It sort of goes without saying that power is an important part of the Dragon Ball franchise. It’s what makes every fight so cool, and it’s what drives characters to get stronger and stronger. However, despite the fact that power levels are so crucial to the story, they are perhaps the most inconsistent aspect of the franchise.

Sure, there’s some basic understanding of who is stronger than who, but the power scaling has been all over the place throughout the years. Whenever it seems like Goku has reached the peak of his strength, he always comes back stronger. That much is expected. However, despite being super powerful, there are times when Goku is portrayed as rather weak.

There are, of course, reasons behind a lot of these inconsistencies. Character will seem all-powerful for dramatic effect, and a super-powerful character being shown as weak against another enemy can help raise the stakes, making it so Goku isn’t just stronger than everyone. The strange power scaling of Dragon Ball definitely helps keep things interesting, but sometimes it leaves us tilting our heads from blatant inconsistency or unexpectedness.

Thus, here are Dragon Ball: 10 Times Characters Were Over Powered (And 6 Times They Were Under Powered)

UNDERPOWERED: GOKU IN THE TOURNAMENT OF POWER

Let’s start with the most recent example of character nerfing, Goku in the Tournament of Power. By this point in Dragon Ball Super, Goku is at his strongest; he’s mastered his regular Super Saiyan forms and has trained extensively with the power of a god to the point where he can use various Kaioken multipliers while in Super Saiyan Blue.

And yet, he’s struggled throughout the Tournament of Power, unable to defeat opponents that would normally be much weaker than him. Again, some of this can be written off as not making Goku too strong so as to keep the conflict alive, but at the same time, he has trouble fighting Universe 6 Saiyans who only recently learned to go Super Saiyan, which seems ridiculous. That’s only one example of his weakness in the tournament.

OVERPOWERED: GOKU’S FIRST SS3 TRANSFORMATION

In contrast to the previous entry, let’s think back to the Majin Buu saga, when we were first introduced to Super Saiyan 3. That form used up so much power that Goku’s time amongst the living was cut short. Seeing all the effects Goku’s charge up to Super Saiyan 3 caused, it’s easy to see how the form could be considered overpowered.

When Goku powered to Super Saiyan 3, it was quite the event.

Goku screamed for nearly three minutes straight as the water below him formed giant waves and crashed about, and in nearby cities, windows crashed, electronics failed. The ground began to shake all over the world.

The energy he was putting out was incredible, but this kind of power wasn’t enough in the Tournament of Power? This means that this moment of SS3 was either over-powered, or the form itself was underpowered in Super.

OVERPOWERED: ULTRA INSTINCT GOKU

In the Tournament of Power, Goku had a the power of a god, yet seemed rather weak - or evenly matched-  against those who did not have godly ki. However, there were times when the power scale was shifted in the opposite direction; whenever he used Ultra Instinct.

This technique is one that even the gods have trouble mastering and enables Goku to perfectly attack without thinking, relying only on his body’s natural responses.

This form was not yet mastered until recently, but even in its lesser iteration, Goku is ridiculously overpowered while using it. He’s not even a Super Saiyan and yet he was able to take on Jiren’s psychic attacks and the fused power of two Super Saiyans (one of which was a berserker type) without taking a single hit.

UNDERPOWERED: VEGETA IN THE TOURNAMENT OF POWER

Speaking of the Tournament of Power, Vegeta’s power also seemed to be severely nerfed during the universal survival saga. Like Goku, Vegeta is stronger than he’s ever been by this point, and though he never achieved Super Saiyan 3, he still has access to the power of a god in his Super Saiyan Blue form. Yet, like Goku, he has a tough time with some of the enemies in the Tournament of Power.

Once again, we could chalk this one up to just keeping things interesting, and this lowering of power does work in that regard, but there are times when it just gets ridiculous. Vegeta, with the power of a god, falls victim to cheap tricks and strange powers, which is humiliating for the prince of all Saiyans.

OVERPOWERED: REGENERATED PERFECT CELL

Cell was already a powerful villain from the start, but once he achieved his perfect form, it was just ridiculous. That said, at the beginning of the Cell games, his great power seemed conquerable. Difficult to combat, yes, but it was a threat that seemed like it had an end its future. That is, until he reformed from self destructing.

