Dragon Ball Z is the name that often comes to mind when people talk about battle manga. This can mean different things to different people, as there are many who love combat-themed series, while there are others who judge it more harshly and feel that franchises like Dragon Ball Z give the wrong impression of what anime and manga is really about.
Dragon Ball Z is the series that is also credited with creating the concept of “Power Levels” which is an in-universe way for characters to break down their combat ability in a scientific and readable way, such as numbers.
The concept of power levels is inherently flawed, as there are characters who have weaknesses that can be exploited by a well-prepared enemy, as well as techniques that can bypass the established the rules of the setting, which should allow a weaker character to conquer a foe who should be stronger.
We are here today to look at the Dragon Ball characters who should have been the true kings of the universe and those who hogged all of the credit that they didn’t deserve.
From the infernal fighter with the power to end most story arcs in about five minutes to the protagonist whose training meant nothing, here are the 8 Dragon Ball Z Characters Who Are Weaker Than Fans Thought (And 8 Who Are Even Stronger).
Stronger: Spike The Devilman
Spike the Devilman was one of Fortuneteller Baba’s fighters and was the penultimate challenge faced by Goku and his friends during the tournament against her chosen warriors.
The real reason Spike was created (apart from being a shoutout to Devilman) was to show off how pure-hearted Goku was. He did this through the use of his Devilmite Beam, which destroys the opponent with their own negative thoughts. Goku is so good that the Devilmite Beam had no effect on him.
The Devilmite Beam would be an incredibly useful weapon against anyone who caused a threat to Earth.
Could King Piccolo have resisted it? The Saiyans? Frieza? Spike potentially had the ability to destroy any of the major threats in the series, yet Fortuneteller Baba selfishly hoarded his power for herself.
Weaker: Mercenary Tao
Mercenary Tao was one of the few fighters to dominate Goku in the original Dragon Ball. He suffered terrible injuries when his own grenade was knocked back at him, which caused him to spend his life savings on cybernetic upgrades.
The fact that Mercenary Tao survived a grenade to the face suggests an incredible durability and will to live, which was likely helped by his lifetime of martial arts training and assassination missions.
It seems like Mercenary Tao wasn’t as strong as we may have believed, though.
Akira Toriyama revealed in Dragon Ball Forever that he perished when one of his shady business deals went wrong. An unknown character (or group) managed to destroy Tao, which means that it is likely that he was defeated by someone of normal strength.
Stronger: The Rabbit Gang
The Rabbit Mob were some of the earliest villains of Dragon Ball and were indicative of the series’ earlier comedic nature and light-hearted nature. The events of Goku’s encounter with the Rabbit Mob don’t gel with later events in the series, as Goku was able to use his Power Pole to trap them on the Moon.
The Moon was later destroyed when Master Roshi blew it up, which presumably would have also took out the Rabbit Mob. Akira Toriyama later confirmed in the Dragon Ball Bouken Special that they survived the destruction of the Moon and were still floating in space.
Monster Carrot was later revealed to be alive in Dragon Ball Online, which was Akira Toriyama’s official continuation of his Dragon Ball manga before Super came along.
Weaker: Raditz
Raditz was so powerful when he first arrived that it took a team-up of the two most powerful warriors in the world to take him down. They only accomplished this due to having knowledge of Raditz’s weakness (his tail) and Goku sacrificing his own life.
Raditz might be the biggest victim of the ever-increasing power scale of Dragon Ball Z.
The remaining Z-Fighters had a year to prepare for the arrival of the Saiyans and several of them were able to become stronger than Raditz in terms of his power level.
Raditz was a Saiyan space warrior who had been conquering planets and massacring enemies for Frieza for most of his life, yet a group of humans and Piccolo was able to become stronger than him within the space of a year.
Stronger: King Yemma
The rulers of the afterlife tend to come off poorly in the non-canon Dragon Ball materials. Perfect Cell managed to orchestrate a mutiny in Hell alongside Frieza in a filler arc of the anime, while Janemba managed to incapacitate King Yemma with ease in Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn.
