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Trunks is useless (DBZ Thread)

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That scene where Trunks cuts Frieza in half is iconic as fuck.

Trunks had so much swag until he gained like 300lbs of muscle and turned into a beefcake.
 
His debut was so silly. He came from the future, one-shots the main villain, has a unique Saiyan design, has a super tragic backstory, and is the child of two characters who have no connection.

I thought he was a fan character when I first heard of him.
 
You could literally replace "Trunks" in the title with "Any character in DBZ except Goku (and MAYBE Gohan)" and this thread would be the same.

Meh. I still love the show.
 
Gohan became stronger than Goku in the Buu Saga with his Mystic Power-Up, still lost the fight, and Goku killed the villain.

He applies too.
 
A_Gorilla said:
Cell.
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He only won that fight because of Goku though.

The other characters get a few decent moments but it's always made so Goku looks better in the end. For example, Krillin defeats Chaozu in the 22nd Budokai. Then he faces Goku the next round. Krillin puts up a decent fight, but then its revealed that Goku was holding back and he just owns Krillin.
 
Gucci Messiah said:
True but I feel like the Frieza saga ended perfectly with the most powerful being in the universe being blown up and Goku emerging as the legendary super saiyan. The Cell saga had so much stupid nonsense. Why didn't Piccolo kill Cell when he had the chance? Or Vegeta? Why didn't the androids hide? So much nonsensical jobbing to pad out the story and the whole SSJ2 thing lost its impact after the Frieza arc. Oh wow his hair got spikier and there's electricity, tight.
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I found the whole "just beat me til the inch of life to increase power level" was reallllly dumb. After the Frieza saga they stopped using this and became all about hard work to reach the next level.
 
i_am_ben said:
what did Bulma see in Vegeta anyway?
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It was a fling, that resulted in a pregnancy. But they eventually got married later on if I remember correctly.

_____________________

Trunks had a lot of story time during GT though.

Also he takes over capsule corp from his grandfather Dr. Brief.


At this point it should be noted that people in this family are named after articles of clothing.
 
Everyone of the Z fighters and the supporting cast were useful

I don't want to list things but here's a few

Android 16 saved gohan from being crushed by perfect cell (failed nuke grab) and inspired Gohan to reach ss2 when cell killed him

Krillen threw the spirit bomb at vegeta after Goku was rekt after the fight with vegeta (he left the planet after the attack ...and gohan fell on him as the ape ;)

Yamcha (well he was useful in Dragonball but maybe you could say he alerted the z fighters to android 19/20 with his defeat, and his 1st death was very important to Bulma with led the team to go to Namek along with the other fallen members

Tien stalled cell (didn't work) but it gave enough time for Goku to rescue the dying piccolo and himself


Trunks warned the fighters .... stalled cell , saved Vegeta (who could be given credit for helping finishing off cell by hurting/distracting him to allow Gohan to fire.



they may have not played a big role like Goku but really if you go back and watch the series and the characters all really were useful imo

and of course mr. satan was one of the more useful characters in the show especilly in the last few episodes of the series with the spirit bomb and all
 
Winterfang said:
He was living on her house, she probably got horny one day and one thing let to the other. Vegeta loves her though, which is fun.
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At least present day Vegeta does. Future Bulma claims that there was never really any love between them and even warns Trunks about it when he says he wants to meet his father before he goes back in time. I guess surviving a possible Android apocalypse can bring people together.
 
MikeMyers said:
The other characters get a few decent moments but it's always made so Goku looks better in the end.
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This is what I really liked about the Garlic Jr. saga. It finally gave Gohan, Piccolo, and Krillin the chance to solve a problem without Goku.

And it had Chi-Chi using the Kaioken so that was pretty cool.
1218371-chi_chi_dragon_ball_z_9681017_320_240.gif
 
There's also the filler where Yamcha, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu get to beat the Ginyu Force on Kaios planet. I liked that they finally got SOMETHING to do in the Saiyan/Namek storyline.
 
No, his biggest moment was dying pathetically against Perfect Cell so that Vegeta could tickle him to distract the guy and let Gohan finish him!