After Gohan dealt a destructive blow to Cell, we all thought he was defeated, especially when he coughed up Android 18 and revered back to his semi-perfect form. Desperate to destroy his enemies, Cell blew himself up, and then we really thought he was done for.

It turned out he was able to regenerate himself into his perfect form, even without Android 18.

It was also revealed that he could go Super Saiyan using his Saiyan DNA, making his once perceivably beatable power seem completely invincible.

OVERPOWERED: ULTIMATE GOHAN VS. SUPER BUU

We still don’t really understand the logistics of Ultimate Gohan’s power, and some fans don’t even really care for the form. When the Old Kai unlocked Gohan’s power, he had access to all the power his body was capable of - or something along those lines.

Shouldn’t his Super Saiyan forms still increase his power, since they are power multipliers?

Regardless of unanswered questions, we can easily say that Ultimate Gohan was extremely overpowered during his fight with Super Buu.

When Gohan showed up to the fight with his power unlocked, he kicked some serious butt. He didn’t take a single hit as he unloaded a serious beating on Super Buu, outclassing him at every turn. It was a completely one-sided fight that showed just how overpowered Gohan was. In fact, Gohan was so powerful that Super Buu thought to take that power for himself by absorbing him.

UNDERPOWERED: TRACKSUIT GOHAN

The fights against Super Buu was easily the strongest we’d seen Gohan since he went Super Saiyan 2 against Cell. Yet, fast forward a bit to Dragon Ball Super and Gohan couldn’t be any weaker.

Now, to be fair, there was an era of peace after Buu’s defeat, and Gohan never planned on being a fighter his whole life. While focusing on his career, Gohan understandable failed to keep up his training and became the now infamously weak “tracksuit Gohan” that was seen in Dragon Ball Super and Resurrection F.

Gohan could still go Super Saiyan, but it seemed like he lost access to his Ultimate form.

Not to mention, he looked visibly weaker, his body appearing slimmer, with little-to-no muscle definition. Gohan once defeated Cell and took on Super Buu, yet when he didn’t train, he almost died by Frieza’s death beams.

OVERPOWERED: KID BUU

Dragon Ball Z was always better at showing the dramatic story effects of someone’s power level than revealing the logistics of that power. Take that as you will, but it definitely left us with a few unanswered questions.

For example, one of the things that made Buu so powerful was his ability to absorb his enemies and add their power to his. When he absorbed the innocent Buu, Ultimate Gohan, Gotenks, and Piccolo, Buu should have been at his strongest.

Why is it that when he was in his “Kid Buu” form, he was stronger than ever?

By all logic, Buu’s power level should have been at its lowest, yet he was just as hard to defeat as he was before. Perhaps this was because his Kid form is reckless and unpredictable, making his power irrelevant, but it was still strange that his most basic form was so strong.

OVERPOWERED: JIREN

Seriously, is there really anything else we need to say besides just “Jiren”? The guy is so powerful that being overpowered is essentially the entire concept of his character. Jiren is thought to be the one being in all the universes whose power surpasses that of even the gods. That’s how powerful he is.

We see the extent of Jiren’s strength throughout the Tournament of Power.

His actions seeming effortless despite their devastating effects. Jiren was able to return a spirit bomb back at Goku, he took hundreds of attacks head-on without flinching, and his punches were able to hit distant enemies with immense strength. Seriously, it’s no wonder that Goku had to master an entirely new form/technique just to defend himself against Jiren, since he is for sure OP.

UNDERPOWERED: YAMCHA VS. SAIBAMEN

Yamcha might be one of the weaker characters in the world of Dragon Ball, but he is, by no means, a pushover. It could easily be argued that Yamcha was as strong as Tien, and maybe even Krillin during the Cell saga, yet he was cast aside as weak after the Saiyan saga.

Sure, Yamcha fell victim to a self-destructing Saibaman, but what a lot of people forget is that the Saibaman only self-destructed because Yamcha was too strong to be defeated normally. Furthermore, his death was meant to show how strong the Saiyans were, not how weak he was.

Still, this moment stuck with fans, and Yamcha became the butt of every joke to the point where even the franchise recognized his “weakness,” sidelining him indefinitely.

