Did the characters become too powerful?

Discussion regarding the entirety of the franchise in a general (meta) sense, including such aspects as: production, trends, merchandise, fan culture, and more.
User avatar
ABED
Namekian Warrior
Posts: 20497
Joined: Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:23 am
Location: Sarasota, FL
Contact:

Re: Did the characters become too powerful?

Post by ABED » Wed Feb 12, 2014 5:41 pm

I get Toriyama might have been poking fun at it but there's a difference between hanging a lantern on something and poking fun at it. Humor's great but when it's used to brush things off and undercut everything, including heroes and villains, that's when it starts to bother me.
The biggest truths aren't original. The truth is ketchup. It's Jim Belushi. Its job isn't to blow our minds. It's to be within reach.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take - Wayne Gretzky" - Michael Scott
Happiness is climate, not weather.

User avatar
TheRed259
I'm, pretty, cozy, here...
Posts: 1743
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:26 am

Re: Did the characters become too powerful?

Post by TheRed259 » Wed Feb 12, 2014 6:36 pm

Definitely one of the biggest disadvantages of DragonBall Z. But it's artistic freedom after all and everything does happen for the plot's sake. Toriyama strengthens or weakens characters according to the situation.

User avatar
FortuneSSJ
Born 'n Bred Here
Posts: 5939
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 9:07 pm

Re: Did the characters become too powerful?

Post by FortuneSSJ » Thu Feb 13, 2014 5:23 pm

I don't think so. And there's always someone stronger than you.
Beerus and Whis proved that.
A world without Dragon Ball is just boring.

Favourite old DB Animators: Masaki Sato and Tadayoshi Yamamuro
Favourite new DB Animators: Yuya Takahashi and Chikashi Kubota

User avatar
Duo
I Live Here
Posts: 3222
Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2004 11:14 pm
Location: United States

Re: Did the characters become too powerful?

Post by Duo » Thu Feb 13, 2014 5:39 pm

FortuneSSJ wrote:I don't think so. And there's always someone stronger than you.
Beerus and Whis proved that.
"There's always a bigger fish."

I love how in the scene when Whis is telling Beerus about the Super Saiyan, there's an aquarium in the background and a huge fish is eaten by an even bigger fish.

User avatar
SingleFringe&Sparks
I'm, pretty, cozy, here...
Posts: 1642
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 10:55 pm
Location: Mt. Paozu/East District

Re: Did the characters become too powerful?

Post by SingleFringe&Sparks » Thu Feb 13, 2014 5:44 pm

Vijay wrote:Progression from weak to omnipotent was shown in a very subtle manner in DBZ.
Kinda funny to see ridiculous "Blowing-up planet" kinda power-level arguements.
Only 2 instances shown in which Freeza (Planet Vegeta) & Kid Buu (Earth) blowing up planet.
Whats the big deal?
Not to mention it would make sense why Cell would eventually get to that point as his power literally keeps growing after all his experiences, he was designed to do so at his greatest potential.

Freeza is also an alien that's entire economy is built on planet trade, the power caps of his people are far higher than any puny human could comprehend. It wouldnt make sense if all he was limited to was what humans could do just because they are dominant. Earth life forms have their own limits where basically everything else in DB outside Earth could so it with ease.
Last edited by SingleFringe&Sparks on Fri Feb 14, 2014 1:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
Zephyr wrote:The fandom's collective fetishizing of "moments" is also ridiculous to me. No, not everyone needs a fucking "shine" moment. If that's all you want, then all you want is fanservice, rather than an actual coherent story. And of course those aren't mutually exclusive; you could have a coherent story with "shine" moments! But if a story is perfectly coherent (and I'm really not seeing any compelling arguments that this one is anything but, despite constantly recurring, really poorly reasoned, attempts to argue otherwise), and you're bemoaning the lack of "shine" moments as a reason for the story's poor quality, then you're letting your thirst for "shine" moments obfuscate your ability to detect basic storytelling when it's right in front of you.

