Fundamental problem.

[Sojiiro]

Howdy fellas. This is my first post on this forum and any of its kind. I've been a dragon ball fan my entire life. I've watched every episode of dragon ball, z, gt, all of the movies and now finishing super.

As the title of my thread reads, even though I adore the show, I've always believed that it is flawed. That flaw I believe was giving the characters so much power right from the jump, specially in Z. In the first few episodes, we see Napa who's power level is around 4k blowing up an entire city without any effort. We're also shown a scene of Vegeta blowing up a planet standing outside of his space capsule, again without effort.

Well, when you give the characters that much power early on, where do you go on from there?
As the series progress, the characters power levels should be in high millions if not billions. Yet despite that, they power up, launch an energy blast that blows up just a small mountain? I know it's just a cartoon but I've never been able to reconcile that.

As I said earlier, I'm currently watching super. I'm up to the episode in which Goku is recruiting 17 to join the tournament of power. When we last saw 17, he wasn't even as strong as a super Vegata or Trunks... yet the Saiyans have progressed so much since then. SSJ2, SSJ3 and blue which gave Beerus a challenge. But now 17 can stand up to attacks from Goku blue which has God power??? I never understood these decisions.

 

[India Actual]

First of all, welcome!

I have a simple answer for you and that's scaling. They need to scale the character to keep them relevant. Otherwise they will forever be relegated to background of the story. It's also near impossible for them to explain everything because it would make the story exponentially longer. It sort of breaks down like this, I'll let Stan Lee explain.....

 

[LividJay]

Welcome!

I agree with India Actual. Also, in your example, I feel the main reason that was done was to show how much more powerful the Saiyans were than the Z fighters. Consistency has never been a strong point in the anime and sometimes in the manga itself in this context. One Super Saiyan transformation rocks the very Earth and then subsequent transformations are quick flashes. I try to justify it by saying that it's because they've learned to control their energy better while transforming, but then they do a more dramatic transformation later on for the effect.

 

[Beerus]

I don't know if this is 100% the case every time but I know some stuff is explained better in the manga vs the anime. They have to cut things down to have a better flow, especially for their younger audience. I think this is more apparent in Super though.

I feel like anytime there was a moment where the villain was attacking cities or something, it was just meant to establish a threat without putting much effort into things. It shows they are a threat and they are powerful without needing to explain everything. You can see people use this in superhero movies as well.

The average power level of a human is around 10, maybe 15. So Nappa's 4,000 is monstrous.

 

[Yoshi]

Nappa was most likely at 3,000, not 4,000. That was also his suppressed power, with his full power most likely at +7,000.

 

[Sojiiro]

Ohh I definitely agree that it is for the purpose of scaling. I think I read or heard a long time ago that originally DBZ was supposed to end with Frieza and that due to its popularity and success, it continued. That would explain some of it. If he was the main and last villain who could blow up planets effortlessly, but you then continue, where do you go next? Galaxies? Universes? Everything?
I'm still trying to finish super and I can say I'm glad the tournament of power only lasted 45 minutes because at that rate Caulifa and Kale would of reached super saiyan 20 since they were able to get to and master ssj2 without the thousands of hours and years in the hyperbolic time chamber that it took everyone else. They made the saiyans from the 7th universe look like crap by comparison.

Well, thanks for the replies fellas. Had to vent there for a second. I love the animei, just get extremely frustrated with its ridiculous scaling and progression sometimes.

 

[Kid Goku]

Howdy fellas. This is my first post on this forum and any of its kind. I've been a dragon ball fan my entire life. I've watched every episode of dragon ball, z, gt, all of the movies and now finishing super.

As the title of my thread reads, even though I adore the show, I've always believed that it is flawed. That flaw I believe was giving the characters so much power right from the jump, specially in Z. In the first few episodes, we see Napa who's power level is around 4k blowing up an entire city without any effort. We're also shown a scene of Vegeta blowing up a planet standing outside of his space capsule, again without effort.

Well, when you give the characters that much power early on, where do you go on from there?
As the series progress, the characters power levels should be in high millions if not billions. Yet despite that, they power up, launch an energy blast that blows up just a small mountain? I know it's just a cartoon but I've never been able to reconcile that.

As I said earlier, I'm currently watching super. I'm up to the episode in which Goku is recruiting 17 to join the tournament of power. When we last saw 17, he wasn't even as strong as a super Vegata or Trunks... yet the Saiyans have progressed so much since then. SSJ2, SSJ3 and blue which gave Beerus a challenge. But now 17 can stand up to attacks from Goku blue which has God power??? I never understood these decisions.

I mean z is far away into the series!
You need to keep in mind that Toriyma dindt plan Anything!