The barrier between worlds was also broken during the Super 17 Saga in Dragon Ball GT.
King Yemma may not be a powerhouse in combat, but he possesses one ability that is underappreciated by the fans in terms of its strength.
King Yemma was able to reincarnate Kid Buu as a good person, which means that he has the ability to permanently remove evil people from the universe and recreate them to his own desires.
This puts King Yemma in a tier next to Zeno and the Angels, though it is rarely addressed as such within the story.
Weaker: Master Shen
Master Shen was last seen during the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament when his brother was defeated by Tien during a match that was intended to win vengeance for the scorned siblings. Shen left with his wounded brother in tow and swore to get revenge on Tien and his friends.
Master Shen and Mercenary Tao never got their revenge, as they were both destroyed during a business deal gone wrong.
The official power levels that were revealed in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine and the Daizenshuu guides paint an even sadder picture of the old martial arts master.
He was given a lower ranking than Chi-Chi and most of the Red Ribbon officers.
Shen just barely beat out the weaker fighters from the earlier World Martial Arts Tournament, such as Bacterian and Giran.
Stronger: Dabura
Dabura’s status as a monarch of the underworld is something that was never explored in great depth in Dragon Ball Z. The cosmology of the universe is something that became more important in Dragon Ball Super and the video games, such as Xenoverse, where entire new structures of divine beings were introduced.
Dabura is a character who became a lot more important in Dragon Ball Heroes and its manga spinoffs. Dragon Ball Heroes is a Japanese arcade game that uses physical cards, which has a long-running story that has incorporated elements from every aspect of Dragon Ball media.
Demons are an important part of the story of Dragon Ball Heroes, which allowed Dabura to return and become a major villain. The Heroes version of Dabura had the strength to fight Future Trunks, Kid Buu, and even Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta.
Weaker: Nappa
The fight with the Saiyans is often cited as the moment when the Dragon Ball manga was at its darkest. Main characters had perished before, but it seemed as if most of the beloved cast of the series were being offed in ever more hopeless struggles against the might of Nappa and Vegeta.
Nappa has earned something of a false reputation as the one who destroyed most of the Z-Fighters when he only actually ended Piccolo.
However, this had more to do with setting up the next storyline than Nappa being overpowered, as Piccolo wasn’t that much weaker than him in terms of power levels.
Akira Toriyama has even admitted that Nappa wasn’t very powerful, as he was made to be so imposing in order to make Vegeta look more impressive, as the brawny Nappa was clearly frightened of the much smaller man.
Stronger: The Ox-King
Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might was released as part of a triple feature with two other movies that were adapting the older works of Akira Toriyama.
Those who saw the movies at the cinema could purchase a pamphlet that contained information about the three movies. The Dragon Ball Z portion of the pamphlet is interesting, as it provides power levels for most of the major characters who had appeared in the series.
It seems that whoever created the pamphlet was a fan of the Ox-King, as his power level was nine-hundred.
This meant that the Ox-King was stronger than Korin, Mr. Popo, Master Roshi, Mercenary Tao, and King Piccolo. The character who spent most of the series being goofy was secretly a powerhouse according to the Tree of Might pamphlet.
Weaker: The Divine Beings That Appeared Before Beerus
It always seemed as if the Gods of Dragon Ball Z were all useless in the face of whatever the latest threat was. This totally changed in Dragon Ball Super, when the Gods became the focus of the story, but the pre-Super deities always seemed like weaklings compared to the villains.
It made sense for the Gods to be afraid of Majin Buu, due to the fact that he is an eldritch horror from the birth of the universe, but why were they always so afraid of dealing with threats like Frieza or the Androids?
Frieza was allowed free reign to massacre countless living beings and they never intervened. The power levels given throughout the series suggest that they lacked the physical power to do so, which makes the immortal rulers of the universe seem pretty weak.
Stronger: King Cold
King Cold might be one of the biggest wasted opportunities when it came to Dragon Ball Z characters. He was the father of Frieza, which meant that he would have a reason to bring his alien army to Earth in order to seek revenge against the people who wounded his son.
