Characters who got too much glory

[RandomGuy96]

I see a lot of threads about under appreciated characters, or characters who should have gotten more to do. This thread is the opposite of that: who do you feel received too much to do?

I'd have to say Future Trunks. If his whole role was to deliver the antidote and eventually kill the future androids, I'd think that was quite enough for him. But no; instead, Toriyama has him both do that and kill Freeza and Cell, as well as Freeza's father. It's not enough for him to resolve his own future plotline; he also kills two iconic big bads in one arc (and him killing Freeza is just a badly written end to the character) and has a whole new character created just for him to kill. A lot of characters would have benefited greatly just from one big victory like that under their belt; Trunks had five. Oh, and he also was one of the only guys fighting evenly with the Juniors, who were stomping tired Goku and Piccolo.

I also feel like both Goku and Vegeta got to take down too many of Freeza's henchmen. Krillin, Piccolo, and/or Gohan should have gotten at least one, but instead, Goku and Vegeta hog them all (Recoome, Burter, and Jeice for Goku, and Cui, Dodoria, Zarbon, and Jeice again for Vegeta).

[Kid Buu]

Goku, especially in the pre-Raditz era.

-Yamcha should have beaten the Mummy or at least tied him.
-Tenshinhan should have won cleanly.
-I wouldn't mind if Tenshinhan beat Drum and then lost to Piccolo
-Have Yamcha die to Nappa instead, and each death makes Nappa weaker (Spirit Ball, Explosion, Kikoho) until Kuririn Kienzens him.
-Have Kuririn beat Recoome when he made Recoome eat his own blast (they'd lose to Burter instead)

Although, I think I might let Goku actually take Cell out. Only because I hated Gohan's battle with Cell.

[Kakarot88]

Son Gohan...everytime.

First, the Raditz debacle...Goku: "Son! Thanks for busting out and getting the upperhand on uncle Raditz!... despite the fact your ass never would have been kidnapped had you only let go of my leg and hid with the blue haired bimbo like I told you...a good minute before and when unle Raditz showed up! Oh well at least it's a year away from you !"

Next, he's hyped up for Cell, and you know he does well...but the he gets his dad killed! and yet somehow he's awesome!?
Somehow the fact that dead daddy coaching his slacker son from the grave with the combined effort of Vegeta who had to break his code of Bushido and honorable fighting to save the Earth is overlooked
Somehow everyone is excited over Gohan despite his massive unneeded failures. To me the manga screams this kid sucks and the anime shouts it even louder: "Fans look how off the chain these weaklings are given it their all to help this coward! Look at Vegeta swole as hell and Goku's coward son"

And then...then... when Gohan becomes ultimate all i could think was oooooh yeah he's gonna do some work on Majin Buu! Wrong! Should have known crap fest again! the fact Gohan is given any credit for anything boggles my mind.



Next on my list is Piccolo, I know tons of fans love "uncle Piccolo"...NOT this guy, as soon as Piccolo got disrespected to be a hype man for Vegeta I knew he's fighting days were over (intentional misspellings): "Oh muh guuuur lurk at Vergeter he is sooooo stong {quiver quiver quiver}"... but wait he fuses with Kami...and instantly is summarily bitched out to solely become a dude so worthless that he gets lumped in with Kuririn to be disrespected and spit on and become stone.
Ugh the whole thing made sense but it is the one and only thing about dragon ball that I love AND hate...I wanted Piccolo to be off the chain but from the start I knew he'd get bitched out harder than Tenshinhan. I mean dammit Toriyama made him a friggen slug person how awesome could he really be!? The fact fans over look this also boggles my mind

[Codarik]

Clearly Goku. Sure he is the star of the manga/anime, but who else can we say that got as much glory as him?

[Gyt Kaliba]

Clearly Goku. Sure he is the star of the manga/anime, but who else can we say that got as much glory as him?

