Tao-Pai-Pai > Chapa-ō

[Fantastische Hure]

Spoiler

Chapter: 115, P10.3-6
Context: Goku defeated King Chapa.
Goku: “I did it! I did it!”
Kuririn: “Be careful, Goku! If you put everything you’ve got into it from the start, you’ll wear yourself out!”
Goku: “But I didn’t put anywhere near everything I’ve got into it. If I did, he’d be dead. I wish they’d hurry up so I could fight with real strong guys like you all!”
Yamcha: “R-right… Hahaha…”
Jackie Chun (thinking): “Th-this could be bad…for me…”

Spoiler

Chapter: 120, P11.1-2
Context: Goku revealed that he defeated Taopaipai. Tenshinhan did not believe it.
Jackie Chun: “Did you really…take down Taopaipai…?”
Goku: “Huh? You too, gramps? I did so! It wasn’t easy, though…him being so strong and all.”
Jackie Chun: “Taopaipai…said to be the world’s Number One assassin…and this lad…he…he…”

 

[ahill1]

Damn

 

[Goku9001]

Bullshit. Tao Pai Pai is just being overhyped. Goku, Tenshinhan, and Tsuru-sennin don't know shit.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

Damn

No, but seriously you think Chapa-ō is above him, right?!

 

[ahill1]

No, but seriously you think Chapa-ō is above him, right?!

I think so. This is an interesting piece of dialogue I had never paid attention to (I mean, comparing both quotes), but I think Goku praised more Tao's strength in retrospect. He was recalling the time he defeated Tao Pai Pai and the problems he had, so when expressing all the trouble he went through, like having to train 3 days with Karin and all, that can be considered "a strong" dude. Chappa's is said more in regards to Goku's current strength, while Goku's sentence to Tao was structured in past sentence from the start.

Like, Goku also mocks Tambourine's attack by saying "there's no way I couldn't have dodged that" despite Tambourine defeating Kuririn easily, and he also calls General Blue nothing special when he also defeated Kuririn, way earlier tho... So in regards to Goku's present power, both opponents aren't held as strong by Goku, but he considers Kuririn strong in both cases -- in the 22nd Budokai he states "really strong guys like you" and in the 21st he went through the same training Kuririn got and insisted he had the ability to see Jackie Chun's attacks.

So I think Goku's usage of strong depending on the situation can vary. Gohan also states, upon meeting Kuririn, that Goku said Kuririn is small but really strong or something like this.

There's also Goku praising Yamcha's strength in the 21st Budokai. The way it's structured sounds similar, Yamcha is little to Goku in the 21st Budokai, but Goku, reminiscing of the fights he had with Yamcha, calls him super-duper-strong:

Chapter: 37, P9.2
Kuririn: “Hey, Goku. This ‘Yamcha’ person is really strong, right?”
Goku: “Yeah! I fought him too, but he was so fast I couldn’t see him! He’s super-duper strong!”

 

[Hector]

Spoiler

Chapter: 115, P10.3-6
Context: Goku defeated King Chapa.
Goku: “I did it! I did it!”
Kuririn: “Be careful, Goku! If you put everything you’ve got into it from the start, you’ll wear yourself out!”
Goku: “But I didn’t put anywhere near everything I’ve got into it. If I did, he’d be dead. I wish they’d hurry up so I could fight with real strong guys like you all!”
Yamcha: “R-right… Hahaha…”
Jackie Chun (thinking): “Th-this could be bad…for me…”

Spoiler

Chapter: 120, P11.1-2
Context: Goku revealed that he defeated Taopaipai. Tenshinhan did not believe it.
Jackie Chun: “Did you really…take down Taopaipai…?”
Goku: “Huh? You too, gramps? I did so! It wasn’t easy, though…him being so strong and all.”
Jackie Chun: “Taopaipai…said to be the world’s Number One assassin…and this lad…he…he…”

If 22nd TB Goku is as strong as 3 years ago (which makes sense if all he did during the 3 year skip was roaming around the world), it makes sense. And why not? Could anybody sense ki back then? How could they tell whether Goku had grown stronger or not? That also makes the humans' gains more reasonable.

 

[SSJ2]

Goku's entrance to the 22nd made it abundantly clear that he was much stronger than the past. Krillin and Yamcha were trying to delude themselves into believing that he might be the same.