OVERPOWERED: HIT

It’s not uncommon in Dragon Ball for a character to get stronger mid-battle. In fact, it’s become a staple of the series at this point. That said, the time-skipping assassin of Universe 6, Hit, took this trope to ridiculous levels. When Goku faced Hit in the tournament against Universe 6, it was one tough battle.

Hit was not only strong - he had the ability to skip forward in time to attack.

During the battle, Goku had to learn to combat Hit’s time-skip, showing some surprising intelligence, which in turn forced Hit to increase the time in which he could skip forward. Hit did this several times throughout the fight to the point where it was completely OP, allowing him to beat Goku in a surprising turn of events.

OVERPOWERED: GOLDEN FREIZA

Golden Frieza is yet another power up in the series that raises a lot of questions, the most pertinent one being: how much stronger does this temporary form make him? There doesn’t really seem to be a solid answer to this, but we do know that he was able to go toe-toe with god-level Super Saiyans, which seems super OP.

Again, there should be some conflict out of Frieza’s return, but his power after training for such a short time seems a bit high.

Golden Frieza is most likely stronger than Super Saiyan Blue, and the only way he was defeated was by time-reversal trickery.

Our question is: why? Why is Frieza, who was defeated twice by regular Super Saiyans, able to beat god-powered Super Saiyans? Why was his power retroactively increased to catch up with the rest of the franchise, making him overpowered compared to his old self?

UNDERPOWERED: VEGETA VS. UNIVERSE 6

The fact that Goku and Vegeta don’t use their full power all the time is an entire conversation on its own, so we’re just going to focus on one of the times that it almost meant defeat for Vegeta.

During the tournament against Universe 6, Vegeta pushed through most of the enemies for his team, but in nearly every battle, he fell victim to some pretty stupid tricks and attacks.

In most of these fights, Vegeta only used his Super Saiyan form (instead of Blue) and combined with all of Champa’s cheap tricks, he seemed super weak. Vegeta’s Saiyan biology should protect him from things like overheating, and yet Magetta almost defeated him but heating up the arena. Vegeta appeared super underpowered in this moment, and the rest of his fights didn’t make things much better.

OVERPOWERED: MASTER ROSHI

Remember how we said that Yamcha wasn’t all that weak? Well, as Yamcha’s end of the power scale apparently tipped down, another character was lifted up: Master Roshi.

During the Golden Frieza Saga, Master Roshi suddenly became a big player in the major battles once again, coming out from the sidelines he had been sentenced too long ago. But… why is this?

Master Roshi’s power might be great, and he might be a wise warrior and teacher, but his power level was surpassed a long time ago, probably even by Yamcha. Why is it that Roshi was able to help during Frieza’s return, and why was he chosen to fight for Universe 7 in the Tournament of Power?

He might know some useful and ancient techniques, but Roshi being in the Tournament of Power makes him seem way stronger than he actually is.

OVERPOWERED: RIBRIANNE AND THE KAMIKAZE FIREBALLS

Perhaps the most interesting element that has been introduced in the Universal Survival saga is the massive variety in opponents that have been featured. Though things like power levels and techniques still matter in the tournament, we also get to see characters with interesting and unique abilities.

Instead of fights being all about how much power a person has, they are also about what kind of power they have.

A shining example of this concept is Ribrianne and the Kamikaze Fireballs, magical-girl-styled warriors who showcase some interesting superpowers that are not necessarily tied down to their power levels. However, as cool as it is to see different types of power face each other, all it really ends up doing is making these gimmicky characters seem overpowered when they appear to be rather weak in terms of ki and training.

UNDERPOWERED: GOTENKS IN SUPER

Sure, Gotenks is kind of annoying and smug, but there’s definitely something lovable about his arrogance and the ridiculousness of the fusion that made him. Gotenks was awesome during the Buu saga of Dragon Ball Z, kicking all kinds of butt with his massive power. In fact, he was so cool, some fans were disappointed that there wasn’t more of him in the series.

Come the time of Dragon Ball Super, the desire for more Gotenks was fulfilled… sort of. Gotenks is basically only used as a gag or is given little time to show his power, which seems nerfed when it is shown.

Despite being so powerful that the entire fate of the world was put on his shoulders, Gotenks appears to be something of a weakling in Dragon Ball Super.

Which Dragon Ball character do you think is most overpowered? Share your thoughts in the comments!