Yes, here it is, the fated question. I'll kick this discussion off with my own.

Despite all the cool characters, villains, personalities and sexy bodies. There is one character that in my eyes shines the most, nay, the brightest. He's often overlooked as the comic relief and pitied as a weak and puny character in the series by many. However I see something in him that not a lot of others see. You see, Krillin, despite only being human, despite being almost a dwarf, despite being bald and despite having no nose is quite possibly the greatest DBZ character to have ever emerged.

From day 1 Krillin was the underdog and never did he once ever reach the pinnacle of being an overdog during the entire series of DB/Z. Yet even through the countless battles that he never won, Krillin stuck it out. In fact, Krillin even knew he couldn't win those battles, not by a long shot, and he STILL fought those battles. One impossibly strong opponent after another Krillin has stood his ground and fought to THE DEATH for his friends, family, and the entire human populace. Krillin has not only sacrificed himself the most times and acted either as diversion or punching bag to buy time the most times, but he also ended up becoming one of the most powerful human being's on the planet, and in human history. Not an easy feat to accomplish, especially alongside people like Goku and his brood. And to top it all off, as it turns out, Krillin is perhaps pound for pound, the greatest fighter among the DBZ roster. As demonstrated when challenged by Goku to a sparring session with both of their Ki's suppressed to almost 0, guess who came out on top? Krillin, that's who.

Mother fucking Krillin.

So, in my eyes, Krillin is easily the greatest and my favorite DBZ character, not only because of all the above, but he can also bring the funnies.
Cheers for the good time man, cheers.

Why do all of your posts make me want to applaud? D:

My favorite is Piccolo. Because CLOTHES BEAM!!!

I fucking love piccolo. Piccolo is great.

Piccolo kicks ass, no denying. As I kid I had daydreams about becoming the next Gohan. In them,Piccolo would take me in and train me until I was the most powerful fighter in the known universe. I got a cape, too. And those bitchin' shoes.

Did I say that out loud?

But my favourite has always been and will always be good old Krillin, for all the reasons Womb listed above.

klillin-san, is just too much of a G. Growing up, mine were always Piccolo, Tien, Yamacha, and then eventually Vageta. Tien was such a big player in DB, it was a shame he pretty much disappeared after cell. He was a pretty interesting character really. I would have liked to see him and Launch get together, but launch just disappeared too which was annoying.

How has no one mentioned Mister Hercule Satan yet?



Look at that handsome devil.


I always liked Vegeta as my favorite, though Piccolo was second. I always rooted for villains in cartoons as a kid, because I always thought they were way cooler than the annoying good guys, and I liked how Vegeta stuck around. He was pretty much always an asshole, but he was a powerful asshole that everybody just had to learn to live with because he was (mostly) on their side. I like how he changed, I guess, is the biggest thing... but also how he stayed the same. It felt pretty natural to me.

Mr. Satan is a fucking G man. Although he was a total coward most of the time, he also had his heroic moments too. Easily the funniest guys in the series though, no doubt.

Yeah I know what you mean with Vegeta. It just kind of happened to him I suppose rather than he went on any kind of personal journey. Contrasting him to say, Piccolo who went through quite a long journey of self discovery to truly find himself and become a hero. Their stories, although similar in summery, are completely different otherwise. People often overlook the finer details of Dragon Ball and the complexities of the characters involved. It's not to say they're fully developed 3D characters. But at the same time, they're not disposable 2D characters either.

Finally taking a peek into the OOC section for real, I guess I should add my two cents to this.

From among the cast of Dragon Ball, I was impressed mostly by Yamcha.

I liked the sort of character development Toriyama had the desert bandit undergo. Or at least that was my opinion back then, reading Dragon Ball for the first time. Originally being a minor villain, he banded together with Goku and company by pure necessity and, despite having a few problems with the fact Bulma was around, sticked with the crew. At the end of Dragon Ball, he was among the most powerful human beings on Earth and remained in that position. In Dragon Ball Z, with the coming of the Saiyans, he continued to stand by his friends, no matter the cost. Krillin even thought that Yamcha had bitten the bullet in his place. And there is the fact that no matter how strong the opposition, he will not shirk and face them, as shown in the bad version of Trunks' future.

The runner-up in my personal list? That place is actually shared by Piccolo (why? He's Piccolo) on the one hand, and Chiaotzu on the other.

The latter for the sole reason that he is an incredible strong character, willing to enter battles he knows he cannot win, if only to help and/or protect his friend Tien Shinhan. I also can relate to his problems with 'advanced' mathematics...

And then, there is Broly, the so-called Legendary being who went insane from his own power and the baby in the next cradle constantly crying. If you think about it, we only know what Paragus said about his own son. What we know is Paragus' intense hatred of King Vegeta and the projection of said hatred onto Prince Vegeta. We do not know if he actually nurtured Broly's sadistic, savage side to make him a weapon and only had to have that control headband created because he realized that spirits that he's cited, his commands ignore (free quote after The Sorcerer's Apprentice). He is a kinda tragic figure and despite being an omnicidal maniac with way too much power, I somehow have a soft spot for such characters.

I can see where you're coming from with Broly, there is a lot more to that story than just another throw away "super powered" villain. Its a shame akira toriama didn't get to expand on these themes more. I expect that since his show was adored by children and adults alike, though to be fair I would say his intention was to have it geared more towards younger audiences, to keep it fun, it made it diffucult to really explore the characters stories in more depth, as that wasn't what the show was really known for.

I get the feeling that the DB franchise could use a gritty re-boot.

Oh my god, if they were to produce a reboot of Dragon Ball, with less of a kid's show in mind - albeit one could possibly question the shounen genre then - I would be so up for that.

Don't get me wrong, I really liked and still like the tone of the entire DB/Z/GT series, but to me it seems that it had been created with a light-hearted setting in mind.

As much as I understand of what you released as backstory for Ichi, however, feels like this could go with a more serious undertone? That would be a question for a different thread, though.

I was hoping so. I was hoping it to be more adult orientated. I mean, my understanding is that the demographic of people that are well versed and even watch DB are mainly adults now anyway. I'm fairly certain the kid fanbase is probably quite small at the moment.

I always say this about live action films. They could totally pull off a gritty, well funded, well choreographed martial arts epic out of DBZ, that provides the viewers with something more than the standard "this is for kids" attitude. You could flesh out characters so much and really go to town with it. DB has a rich history and myths that you could play with and it's really a shame nobody has bothered. I've always said that if I ever came into a lot of money, I'd totally make it happen