Dragon Ball: character analysis

[Captain Cadaver]

with the manliest mustache of all..

Spoiler

Taopaipai had a brilliant introduction with him accomplishing perhaps the most badass segment of the entire series; killing the previous strongest adversary with his tongue and pulling out a concrete pillar to surf on it to the battle against Goku. He continues to be great at his role when killing Bora and being the first to stomp Goku. For what anime filler is worth, they also present him plenty of great moments such as reversing a bullet with his slipper or adding some eccentricity with him bathing with an egg to check the temperature. It's also good how his desire to just acquire wealth and do his job is a lot more realistic than the masses of tyrants and destroyers that would make up later villains.
Unfortunately, the greatness of Taopaipai ends after Goku goes through Karin's training and stomps him, leading to Tao being made to look pathetic and even idiotic in how he didn't forsee Goku just kicking back his grenade. Moreover, his defeat felt like a wasted opportunity to have a real battle of strength vs skill and perhaps further highlight the skill and martial philosophy Goku had gained from his training. His contrived return as a Cyborg ruined him even further by making him overly arrogant and just there to be stomped by Tenshithands in a worthless match. With a great introduction and terrible conclusion, this character who could've easily been the best villain in the series is balanced out as being average.

5/10

 

[Keedounan]

5ao: 5/10

Next up is Ginyu

 

[Captain Cadaver]

The Ginyu Tokusentai in general, despite being somewhat fun due to their campy nature and theme song in Kai, were overall bland characters who's existence bogged down the pacing of the arc and overall felt out of place compared to Dodoria and Zarbon. Ginyu had slightly more going for him than his subordinates with him being able to control his battle power and valuing a fair fight. However, these traits are instantly contradicted after his body change. Why would he perform such an underhanded technique if he likes fights to be fair? Moreover, for someone who could control his battle power and switched bodies multiple times, it makes no sense how he had no idea he'd be weakened by not being attuned to Goku's body. It would've made a lot more sense if he had no control over his battle power and just climbed through the ranks by stealing better and better bodies, yet this doesn't seem to be the case.
Doesn't help that his return in Super was just more of the same, getting stomped more pathetically than before by Gohan and just being a new addition to Vegeta's killstreak.

1/10

 

[Keedounan]

The next character is Baby

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Baby is easily the best villain of GT, but how much does that really mean?

I'll start off by saying that in concept, Baby could've been the best villain of the franchise and truly elevate it beyond a 2-dimensional tale of good and evil. His vengeance against the Saiyans was a far more interesting goal than any villain to have appeared prior to or since him, as not only was it justifiable, but could've also lead to Goku, Vegeta and the rest of the cast re-evaluating their opinions in seeing the blame can be put on their own pasts. This means not only was he a far better version of the 1-dimensional Tsufurian bad guy that was Hatchiyack, but a far better version of what Cell and Zamasu represented. Unfortunately, the typical trappings of the series' writing stop him from living up to his full potential as a deconstruction of the series' ideals, since he only had characters change sides through such a cheap trope as possession and mind control (essentially making him another Cell/Evil Boo) and his actions failed to develop Goku or Vegeta in any way. He could've at least been salvaged had Goku used SS4 to have Baby change his beliefs by showcasing a transformation that stacks the Oozaru form that destroyed the Tsufurians on top of Super Saiyan whilst retaining rationality, yet it's just used as a power up to beat him. Baby using Golden Oozaru could've been used to drive home the point of the Saiyans' strength being used to destroy them, but this is never explored and retaining his rationality was the only thing to stop him from becoming somewhat hypocritical. At least you could've said he won the war due to the destruction of Earth, but it was restored shortly after and it's destruction didn't change it's inhabitants opinion of the main cast, making it pointless.
Still slightly better than most of the villains to come after Freeza considering at least some of his potential was present in the series, but that's not saying much.

2.5/10

 

[Keedounan]

Next to come is Jiren

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Jiren is easily amongst the worst characters in the series. At first, all he could be described as was a plot device without character just there to act as a goal to Goku. When we actually get some insight onto his past, he becomes a complete disappointment due to his backstory just making him alien Batman without any depth. What's more, he becomes a complete hypocrite when he starts chastising Vegeta for his pride, despite his constant assertion that he's unbeatable and goes as far as to attack the audience like an idiot without thinking about what Zen-Oh or Daishinkan may do.

1/10. Would be 0/10 if it wasn't a 1 to 10 scale.

 

[Keedounan]

The next to come is King Kai

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Kaio-sama was a decent mentor with his useful lessons on Ki control and his joking nature, though that's about it. After the Saiyan Arc, his role is purely reduced to a mouthpiece to feed new information to the main cast and by the time of the Boo Arc, even this isn't necessary when Shin, Kibito and Elder Kaioshin can just do the same. Compared to the previous mentors of Roshi and Karin, he didn't have much going for him in personality or role compared to Roshi being somewhat of a paternal figure to Goku and Karin overall offering him far more help.

5/10

 

[Pocket-Gog~]

Next to come is Jiren

A pointless waste of a character. Throughout most of the ToP he's nothing more than a literal plot device, only appearing and doing something when something needed to be done, and when he wasn't needed he literally meditated throughout most of it. He was eventually revealed to be an edgy stoic loner who didn't believe in friendship and believed that strength was justice, which only serves to raise the question of why the fuck he is even in a team.