Now that I think about it, that was a pretty low thing to do, Gohan was losing fair and square and they used a distraction to win the fight. Goku and his fair play are hypocrites, in the end he had to use bitch tactics to win.

So yes, Goku = main villain of the entire series
 
Cell would have won the fight when he blew himself up had Goku not teleported him away. So yeah, Cell would have won fair and square.
 
Trunks never caught the coolness that was Future Trunks, he was a completely different character. It's too bad that Future Trunks didn't make his way back into the story somehow, but I guess that alternate future basically just doesn't exist anymore?
 
davepoobond said:
Trunks never caught the coolness that was Future Trunks, he was a completely different character. It's too bad that Future Trunks didn't make his way back into the story somehow, but I guess that alternate future basically just doesn't exist anymore?
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It had to or he wouldn't have a future to go home to it's just in an alternate timeline. The question would be how Trunks would go from one past to another.
 
DarthOrange said:
This is what I really liked about the Garlic Jr. saga. It finally gave Gohan, Piccolo, and Krillin the chance to solve a problem without Goku.

And it had Chi-Chi using the Kaioken so that was pretty cool.
1218371-chi_chi_dragon_ball_z_9681017_320_240.gif
Click to expand...


I really found Chi-Chi to be super annoying. All she did was yell....I'm surprised Goku and Gohan didn't have hearing problems. I actually was relieved when Super Buu turned her into a egg, and curb-stomped her!
 
I don't get this "Goku was the only worthwhile character" business

Frieza: Killed by Trunks
First androids: Beaten by Vegeta
First two forms of Cell: 'Beaten' by Piccolo and Vegeta
Perfect Cell: Killed by Gohan
Buu: Okay he did this one but he was completely outmatched and needed the energy from people across the galaxy.

Of course he was arguably the "main" character in the series and a lot of attention was put on him because he was a fan favourite, but ultimately all he really did was support other characters
 
i_am_ben said:
Bit of projection there, monocle.
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Lol, but seriously, maybe she had a thing for bad boys. Or maybe she was just an amazing judge of character, considering how Vegeta was secretly a natural-born family man.

Callibretto said:
emotional blackmail
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The best foundation for a loving relationship tbh.

Good on Krillin though. 18 is first class waifu material. An awesome mom and a killer robot in one sassy package. Go her!
 
randomrosso said:
I don't get this "Goku was the only worthwhile character" business

Frieza: Killed by Trunks <- Defeated by Goku first, then he became a clown
First androids: Beaten by Vegeta <- Worthless
First two forms of Cell: 'Beaten' by Piccolo and Vegeta <- Worthless
Perfect Cell: Killed by Gohan <- Gohan and Goku by the power of yelling
Buu: Okay he did this one but he was completely outmatched and needed the energy from people across the galaxy. <- Hey guyz, I could have just killed him when I got to SSJ3 but I am a douche and forgot I have to do my laundry or something. KTHXBYE.

Of course he was arguably the "main" character in the series and a lot of attention was put on him because he was a fan favourite, but ultimately all he really did was support other characters
Click to expand...

Goku is the villain.

#Teamlosers, #TeamVegeta
 
Well, the heroes DID get a moment of glory at one point though:
Krillin/Gohan/Yajirobe - Helped against Vegeta
Vegeta - Helped beat Ginyu when Goku got his body back
Tenshinhan - Saved Goku from King Piccolo's blast (Goku couldnt fly at the time)
Yamcha - Saved Goku from Boss Rabbit when they had Bulma as a hostage

Well, okay...maybe not Chaozu.

Although, it's mostly the whole "everyone gets their ass kicked so Goku can save them" such as Nappa and Recoome battles that spark the whole "everyone is useless" criticisms.
 
i liked yamcha... i had to suffer the whole series seeing him becomming more and more irrelevant.

at least trunks had his moment with goten when he became gotenks and nearly beat buu
 
Monocle said:
Lol, but seriously, maybe she had a thing for bad boys. Or maybe she was just an amazing judge of character, considering how Vegeta was secretly a natural-born family man.
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A running joke in Dragonball was that Bulma had a thing for bad boys (hence why she was interested in Yamcha at first). So of course Bulma would be the one to fall for Mr. Renegade himself.
 