User avatar
TheGmGoken
Namekian Warrior
Posts: 10592
Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2013 5:19 pm
Location: Capsule Corps

Re: Did the characters become too powerful?

Post by TheGmGoken » Thu Feb 13, 2014 7:20 pm

Nah. Raditz is STILL one of the strongest people in the universe. Only like a few hundreds surpass him. That's impressive to be honest. Characters didn't get to strong. Hell base Saiyans are weaker than Freeza.

User avatar
penguintruth
Banned
Posts: 4861
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:49 pm

Re: Did the characters become too powerful?

Post by penguintruth » Thu Feb 13, 2014 7:30 pm

It's not that the characters got too powerful, the audience just got too weak.

I mean, do you even lift?
Kentai wrote:Son Gokuu is a fascinating character anyway, because he is - at face value, anyway - an idiot savant. The victim of violent head trauma as an infant [...] he's a simple bumpkin with a fair share of brain damage who's natural talents to work out what's wrong compensate for his broad lack of common sense. But he's also a fighter, through and through [...] he fight until he has, in no uncertain terms, beaten his enemy on terms they can both acknowledge. He doesn't want to kill anyone, or even prove that he can win... he just wants to know he can. He's an ineffably charming bastard who's manly leanings were really incendental, and yes, the fact that he was voiced by a squeaky woman made the combination perhaps all the more charming.


Dragon Ball (Z) Kai Reviews!

Can I get a Schemen?

User avatar
Polyphase Avatron
Born 'n Bred Here
Posts: 6643
Joined: Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:48 am

Re: Did the characters become too powerful?

Post by Polyphase Avatron » Fri Feb 14, 2014 1:56 am

FortuneSSJ wrote:I don't think so. And there's always someone stronger than you.
Beerus and Whis proved that.
Except the people who think Vegeto (or even Broly) is stronger than them :roll:
Cool stuff that I upload here because Youtube will copyright claim it: https://vimeo.com/user60967147

User avatar
RandomGuy96
Kicks it Old-School
Posts: 8881
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2013 3:57 pm
Location: San Diego, California, USA

Re: Did the characters become too powerful?

Post by RandomGuy96 » Fri Feb 14, 2014 2:02 am

SS2 Gotenks > Beers
The Monkey King wrote:
RandomGuy96 wrote:
dbgtFO wrote: Please elaborate as I do not know what you mean by "pushing Vegeta's destruction"
He's probably referring to the Bardock special. Zarbon was the one who first recommended destroying Planet Vegeta because the saiyans were rapidly growing in strength.
It was actually Beerus disguised as Zarbon #StayWoke
Herms wrote:The fact that the ridiculous power inflation is presented so earnestly makes me just roll my eyes and snicker. Like with Freeza, where he starts off over 10 times stronger than all his henchmen except Ginyu (because...well, just because), then we find out he can transform and get even more powerful, and then he reveals he can transform two more times, before finally coming out with the fact that he hasn't even been using anywhere near 50% of his power. Oh, and he can survive in the vacuum of space. All this stuff is just presented as the way Freeza is, without even an attempt at rationalizing it, yet the tone dictates we're supposed to take all this silly grasping at straws as thrilling danger. So I guess I don't really take the power inflation in the Boo arc seriously, but I don't take the power inflation in earlier arcs seriously either, so there's no net loss of seriousness. I think a silly story presented as serious is harder to accept than a silly story presented as silly.

User avatar
Quebaz
Advanced Regular
Posts: 1203
Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2012 8:57 am
Location: Portugal
Contact:

Re: Did the characters become too powerful?

Post by Quebaz » Sun Feb 16, 2014 6:43 pm

Yes, they did, which is why I believe the idea of SSJ5 is absurd, I mean, how will he fights be? One character breaths and the planet explodes? It's also one of the main reasons the fights in GT sucked, we know the characters are powerful as hell, but they battle in a way that doesn't destroy anyhting.
A LUZ INFINITA!
Steam: Quebaz
PSN: BSSJ3
Tumblr

Post Reply