Why I think characters are becoming or became irrelevant

[Captain Strawberry]

If we think about it. Toriyama could have easily written for characters like Piccolo to catch up or even surpass Goku and Dragon Ball is a whacky so it's not like there aren't creative ideas or since Dragon Ball is a fun series, it just wants to make storylines for fun you could have easily written Piccolo kept up by training or he went to some sort of space adventure.

The Earthlings could have learnt some sort of special Kaioken or even introduced Kaioken as strong as the red haired SSJ. And that form only really existed for the sake of existing, no explanation to why or how it exists.

But that's not my point.

The reason I think characters become irrelevant because they don't have a whole lot to do, I think it's because of lack of world building. The reason I say that is because there is not a whole lot for them to face which makes it easier for one or two protagonist to fight the antagonist.

In One Piece, the weakest members of the crew still remain relevant, there are plenty of bad guys for them to face. For example, The Four Emperors (top 4 pirates basically) and with the Emperor and their subordinates; so their are hierarchies. This is probably one of the reasons why characters remained quite relevant in the Frieza arc is because there was a hierarchy or plenty of bad guys for them to face off, in Super right now, we only have like 2 main antagonist.


What do you think? Do you disagree with me? Do you agree with me?

[TheMikado]

When the series opens with your main protagonist gaining the ability to "punch" the universe out of existence there's not much left for anyone else to do...

[YonedgeHP]

Being relevant is not limited only to fight, Bulma is a clear example.

[Captain Strawberry]

Being relevant is not limited only to fight, Bulma is a clear example.

I mean action wise.

[Nejishiki]

Toriyama is the type of person who doesn't force concepts if he's not interested. A typical author would try to keep everyone he introduced active or send them off when their story is closed. Toriyama simply moves on and lets his characters live their own life. I can respect that, artistically. It's easy to bog down your story attempting to keep everyone satisfied. It's best to write what you enjoy, with appropriate moderation (as I'm not suggesting he throws continuity out the window). I doubt he's doing so out of "disrespect" or intentionally making your personal favorite characters "irrelevant". At worse, he'll simply do the opposite of what you ask. Remember that it's never an attack on any fan.

[sintzu]

The reason I think characters become irrelevant because they don't have a whole lot to do, I think it's because of lack of world building.

This is exactly why and although the dragon world is huge, it feels very small compared to other worlds like One Piece and Naruto's.

in Super right now, we only have like 2 main antagonist.

And thankfully Vegeta is one of them, I would've liked to have more but if they were only going to have one alongside Goku then they picked the right one.

[ParkerAL]

Framing irrelevance in terms of a character's combat strength isn't something I can get on board with, even in a battle-centric series like Dragon Ball. Dende was a weakling compared to everyone in the Freeza Arc, but he was vital to the plot without every having to throw a single punch.

I feel fans overreact whenever Dragon Ball allows some of its cast to fade into the background. When writers continue a long-running story, it's only natural that some older characters will lose relevance as newer ones are introduced. With the likes of Beerus, Whis, Goku Black, Zamasu, Zeno, Champa, Vados, Zuno, Jaco, Hit, Cabba, and others all contributing to Dragon Ball Super's various plot lines, it's necessary for characters like Piccolo, Gohan, and Tenshinhan to step aside, at least for the time being.

I do agree that world building has caused these characters to lose relevance, but not because of a lack of it. Indeed, the world of Dragon Ball has expanded exponentially since Battle of Gods came out, with the introduction of new deities, universes, and techniques. With so many new concepts to explore, there simply isn't enough time to focus on everyone.

That doesn't mean past characters won't ever have a chance to shine again. Heck, we've seen plenty of examples of that in recent Super episodes:

Future Trunks - Started a brand new arc in the series by traveling back to the past.
Bulma - Fixed the time machine that allowed Goku and Vegeta to travel into the future.
Mai - Led the human resistance and provided Trunks with pep talks and personal motivation.
Yajirobe - Helped Goku and Vegeta escape after their fight with Black and Zamasu.

[floofychan333]

I guess the writers assume everyone's kind of sick of the old crowd so they replace them with a new crowd, who everyone gets sick of, and so on.

[Faustus]

In my experience seeing secondary characters fall behind one after another has aided in no small way in cementing for me, by its cumulative effect, a sense of Goku's progression throughout -- especially when visual displays of power, with the notable exception in Super of Goku and Beerus' punches visibly rippling out across the universe, have been of little note since Namek. That the days when Yamcha -- or Piccolo, or Gotenks -- was our hero's peer in power are long past really sells just how far he's come since.

Throughout Dragon Ball's original run, that is, we got fresh status quos at every turn, former major players getting knocked off every step of the way -- with Goku, the main character, being the only reliable constant as he continues to persevere in his ascent. Now the main cast is Goku, Bulma, Oolong and Yamcha; now it's Goku, Krillin, Yamcha, Kame Sennin and Tenshinhan, with Oolong and Bulma largely reduced to the roles of spectators; now it's Goku, Gohan and Piccolo, with the humans somewhat lagging behind; now it's Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan and Trunks, with all the humans now convincingly distanced; now it's Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Gotenks, next to whom Trunks and Piccolo are but worms; here it's Goku, Vegeta, Beerus and Whis, dwarfing all who've come before. The cast around Goku keeps changing as he continues to climb up to new planes of power, and as the series continues to escalate in general. It works. Gohan and Gotenks had to go.