Silky said:
Trunks' biggest moment out of his child/teenage years is obviously his introduction of him sweeping in to kick the shit out of Mecha-Frieza. That big buildup to Frieza's return, ultimately him being bodied by this completely new character (who we learn later is Vegeta/Bulma's kid.). I remember first watching his introduction as a child and going, "This character is fucking amazing!" ...then, as the Android/Cell saga went on, he just seemed to be yet another DBZ character in Goku's entourage that was just 'there.' Nothing he's done since killing Frieza seems worth mentioning.

Then Buu Saga came around, and yes while the friendship with Goten's humorous, and Gotenks at the time was cool, it was still a whole lot of boring undeveloped shit, coming from Trunks when looking back now.

What do you think?
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You are describing one of the shows most well known and talked about problems. The way in Z they phased all the supporting characters into the background leaving only Goku and at rare times one other, either Vegeta or Gohan.

It was a shame, but considering all the other anime I have watched since then, DBZ wasn't half bad. The shit thats out there now is just..... man... I really can't complain about DBZ's inability to escape the whack a mole bad guy thing.
 
randomrosso said:
I don't get this "Goku was the only worthwhile character" business

Frieza: Killed by Trunks
First androids: Beaten by Vegeta
First two forms of Cell: 'Beaten' by Piccolo and Vegeta
Perfect Cell: Killed by Gohan
Buu: Okay he did this one but he was completely outmatched and needed the energy from people across the galaxy.

Of course he was arguably the "main" character in the series and a lot of attention was put on him because he was a fan favourite, but ultimately all he really did was support other characters
Click to expand...

I think what you are missing is that those aren't the only characters. The supporting cast is much larger than Trunks, Vegeta, Gohan and Piccolo. Theres a shit storm of them, especially if you watched Dragonball. Those characters just got straight up phased out. They existed only to say shit like "OH MAN THIS BADGUY IS OUT OF CONTROL!".

For most of them there was no reason for them to really be around. It sucked, because a lot of those characters felt they had more of a purpose in Dragonball as opposed to Dragonball Z. Even Chichi and her father were more interesting in Dragonball.
 
The problem with DBZ is that each character fights exactly the same and doesn't specialize.

It's all a bunch of


HYPER BEAM

CHARGE BOMB

SMOKESHIELD

EVASIONESS RAISED TO THE MAX

UOWAAAAAAAAAAAA

KAIO KEN TIMES A THOUSAND

NOW I AM SUPER SAJIAN

omg his power level

NOW I WILL SHOW MY TRUE FINAL FORM


It's like the same for each character, except the weaker ones have one line replaced with "omg goku".
 
Everyone who isn't Goku or Vegeta is completely useless in DBZ. One of the best parts about One Piece is that every main character gets something to do.
 
Tatersalad said:
Yeah, a lot of the fights are pretty similar. Some of the more minor characters have some cool unique moves as well, a shame they could rarely contribute.
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Early on some of the cool techniques had merrit, especially stuff like destructo disc.

Around the time of Cell most of these unique techniques with actual merrit lost to the sheer power scaling of the series though.
 
FusionCode said:
Everyone who isn't Goku or Vegeta is completely useless in DBZ. One of the best parts about One Piece is that every main character gets something to do.
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The focus on character in OP is like a direct response to the flaws of focusing on only a few people in DB. I remember an interview between Oda and Toriyama where Oda was mentioning characters he liked, or something, and Toriyama was like "wait, they were important? Who was that again?" And Oda was like "What!? Of course they were!"

That's extremely paraphrased, but you get the idea.
 
He's the protagonist of the second best moment in the entire series (after the Father-Son Kamehameha), so I'd say he's less useless than 99% of the other characters in the show.
 
Dragon Ball is Goku.


The hero of my childhood. Vegeta less so but his rivalry with Goku was cool.


Every other characters were useless. Never liked Gohan. Hated Chichi.
 
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