That should have killed them

[the_abberration]

As I have been watching the Dragonball series, I have come to notice that some of the characters seem to survive blasts or injuries that would have killed other (lesser) characters.

For instance, Vegeta took a full on face blast by Buu (IIRC) and managed to survive. Yamcha took a hand through the chest by Dr. Gero and managed to hold on until he got a senzu.

So I got to thinking. Are there any moments where you thought a character should have died from an attack but managed to pull through?

[Duo]

Uhh...Piccolo getting shot through the chest by Freeza? Piccolo having most of his upper abdomen blown off by Cell? Piccolo...and so on.

Gohan having his neck snapped by Reacoom? Kuririn getting stabbed through the chest by Freeza? Vegeta getting crushed by a Great Ape after surviving a Genki-dama?

Majin Boo...all the damn time?

[Godo]

Let's add Vegeta getting blasted through his stomach by Krillin, equivalent to the blast Piccolo recieved by Cell that ripped a hole in his torso.

I mean, it doesn't make sense! If you loose all those vital organs, you don't have the chance to survive. Plus add the blood loss, there shouldn't be so little blood loss, there should be blood everywhere if you have a hole in your body. I've seen it.
And all these hits on the head should give the fighters brain damages and hernias inside the brain, plus to add all the nerve damages when someone gets beaten up.
If Krillin got all his bones in his body broken, he should have sliced up important vessels in his body with the sharp pieces of bone, making him bleed to death.
Plus how the heroes stand up when obviously their liver is punched, or their kidney is punched. Everyone that has had an surgery knows how it is to recover, and everyone that has gotten a punch in the face knows how hard it is to regain control.
In Yamcha's case, since Dr. Gero was slow with putting his hand through Yamcha's chest, there was probably not major damage to his internal organs, they slipped around Dr. Gero's hand. But still, shouldn't his spine get broken? Or when Piccolo and Android 17 punch eachothers stomach so that you can see the punch go outside their backs, obviously their lumbar vertebrae should be broken since it's not that flexible.

So from a medical point of view it's impossible to stand that much damage as they get in the Dragonball series. So I'm surprised that any of them can survive any attacks and stand up at all.

But hey, its Dragonball we're talking about!

[The Tori-bot]

When Bane broke Batman's back!

... Right, DragonBall. ^^;

The big one for me is (not including the ones already mentioned) when Freeza got half his body sliced off. Since only his tail and his waist-down area sliced off, and since he's so strong, he theoretically could have survived.

But then he got a planet blown up on him. Yeah.

[Godo]

Since only his tail and his waist-down area sliced off, and since he's so strong, he theoretically could have survived.

Dragonball-theoretically or real world theoretically?

If you go by the real world, he would need 1000 litres of blood to be able to survive until he got home. Then he probably lost great parts of his large intestine, including the rectum, making him unable to take a crap. But still he is an alien.

Going by Dragonball logic, everything can happen. Like the fact that Piccolo could regenerate his body when only having his head left. It should be hard to survive without a heart, ne? But still he is an alien.

[Steven Perry]

Freeza's unfortunate chop-up reminds me of this video...

This ain't got nothing to do with Dragonball, but what I first thought of when reading the topic was the scene in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Snake gets the shit kicked out of him in that torture scene.

[Conan the SSJ]

For instance, Vegeta took a full on face blast by Buu (IIRC) and managed to survive.

Umm...he was already dead at that point, hence he was able to "survive" because he couldn't be killed; short of a cataclysmic planet destroying or self-destruction event that'd wipe him out of existence. A moment in the entire series where I was really surprised of someone surviving would be Freeza at the end of the Namek arc. I mean c'mon, he just went through the battle of his life against a Super Saiyan; he exhausts himself to the limit in his max. form, gets his entire lower torso and legs sliced off, gets blasted by Goku badly enough to tear off half his upper face and head, and is even caught in the full explosion of Namek. Yet he survives! I'd say there is no doubt, Freeza is the ultimate bad-ass in the universe.

[Kaboom]

I'd say there is no doubt, Freeza is the ultimate bad-ass in the universe.