King Cold was then quickly offed in an effort to make Future Trunks look cool… which was, admittedly, pretty effective.
King Cold’s appearance matched that of his son’s second transformation, which led to speculation that he also had further transformations.
The guidebooks that came with the Dragon Box DVD sets state that King Cold was capable of more transformations, but he never got the chance to use them, as Future Trunks finished the fight too quickly.
Weaker: Chiaotzu
When Chiaotzu was first introduced in the Dragon Ball manga, he possessed a wide-range of abilities that showed off the power of the Crane school. It seemed like he had one incredibly powerful technique that was unique to himself: telekinesis.
Chiaotzu originally used his telekinesis in order to freeze his opponent, which he could do by attacking their insides without their knowing or actually holding them in place, in a manner similar to psychokinesis.
Chiaotzu’s best attack had to be nerfed during the Saiyan Saga, otherwise, the Z-Fighters would have defeated their enemies too quickly while fighting as a group.
This meant that Chiaotzu’s telekinesis had to stop working against more powerful foes (like Nappa) and become totally useless, as almost no one was weaker than him anymore.
Stronger: Krillin
Akira Toriyama has always spoken fondly of Krillin during interviews. It makes you wonder why he made Krillin suffer so much and why he destroyed him so many times.
The question of whether Krillin is the strongest human is a complicated one, as there are concerns over whether Tien should even be counted (due to his Triclops heritage) and whether Uub should be considered, considering that he only shows up right at the end of the story.
Akira Toriyama has officially confirmed that Krillin is indeed the strongest Earthling, which is about as close an answer as you will ever get, considering that Toriyama has a tendency to forget parts of the story and give different answers when asked the same question.
Weaker: Frieza
The fight between Frieza and Goku took several hours of real time to reach its conclusion. This had as much to do with filler as anything, as the show couldn’t progress too far without the risk of overtaking the manga.
The Namek Saga had also been hugely popular in the manga, which meant that the showrunners weren’t in a rush for it to be over.
The extended fights on Namek meant that Frieza was actually made to be stronger in the anime.
This was especially true after Goku first transformed into a Super Saiyan, as the fight became a lot more one-sided after that. Frieza and his powered-up form were presented as being more of a challenge to Goku in the anime, in order to make the fight last longer.
Stronger: Tarble
Tarble currently exists in a strange state of limbo when it comes to the continuity of Dragon Ball.
Tarble is the younger brother of Vegeta, who was introduced in the Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! OVA. He was later mentioned in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, as another Saiyan was needed for the Super Saiyan God ritual, but Vegeta had no idea where he was.
The mention of Tarble was conspicuously removed in Dragon Ball Super, which is odd, considering that both works were made by Akira Toriyama.
The question of whether Tarble is canon or not is important, as he is the last Saiyan in Universe 7 with a tail.
This means that he has the ability to transform into his Great Ape form, though he never had the chance to show off this aspect of his power during the events of Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!
Weaker: Goku
The villains throughout the first third of Dragon Ball Z were all aliens, with the series essentially becoming about dealing with extraterrestrial threats for a while.
This changed with the introduction of Future Trunks, who offed the previous alien enemies as if they were nothing, so as to introduce the latest villain: science.
Future Trunks brought news of threats that were related to science and technology, as he had to use time travel to come back from a world where robots had destroyed everything, as Goku had died due to a mysterious illness.
Goku’s heart virus is one of the most curious aspects of the series, as it is never mentioned again after he is cured. Goku is one of the quintessential indestructible anime heroes and he was killed by a disease, which is almost unheard of.
All of Goku’s training was essentially meaningless in the face of something that could be engineered in a lab. No amount of Super Saiyan God Ultra Instinct powers had the ability to save him. Dr. Gero could have destroyed Goku a lot easier if he had studied germ warfare instead of robotics, as a virus is the one foe that no amount of training could beat.
What do you think? Are there any other Dragon Ball Z characters who are stronger or weaker than we thought? Sound off in the comments!
