight against Nappa.

I do grant you that King Cold was pointless. I was thinking of recurring characters though, although I guess I didn't make that very clear.
Roshi was doing a good job of turning Tenshinhan against the Crane Hermit even before he threatened Chiaotzu. I'm pretty sure he would have defected eventually even without that. And Tenshinhan never does anything useful as a result of his feelings for Chiaotzu anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Tenshinhan would have still beaten Tao, even if Tao hadn't hurt Chiaotzu. Chiaotzu's sacrifice against Piccolo Daimao was pointless, and Nappa was doing a pretty good job of making everyone look helpless even before Chiaotzu blew himself up.
Pretty much the only thing that Chiaotzu was good for was fixing the brackets at the Budokai's, and by the end of the series, they had Buu to do that for them.

Recurring huh? Then Oolong I guess. Or Maron. Or Bulma's mom. Someone like that. I still say it's Cold though.

[Kamiccolo9]

Useful as in just the least impact?

Well, not Chiaotzu. He's very important Tenshinhan's character, being his morality chain, and the only person he genuinely cares about at first. He is also used to show the hopelessness of the fight against Nappa.

I do grant you that King Cold was pointless. I was thinking of recurring characters though, although I guess I didn't make that very clear.
Roshi was doing a good job of turning Tenshinhan against the Crane Hermit even before he threatened Chiaotzu. I'm pretty sure he would have defected eventually even without that. And Tenshinhan never does anything useful as a result of his feelings for Chiaotzu anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Tenshinhan would have still beaten Tao, even if Tao hadn't hurt Chiaotzu. Chiaotzu's sacrifice against Piccolo Daimao was pointless, and Nappa was doing a pretty good job of making everyone look helpless even before Chiaotzu blew himself up.
Pretty much the only thing that Chiaotzu was good for was fixing the brackets at the Budokai's, and by the end of the series, they had Buu to do that for them.

Recurring huh? Then Oolong I guess. Or Maron. Or Bulma's mom. Someone like that. I still say it's Cold though.

Oolong saved the in the beginning by stopping Pilaf's wish. He didn't do much after that, but that's still more than Chiaotzu ever did. You have me on the other two though.

[FoolsGil]

Puar is the most useless character. She had better power control than Oolong, but she existed only as an audience surrogate while Yamcha was Mr. Exposition back in Dragonball.

Chaozu is one of my favorite characters, but he was poorly developed and created only to have 2 Crane students and 2 Turtle Students (outside of Goku) go duke it out.

[Kamiccolo9]

Puar is the most useless character. She had better power control than Oolong, but she existed only as an audience surrogate while Yamcha was Mr. Exposition back in Dragonball.

Chaozu is one of my favorite characters, but he was poorly developed and created only to have 2 Crane students and 2 Turtle Students (outside of Goku) go duke it out.

Puar was the one to stop Oozaru Goku in the beginning though. So she was able to manage something at least.

[Kid Buu]

Didn't Puar beat one of Baba's henchman after they beat Krillin?

[dbzfan7]

Didn't Puar beat one of Baba's henchman after they beat Krillin?

She also helped beat Monster Rabbit.

[Jackal puFF]

I want to say Puar.. I just forget that cat exists sometimes.. I don't even remember what she or he did during dragonball.. See I don't even know if it's a dude or a chick..

[Kamiccolo9]

I want to say Puar.. I just forget that cat exists sometimes.. I don't even remember what she or he did during dragonball.. See I don't even know if it's a dude or a chick..

You might want to check out the three posts right above yours

[penguintruth]

Yamucha or Gyuumao.

Fortunately, they both had excellent VAs in the anime, to bring out some shred of personalities.

Yamucha:

- Loses to Goku
- Loses to Jackie Chun
- Loses to the Mummy
- Loses (badly) to Tenshinhan
- Loses to Tambourine
- Loses to Shen
- Loses to a Saibaman
- Loses to Artificial Human 20/Dr. Gero (never had a chance)
- Loses to a Cell Junior
- Loses Bulma to Vegeta
- Doesn't have the decency to go live in isolation after becoming irrelevant, like Tenshinhan and Chaozu did, despite being much weaker than them


Gyuumao:

- Big, stupid lug who literally does nothing of value ever, besides fathering Goku's wife (which he does mostly off-panel/screen and obviously screwed up at)

[RandomGuy96]

Yamcha did get to beat a Saibaman (then die), beat Invisible Man, beat Recoome (in filler), and save everyone from Ozaru Goku. So he's not completely useless. Without him Ozaru Goku probably would've killed everybody. He's not a top tier guy the usefulness scale (where Vegeta ranks firmly in the negatives), but he does have an impact on the story.

