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Pojo's Dragonball - What If?

WHAT IF THE “WHAT IF” ENTRIES DIDN’T MAKE REFERENCE TO NUMERIC POWER LEVELS IN THEIR DESCRIPTIONS

Formerly DarthNaps here to say hello and that it’s nice to write back to the Pojo faithful, especially our DBZ fans who enjoy talking about all aspects of Dragonball. I’d just like to give a shout out to all of the writers because I think everyone has some valid theories and interesting takes. That being said. . . I was wondering about these extensive numeric power level references in our beloved “what if’s”. . .

I have never read the actual comics upon which the cartoon series was based so I may be incorrect about this, but there is no official noting of power levels for each character in each series. Of course, from the Saiyan saga up to the Frieza saga and a bit in the Trunks subset, some characters do take scouter readings and we get the numbers, but most of the time the readings are inaccurate because humans have learned to manipulate their power levels.

Then there are the SEEMINGLY random numeric selections in the original DBZ CCG. Now these may or may not have been confirmed with Funimation prior to printing, but I believe they had a Yamcha character card surpassing a power level of 1 million. Ahem, we are talking about Yamcha. . . being slightly stronger than Frieza and the first SS Goku? I realize he and the rest of the humans went toe to toe with Cell Jr.’s and he got special training in Other World after Buu destroys the Earth, but Yamcha at a million is just plain wrong.

My point here is that there is no accurate power levels beyond Frieza saga because after that point, everybody that matters start getting ridiculously powerful and only 2 or three characters during any one given conflict can actually participate in the battle without dying by one punch. If this is so, how can we, the fans, with any rationale, make relentless power level guess-timantions to justify our new theories? It seems like everyone does this and that’s ok seeing how we have freedom of speech here in the States, but reading all those numbers is meaningless to me. I simply cannot appreciate the difference between a character capable of a power level of

15,000,000

versus a character capable of a power level of

20,000,000.

The important thing in DBZ is knowing when you are outclassed, thus providing the main impetus for our heroes to train. It’s sort of like Rocky and how he progressed through the first four films. Rocky’s opponents were always stronger than him, at least initially and thus Rocky trained.

So, I ask, why the annoying list of numbers? Can’t we make a more general reference to technical power level in favor of a more detailed explanation as to why one character is stronger than another under new rules and theories and how either gets stronger? I wouldn’t mind number crunching if they were based on some universal calculation, approved by the powers that be, in order to have a reliable frame of reference for changes in power levels in our “what if’s.” Because honestly, one person’s

150,000,000

Could be another’s

300,000,000

The only strength reference that makes any sense is comparing what characters actually do at different points in the series. SS Gohan could not destroy Cell initially but after his transformation to SS2 he did, so that’s a noticeable difference (for example). So maybe adopting a quick code for strength reference would make more sense. Something like:

CDK - capable of destroying Krillin (basically everyone)
CDP - capable of destroying a planet
CDF - capable of destroying Frieza
CDC - capable of destroying Cell

So what if the “what if” entries didn’t make numeric power level references? They’d be more concise, they’ be forced to find a more efficient way of expressing one being stronger than another and the theories would make a little bit more practical sense.

Lawrence