Lipstick = "badass?"

I'd say he's just really, really stubborn.

[zoiozazu]

Kulilin is kicked by Cell...and he survives!

[Conan the SSJ]

Lipstick = "badass?"

No, the ability to live through what I pointed out above when he's neither immortal or has the ability of regeneration is what makes him such. Freeza lost enough of his body that was more than equivalent to Anakin Skywalker's turmoil in Star Wars Episode III and drifted in space for probably days before being found by King Cold, yet he still had the balls to live through it all. There's a fine line between being stubborn and being a true bad-ass, while Freeza's one truly evil S.O.B., he demonstrated and earned that trait in the aftermath of his battle with Super Saiyan Goku IMO. Ironically enough, it makes his demise at the hands of Trunks all the more anticlimactic.

[Xyex]

Well, I say with any major injury caused by ki survival is excusable. My thought on things like the hole through Vegeta and Freeza being sliced in half is that the ki cauterized the wound as it passed through. Thus you don't get, well, any bloodloss other than the initial.

The only survival that made go "No fucking way" was Hercule's when Cell backhanded him.

[Super Sonic]

Well, I say with any major injury caused by ki survival is excusable. My thought on things like the hole through Vegeta and Freeza being sliced in half is that the ki cauterized the wound as it passed through. Thus you don't get, well, any bloodloss other than the initial.

The only survival that made go "No fucking way" was Mr. Satan's when Cell backhanded him.

I think that was more along the lines of how a coyote can fall off a 30 foot cliff, then get back up like nothing happened.

[caejones]

Well, I'd imagine that they learned more than how to fight in all their various training periods. Maybe the heroe-guys got good at energy techniques that help keep them from bleeding too much, and help them to keep control over their muscles even when recovering from huge impacts... not too different from some things that some modern (I.E, not blast your head off with a kamehameha) TaiChi and Yoga people can do... just... a lot more intense and with a lot more crap going on. But egh, if they can do really rapid hand motions for their attacks, they've got the control to outlive medical expectations by a few minutes at the least...

That still doesn't explain Mr. Satan's survival abilities, though. ^____^. Unless that's the one ki technique he actually knows (because I'd imagine that one might be more mainstream taught even in the dragon world...).

[SuperSaiyan3Goku]

Piccolo having most of his upper abdomen blown off by Cell?

When did this happen? I don't remember Piccolo getting his body blown off by Cell...

[Godo]

Piccolo having most of his upper abdomen blown off by Cell?

When did this happen? I don't remember Piccolo getting his body blown off by Cell...

This happened when Imperfect Cell interrupted the fight between Android 17 and Piccolo.

[SuperSaiyan3Goku]

Piccolo having most of his upper abdomen blown off by Cell?

When did this happen? I don't remember Piccolo getting his body blown off by Cell...

This happened when Imperfect Cell interrupted the fight between Android 17 and Piccolo.

Damn, I forgot THAT?

Thanks for telling me, I guess...

[Duo]

That one with Piccolo is horrifying to read for me even now. They barely show the damage but Piccolo is seriously missing half of his entire stomach area.

[Nappa187]

that blast from Imperfect Cell literally took up all of Piccolo's body

[Ozma15]

I have to give it to Saiyajin arc Vegeta. o.O Crap, what did they NOT throw at him?


And Tao Pai Pai. I know they made him a cyborg, but dang.

And Gurd/Guldo/whatever getting his head blown off... until Vegeta finished that job.

[Dayspring]

When Bane broke Batman's back!

Further proving that Batman is better than Superman any day. **Resists the urge to make an "Oh snap!" pun**

I think it makes sense that all these hole in the bodies survived. You're treating mortal wounds for regular humans as you would people with Power Levels in the hundreds of thousands and even millions. It's not just about blood and guts, it's about chi, as we see by how Goku saves Freeza's life just by giving him some energy.

But yeah, no way TaoPaiPai should have survived. 3 years later Tsurusennin finds out he's dead, so he goes looking for he body? I don't care how many cybernetics you shoved him; he was DEAD.