I think that the characters who are the most useless are the ones that no one ever thinks of. They left so little impact that you don't even remember them. Bulma's mom and Maron would fit in there. As would many other minor characters.

But for "main" characters? If Chiaotzu counts, then probably him.

[Kid Buu]

Yamcha did get to beat a Saibaman (then die), beat Invisible Man, beat Recoome (in filler), and save everyone from Ozaru Goku. So he's not completely useless. Without him Ozaru Goku probably would've killed everybody. He's not a top tier guy the usefulness scale (where Vegeta ranks firmly in the negatives), but he does have an impact on the story.

I think that the characters who are the most useless are the ones that no one ever thinks of. They left so little impact that you don't even remember them. Bulma's mom and Maron would fit in there. As would many other minor characters.

But for "main" characters? If Chiaotzu counts, then probably him.

Yamcha also helped Goku & Bulma out against Boss Rabbits man, and I'm pretty sure he was the first one to discover Androids could steal ki.

[B]

Yajirobe. He was introduced with the same clout and screentime as the rest of Goku's friends and then falls into obscurity. It's puzzling to find the point in why he was created. At least people like Chaozu and Puer made contributions that matched the way their characters were written. They never gave off primary character vibes.

I guess "useless" to me is how well the character serves the story and not strength. Lunch could even probably be put into that category as she was born out of another character's lechery and then just hangs around because. But Lunch was already forgotten and rejected, so I haven't the heart to call her useless.

[RandomGuy96]

Yajirobe. He was introduced with the same clout and screentime as the rest of Goku's friends and then falls into obscurity. It's puzzling to find the point in why he was created. At least people like Chaozu and Puer made contributions that matched the way their characters were written. They never gave off primary character vibes.

I guess "useless" to me is how well the character serves the story and not strength. Lunch could even probably be put into that category as she was born out of another character's lechery and then just hangs around because. But Lunch was already forgotten and rejected, so I haven't the heart to call her useless.

Yajirobe's fall to obscurity is crap, like the rest of the non-saiyans ('cept Piccolo), but he was useful and did have an impact on the story. He: beat Cymbal, saved Goku's life, saved everyone from Ozaru Vegeta, and launched a successful sneak attack on an injured Vegeta.

[B]

The non-Saiyans losing screentime felt so much more natural Yajirobe's, though. The fact that he was such a big part of the Piccolo Daimao arc is the problem; he then just shows up in tiny bursts. Krillin, Yamcha, et al may not have been able to keep up on the power scale, but they maintained roles within the center of the story. Yamcha's a nerd, but his ass was there all the way to Buu!

I guess I should look at Yajirobe in the same vein as characters like 8-chan or Upa or the tournament contestants, but it's hard when he was still marginally around past his introductory arc and is a martial artist.

[Pantalones]

Yajirobe being mentioned reminds me of how sad it is that he went from getting "holy crap, you're strong" reactions from Goku to... getting barely over 1000 and then never training (or fighting) again.

Think about it... he had a power level approaching 200 (or was he even higher? I can't remember the Dragonball levels...) even though he had absolutely no knowledge of how to use ki. And what little training he does do (after which he still has no knowledge of how to use ki!) brings him to over 1000 in a year. This guy must have the most absurdly high potential of everyone in the series, or at the very least the highest among the humans... if only he had a chance to bring more of it out.

Loses to a Saibaman

I'd count that one as more of a tie... Yamcha beat the Saibaman up pretty easily and only died due to a self-destruct that (of course) also killed the Saibaman.

But yeah, as far as fights go, Yamcha doesn't have the greatest record.

Most useless character... probably Bra if she counts, and if not her then Marron (by which I mean Krillin's daughter, not his Bulma clone ex-girlfriend... though she's pretty pointless also!) since she's at least sort of a recurring character (showing up in the Buu saga and the little part at the end after the 10-year gap.) I guess if only "main" characters count, then it'd probably be Chiaotzu... if he even counts as a "main" character, for how small his role is after a certain point...