I didn't 'conveniently' forget Shin. I said his plan, while flawed, still would have worked overall if it wasn't for Vegeta.
I said Gotenks was an idiot. I said his idiotic is justified because he's he merger of two kids who have never experience a real life and death battle. So I wouldn't expect them to act smart.
I said Gohan acted foolishly, so what are you even arguing here?
My point is that all the major players were stupid. You can't fucking disregard Goku Vegeta Gotenks Gohan and be like "yeah this is fine". And I think Shin was a failure. Sure his plan would have worked "without Vegeta", but he proved he could read Vegeta's mind and did so in fact, so not seeing coming what happened is his fault, for a guy supposed to be super wise.
Vegito thought of a plan to save the kids and acted on it. It was a noble goal that ended badly, not an act of him being stupid. And he must have some knowledge that his shield would work since he wasn't surprised that it didn't or even hinted that it failing was risk. So this is just you using a 'What If".
He says with a huge smile on his face (a strike contrast with what he had right before being absorbed) "The energy shield worked ! I didn't get absorbed !", there's no way in hell this is to convey "hey I'm 100% sure this is gonna work". He took a gamble.
If you told me I could get 5 million dollars, if I instantly erased my family members, that are asleep, and they wouldn't feel any pain, and on top of that, I could bring them back as if nothing happened the very same day, I would probably do it.
Now if you told me the fate of the entire world and universe depended on it........... Then I wouldn't hesitate.
Plus up to that point, every single plan against Buu ended up failing miserably, you'd think he'd take a hint.
18 never acted that way again after the Cell Saga, meaning she only acted like a moron in those moments to keep the plot going. There is literally no excuse for her being that dumb giving her characterization before and after that moment.
You're aggravating.
So let me get this straight.
- She runs away with 16
- Cell catches up so they have to hide
- Cell starts blowing up islands and looks for them to fly away
- Vegeta shows up and there are only two islands left so obviously they are next to them
- They can't run away because they think Vegeta is gonna get one shot and then they'd get caught up in an instant
- Vegeta ends up curb stomping Cell, to the point where Cell is completely powerless, they are shocked to see this, but more importantly, Cell doesn't know where they are
- Krilin finds them, shows the remote, tells 18 to run away
- Which coincides perfectly with Vegeta agreeing with Cell to let him become perfect, and Cell sees them right away, while Krilin and 18 talk, this is all happening within the same couple of pages in the manga
- Trunks warns 18, Cell rushes, Vegeta kicks Trunks out, Cell arrives. Remember Cell's speed is no match for 16 and 18, as illustrated when he absorbed 17.
So where was she uncharacteristically dumb exactly ?
Look how the Buu Saga went in Future Trunks' timeline with the Supreme Kai. Not half of this shit happened, so you can't put everyone on Shin. And why not forced permanent fusion on Goku and Gohan if it means that can stop Buu for sure instead of waiting the clock and hoping they can kill him later.
Because we're talking 10 minutes. Not 10 hours. Seems like overkill.
No matter how you spin it, the Cell Saga was one long idiot ball for the entire cast, including the characters introduced in that story arc. Not one person, be it the hero or villain, did anything smart.
The Buu Saga had people being idiots too, but most of the really bad stuff can be limited to Vegeta (who finally got punished), Gotenks (the fusion of two kids), Gohan to an extent (for being a smug super), and Goku (not taking out Majin Vegeta to save Vegeta's feelings and not wiping Buu, but even that comes off as more sympathetic than most of the characters in Cell Saga).
"But it can be limited to all the main characters"
Yeah K. We're gonna stop here.
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