The Problem With Prodigies in Dragon Ball Z

[@Sven-vy5cu]

Only just finished ep 94 of Dragon Ball Super but man I am already feeling it with Gohan. Sure they had a couple of training episodes but the time span between the beginning of that and the ToP feels a bit short for me honestly. Then again I'm still not at the actual ToP so we'll see . Goku and Vegeta are the ones I'm fine with honestly. Sure Goku's feats were remarkable for the time of OG but the 21st tenkaichi budokai was to not let him think after a few months of training, he should still strive to improve no matter what and then gets his deserved win at the 23rd Tenkaichi budokai. Vegeta obviously started out as claiming to exactly of being the special warrior and gets humbled with how dire his fight against Goku & co gets. He realized to lock in and try to train some shit for quite some time after the Namek saga. For Goten and Trunks, I really see them as gag characters honestly, the theme of passing the torch to the next gen feels lost on Super.

[@katorro]

Oh for sure. For Goten and Trunks. Its hard not to conflate in universe explanations, and silly writing, but I feel it doesn't excuse the in universe explanation that Goten and Trunks are prodigies, and the writing choice for that being a silly gag from Toriyama. Which I DO find hilarious, dont get me wrong, seeing Goten as a tot go Ssj sparring with Chi Chi, I just don't like the fact that in universe, the reason for Goten being able to do that, is he is a prodigy, arguably a greater one than Gohan

[@greensjourney7380]

I wouldn't say everyone is a prodigy because they trained to develop their strength, especially Gohan. He rained consistently up until the end of the cell saga, rained with Piccolo after the RoF, and had been raining even after the tournament of power.

[@katorro]

@@greensjourney7380 Yes, but he gets insanely stronger through minimal training, because he is a prodigy. He went from barely Blue Goku level, all the way up past Ultra Instinct, cos he got angry. (This is while he was doing little to no training)

[@Chriso22]

"Not especially gohan" gohan is mostly only catching up because of his potential if he didn't have that he would just be as irrelevant as goten and trunks

[@michaeleanthonyjr]

The foundation of Dragon Ball all the way since the beginning, was that all of the characters who compare to Goku, are prodigies. Krillin and Goku were considered prodigies of Roshi and were remarkable for their growth and performances Yamcha was never explicitly stated to be a prodigy as far as I'm aware, but he was keeping up with Goku in early Dragon Ball. Same with Tien, same with Piccolo, same with Vegeta. In the dragon ball universe, you can't be a viable combatant without being a prodigy because the foundation of the story comes from such a low scale that ordinary humans could never hope to match up like poor Videl. Even Videl is particularly talented by earthling standards and could have gotten pretty far in early Dragon Ball

[@katorro]

@@michaeleanthonyjr Interesting thoughts. I do mostly agree. I will say, the prodigies being a thing in OG, doesn’t excuse the over use of the concept later down the line. Even in the latest chapters of Super that came out months ago, we still see this affect at play with characters like Frieza Black and Broly. Even Beast Gohan I would argue is a power up from mostly a prodigious reason

[@michaeleanthonyjr]

@@katorro Yeah I agree that it is a problem and I don't intend to excuse it. I moreso intended to highlight that this issue is prevalent throughout the story and that characters being prodigies is a symptom and not a cause. It's because the characters need to have justification for being strong enough to challenge a hard working character who constantly reaches new heights. And what better way to justify it than to say that they're just really strong because of genetics?

[@katorro]

@@michaeleanthonyjr I couldn't have worded it better my friend

[@michaeleanthonyjr]

@@katorro You legend

[@michaeleanthonyjr]

@@katorro If you've ever heard of Hinomaru Zumou, that manga is a good example of how most of the relevant characters can be prodigies without it having issues of power creep

[@Bananafisherman]

Perfect skincell like alien doctor is the best dbz character. (I have never seen dragonballs) Good vid even if i dont understand anything you are talking about 👍