I'm kind of at odds with this one myself. I really hate that it quickly becomes the Goku show, but...well, it really kinda has to be in a way. He's the lead character. You know it's gonna come down to him in the end at least most of the time anyway, that's just how being the lead character works. I don't think anyone was expecting Ron or Hermione to be a major factor in Harry taking down Voldemort before Deathly Hallows came out, for example - it was always very clear that it would come down to Harry.

That said though, I'd honestly say that, in a way, I think Vegeta got a bit too much. His basic MO up until his 'number one' speech was almost always the same - arrogant prick who's pretty badass to begin with becomes more-so through training. Shows up, kicks someone's ass, and is annoying cocky about it...up until his butt gets handed to him and he turns into a whinier four-year-old than Gohan ever was'. He even does this in the Saiyan/Namek material if you squint hard enough, and that's when the character is at his BEST. So while he never got to win a fight in the end, he still almost feels like he got too much glory just being a major participant in fights when you know it's just gonna lead to him whining when he loses.

[doomydoomydoom]

Let's be honest...Goku got all the glory in every arc every time. I know, I know, he's the hero of the damn series. But still, by the time it got to the Cell arc it was a tad tiring that Goku had to rush to help Gohan, and Toriyama wouldn't let Gohan defeat Cell with his own strength.

Although I was willing to excuse that as a "team effort" (and the Cell fight dragged on for so long I really didn't care what happened as long as the damn saga ENDED), it had exasperated and pissed me off by the time I finished the series. Nobody could put Buu down on their own. Needed Goku, every damn time. Made Gohan's newfound badassery pointless, made the awesome Gotenks pointless. Even as far back as Dragon Ball, I was a bit miffed once I started noticing that Bulma, Yamucha, etc. were all becoming less and less useful, and were kind of just "there". A more "plot-minded" writer probably could have come up with loads of options for those characters, at least not dissolving the interesting Goku\Bulma partnership there from the Pilaf saga. But I digress.

[Kid Buu]

Another thing about Future Trunks that bothers me is that his storyline basically shits all over Freeza, Yamcha, & Bulma.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

I think everyone but Goku got what they deserved, and most of them deserved more.

But to be fair, Goku didn't get all the glory, at least in DBZ. He was mostly inactive in every arc up until the final battles.

[Saiga]

The only one who got too much on the heroes' side was Goku, and only in the earlier parts of Dragon Ball. I actually find that harder to read than anything else because I get sick of Goku so easily during that.

Other than that, I don't have a problem except for maybe Goku taking out the Ginyu Force on Namek, but that's less because of the glory and more that it was too early for him to come in. After that he's injured and his 100x gravity training is made obsolete by a super Zenkai. And the way he took out the Ginyu Force was super repetitive anyway.

[RandomGuy96]

I think I should add Vegeta in general to my list. He got to kill or defeat 13 characters (Goku, Yajirobe, Krillin, Gohan, Cui, Dodoria, Zarbon, Guldo, Jeice, Ginyu-Goku, 19, Semi-Cell, Pui Pui), have a draw with two of them (Cell Jr and SS2 Goku), and play major supporting roles in the defeats of both Cell and Buu. There are a lot of opportunities for glory there that should have went to some of the more underused characters, like Krillin or Piccolo or even Gohan. I mean, by contrast, the only one who rivals that count (not including Goku's victories as a kid) is Gohan, and even then only if you count all seven Cell Jrs as separate victories. Compare Vegeta's record with some of the other side characters:

Gohan only had three or four victories (Freeza soldier, Ginyu-Goku, Cell Juniors, Cell) and two assists, against Vegeta (fought him then fell on him) and Buu (donated the majority of the genki). Plus one draw (Dabra).

Piccolo only gets to beat four characters (Kami, Krillin, Saibaman, 20) and plays no role in the ultimate defeat of any of the big four main villains (unless you count distracting final form Freeza, which I don't).

Tenshinhan only gets to fairly beat four characters, six if you count filler like I do to be generous (Yamcha, Roshi, Cyborg Tao, Saibaman, Burter, Jeice), and again plays no role in defeating any main villain.