Jiren managed to get over these issues, which was his arc, but it was shit. It was hamfisted into the literal finial episode of Super, and it was literally just one speech about Toppo believing in Jiren. 10/10 character writing and development.

-10/10 character.

 

[Keedounan]

Kaio's score: 5/10
Jiren's score: 1/10

The next to come is the only god more pathetic than Yamcha...Supreme Kai. Prepare to roast...analyze him, I mean.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

10/10 for this face.

Shin is easily one of the most hated characters in the series by the fans, and for some good reasons. He started off as a mysterious figure hyped up as being amazing, yet is quickly reduced to someone there to spout exposition and generally be in awe at better fighters like Goku and Vegeta due to lacking talent of his own. However, I find it somewhat of a double-standard that the fans berate Shin, yet love Future Trunks who performs the exact same role. Sure, Trunks may have had more victories under his belt, but when these were against opponents he had a massive power advantage against, it doesn't mean much. Taking out framing of a scene to fool the audience's perception, Trunks taking out the previous biggest threat is no different, or even less, narrative-wise than Kuririn killing three Saibaimen.
Why do I bring up such a comparison? Well, it would be due to Shin at least having some minor use to the plot beyond being Mr. Exposition (and at least not introducing the bane of writing quality that is time travel). He at least put up a decent fight momentarily against a far stronger opponent like Boo and actually saved Gohan from certain death. His role in bringing in Katchinko that broke the Z-Sword was also fairly necessary, seeing as how there wasn't any conceivable way for the Elder Kaioshin plot thread to happen with the means already provided by other characters.
Is that to say Shin is a good character? No, not by any means. His use in the plot ends once his ancestor appears, but at least he was a better functioning plot device than similar cases of wasted potential in the series.

3/10

 

[Void]

Jiren is easily amongst the worst characters in the series. At first, all he could be described as was a plot device without character just there to act as a goal to Goku. When we actually get some insight onto his past, he becomes a complete disappointment due to his backstory just making him alien Batman without any depth. What's more, he becomes a complete hypocrite when he starts chastising Vegeta for his pride, despite his constant assertion that he's unbeatable and goes as far as to attack the audience like an idiot without thinking about what Zen-Oh or Daishinkan may do.

1/10. Would be 0/10 if it wasn't a 1 to 10 scale.

"You're too arrogant. There is no righteousness or purity in the way you fight!" - Jiren to Vegeta

"Strength is justice. My strength is absolute!" - Jiren, right before he tries killing all the spectators



Edit: Doesn't Jiren actually compliment Vegeta's pride towards the end? Hahahaha.

 

[Keedounan]

Shin: 3/10

Next up is Korin.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Karin was alright in how he taught Goku more than just how to become stronger and remained a constant advising mentor throughout DB and even some of Z such as the Cell Arc. However, his necessity after the Choshinsui was pretty much done as was much focus on his character, with us not even getting much of a glimpse on his past to offer some interest in him afterwards. Another case of wasted potential.

5/10

 

[Keedounan]

Since I feel generous today, you can analyze amother character, the best brother of the universe...Raditz.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Raditz is perhaps my favourite case of wasted potential in the series. From what we're given through his lesser sense of pride than Vegeta or his inferiority complex to his two peers pushed in non-canon material such as video games, it really felt that had he been redeemed, he could've served as a sort of balance between Goku and Vegeta in both having his Saiyan Pride and vicious nature, yet perhaps being able to become accepting of an Earthling life easier than Vegeta, especially given the retconning of Minus to make Bardock's family far less malevolent.

Unfortunately, all that is no more than headcannon and what we're presented in the series, whilst an interesting gateway in increasing the power scale naturally due to the introduction of alien worlds, as well as a way of Goku being forced to confront the personal demons of his ancestry, was overall a quickly disposed of villain who acts as nothing more than a typical bad guy and scarcely got even a reference to him after his death if it didn't pertain to being a jobber in the long run.

5/10

 

[Void]

Karin is a lot of wasted potential. Goku gained most of his strength by simply climbing up and down the tower. He gives Goku some useful advice and a new nimbus, but apparently decided that withholding the Super God Water (one of the worst power ups in the series) until Piccolo Daimao was rampaging throughout the world was a good idea. Karin helps Goku get to Kami's later, and serves to give the Z senshi senzu beans and advice later on.

5.5/10

Raditz could've been a lot more considering he was Goku's brother, but he was relegated to being a one dimensional villain who became completely irrelevant in the same arc. What's worse is that he lost due to sheer incompetence since he had such a massive power advantage over Goku and Piccolo. The final nail in the coffin would have to be the complete lack of mentions of this guy as the series went on. Nobody remembered Goku's brother.

4/10

 

[Pocket-Gog~]

The final nail in the coffin would have to be the complete lack of mentions of this guy as the series went on. Nobody remembered Goku's brother.

Freeza mentioned Raditz when he saw Gohan, as he mistook him for Raditz's son.

My review for Raditz...

I honestly don't have any problems with Raditz. As a character he served to show how barbaric the Saiyans were, which was done pretty well considering he's Goku's brother, apart of the family, and yet he's complete scum. It's a good showing of how different Goku is from the rest of the Saiyans. Besides that he also showed off how monstrously powerful the rest of the Saiyans were.

4/10 (cause beyond his role in the story, his character is shit)

 

[Keedounan]

Korin's current score: 5.25/10
Raditz's current score: 4.33/10

Next up is Kami. Since I missed one day, you can also review Dende.