With series featuring a more-or-less constant status quo -- say, your One Pieces or your Yu Yu Hakushos (and I mean no slight against either) -- it becomes all too easy for it to slip one's mind just how many echelons of power the central characters have had to climb to get to where they are now; with Dragon Ball, an incidental result of what I described above is that these echelons of power are always within view, embodied in the form of a spectating, ever-gasping secondary (tertiary?) cast. Some find it distracting; I find it enriching.

[omaro34]

Generally speaking, when Toriyama introduces a character, they will be relevant mostly in the Arc that they are introduced in. After that, they lose their purpose.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

Characters become irrelevant because Toriyama doesn't make long-term plans for his stories.

[ParkerAL]

With series featuring a more-or-less constant status quo -- say, your One Pieces or your Yu Yu Hakushos (and I mean no slight against either) -- it becomes all too easy for it to slip one's mind just how many echelons of power the central characters have had to climb to get to where they are now; with Dragon Ball, an incidental result of what I described above is that these echelons of power are always within view, embodied in the form of a spectating, ever-gasping secondary (tertiary?) cast. Some find it distracting; I find it enriching.

Yu Yu Hakusho is an interesting example to cite. Looking back, much of its main cast were able to stay relevant through each consecutive arc. The four main heroes (Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama) increased their power steadily, and a consistent set of supporting characters (Botan, Genkai, Koenma, and Keiko) did their thing on the sidelines. The higher and higher echelons of power you mentioned were represented more by the antagonists changing than anything else. Even a number of secondary combatants from the Dark Tournament, like Chu, Rinku, and Jin, were given major power boosts to compete seriously in the last arc.

I'd say both it and Dragon Ball have valid approaches to handling their large casts, but it is interesting to look at how different they are. Of course, Yu Yu Hakusho does take place within a much shorter time span, so there perhaps wasn't as much room for the massive shifts we saw in Dragon Ball.

[ABED]

Yu Yu Hakusho is an interesting example to cite. Looking back, much of its main cast were able to stay relevant through each consecutive arc. The four main heroes (Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama) increased their power steadily, and a consistent set of supporting characters (Botan, Genkai, Koenma, and Keiko) did their thing on the sidelines. The higher and higher echelons of power you mentioned were represented more by the antagonists changing than anything else. Even a number of secondary combatants from the Dark Tournament, like Chu, Rinku, and Jin, were given major power boosts to compete seriously in the last arc.

And when Kuwabara had no reason to be in the final arc, he was giving a fitting story that kept him out of the action but progressed his character. I don't think Keiko really did much of any value to the story beyond worry about Yusuke, but your point is well taken. I think one of the reasons Yu Yu Hakusho did such a good job was because it left before the party died down.

[ekrolo2]

Yu Yu Hakusho is an interesting example to cite. Looking back, much of its main cast were able to stay relevant through each consecutive arc. The four main heroes (Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama) increased their power steadily, and a consistent set of supporting characters (Botan, Genkai, Koenma, and Keiko) did their thing on the sidelines. The higher and higher echelons of power you mentioned were represented more by the antagonists changing than anything else. Even a number of secondary combatants from the Dark Tournament, like Chu, Rinku, and Jin, were given major power boosts to compete seriously in the last arc.

And when Kuwabara had no reason to be in the final arc, he was giving a fitting story that kept him out of the action but progressed his character. I don't think Keiko really did much of any value to the story beyond worry about Yusuke, but your point is well taken. I think one of the reasons Yu Yu Hakusho did such a good job was because it left before the party died down.

Hearing stuff like this is what reminds me I need to get the hell back on finishing Yu Yu asap.

[ABED]

Yu Yu Hakusho is an interesting example to cite. Looking back, much of its main cast were able to stay relevant through each consecutive arc. The four main heroes (Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama) increased their power steadily, and a consistent set of supporting characters (Botan, Genkai, Koenma, and Keiko) did their thing on the sidelines. The higher and higher echelons of power you mentioned were represented more by the antagonists changing than anything else. Even a number of secondary combatants from the Dark Tournament, like Chu, Rinku, and Jin, were given major power boosts to compete seriously in the last arc.

And when Kuwabara had no reason to be in the final arc, he was giving a fitting story that kept him out of the action but progressed his character. I don't think Keiko really did much of any value to the story beyond worry about Yusuke, but your point is well taken. I think one of the reasons Yu Yu Hakusho did such a good job was because it left before the party died down.

Hearing stuff like this is what reminds me I need to get the hell back on finishing Yu Yu asap.

Sorry if I ruined anything for you.

[ekrolo2]

]Sorry if I ruined anything for you.

On the contrary, you've given me something to do for the next couple of weeks before college starts.

[ABED]

]Sorry if I ruined anything for you.

On the contrary, you've given me something to do for the next couple of weeks before college starts.

Glad I could help

[Captain Strawberry]

Yu Yu had the main cast still remained relevant compared to Yusuke power wise which one of the reasons I think YYH is a good series

[ABED]

Yu Yu had the main cast still remained relevant compared to Yusuke power wise which one of the reasons I think YYH is a good series

It's good because of execution not because their powers were comparable to the main character. It wasn't even their spectral power that truly made them helpful. What made them helpful is the skills they brought to the table.

[Captain Strawberry]

Yu Yu had the main cast still remained relevant compared to Yusuke power wise which one of the reasons I think YYH is a good series

It's good because of execution not because their powers were comparable to the main character. It wasn't even their spectral power that truly made them helpful. What made them helpful is the skills they brought to the table.

True, I like how smart Kurama was with his plant powers, didn't think plants could be amazing powers to have.