Krillin actually does get to play a big role in defeating Vegeta, but he only had four or five victories (Bacterian, Chiaotzu, Saibamen, Freeza soldier, Ginyu-Goku), and one of those was a gag.

[Kid Buu]

Krillin also beat Pintar in the Buu arc, but I wouldn't really count that. I wouldn't really counter Goku-Ginyu either, that should all go to Vegeta (beat him up) and Goku (threw the frog)

[RandomGuy96]

Yeah, that's why I said "four or five". Krillin and Gohan genuinely were beating him up, but they're not the ones who really beat him. But I guess that's yet another victory for Vegeta.

[Kid Buu]

Altercations I would make:

Yamcha: Have him beat Ram Fan in the 21st Budokai (since his character arc was getting over fear of girls), and beat The Mummy in the Red Ribbon Army arc.
Krillin: Beat Nappa or a Ginyu Force member with Kienzen.
Tenshinhan: Have him beat Goku cleanly, and extend his character arc so it lasts longer than 45 minutes.
Chaotzu: Honestly, I dont now what to do with him.

Also maybe have Goku beat Cell and Gohan beat Buu, instead of the opposite. Mainly because I hated Gohan's fight with Cell, and Goku's return in the Buu arc just makes everything go to shit.

[Saiga]

I'm not really bothered by that, because raw numbers don't mean a whole lot to me. I only think Piccolo was really underused (Freeza/Android ars), and that's not a problem that I think would be fixed by tossing him some minor character kills.

[Kid Buu]

I'm not really bothered by that, because raw numbers don't mean a whole lot to me. I only think Piccolo was really underused (Freeza/Android ars), and that's not a problem that I think would be fixed by tossing him some minor character kills.

Although most of my altercations were too tone-down the Goku wank, such as giving Tenshinhan a proper victory.

[RandomGuy96]

I'm not really bothered by that, because raw numbers don't mean a whole lot to me. I only think Piccolo was really underused (Freeza/Android ars), and that's not a problem that I think would be fixed by tossing him some minor character kills.

It's not just pure numbers in this case. Semi-Cell and Pui Pui were Vegeta's only real pointless victories, the others are important to the plot, at least insofar as they aid his goal, and I think other characters should have gotten some of those victories. Seems like overkill to give him so many victories.

[Kid Buu]

Oh, Tenshinhan played a role in beating Piccolo Daimao. I remember he saved Goku from one of Daimao's attacks.

Wait why do you count Semi Cell for Vegeta and not Super Buu for Gohan?

[Saiga]

I'm not really bothered by that, because raw numbers don't mean a whole lot to me. I only think Piccolo was really underused (Freeza/Android ars), and that's not a problem that I think would be fixed by tossing him some minor character kills.

Although most of my altercations were too tone-down the Goku wank, such as giving Tenshinhan a proper victory.

Tenshinhan beating Goku cleanly is the only one of those I really like, to be honest. I definitely don't think Kuririn should be beating Nappa or a member of the Ginyu Force (cept maybe Gurd), it doesn't work as well for me.

It's not just pure numbers in this case. Semi-Cell and Pui Pui were Vegeta's only real pointless victories, the others are important to the plot, at least insofar as they aid his goal, and I think other characters should have gotten some of those victories. Seems like overkill to give him so many victories.

I'm talking about things that aren't really a big deal. Like beating Yajirobe. And I also don't think the number of people he beat as a villain should count towards that, it's a separate role and it justifies him getting those victories, it's not much different from the other main villains. I just don't care if one character gets a higher number of victories as long as the other characters don't get shafted, and I don't think Vegeta's victories are responsible for any of the protagonists getting the shaft.

[Kid Buu]

I thought you too were in agreement that Yamcha should have beaten Mummy or at least tied with?

[Saiga]

I thought you too were in agreement that Yamcha should have beaten Mummy or at least tied with?

Oh, I missed that. Yeah, I believe that he should have.