I finally cracked the code on why Goku's power scaling makes no sense

I was rewatching Dragon Ball Z with my friend Mark at his apartment in Austin last week, and we got into this huge argument about how Goku went from struggling with Raditz to fighting Beerus. It hit me that the power scaling is basically just a reflection of the story's pacing at that time, not actual math. Like, Toriyama wrote himself into corners and used transformations as reset buttons. Has anyone else noticed how Super Saiyan forms get nerfed every new arc just to raise stakes?

2 comments

2 Comments

max_foster16h ago

Man, you just described the entire business model of shonen anime right there... it's all about selling the next power-up whether it makes sense or not.

andrew_wood7216h ago

Wait, did you ever watch that old anime where the main character just randomly gets a new form out of nowhere with zero explanation? That reminds me, I was at a convention a few years back and this guy in a full Goku costume was arguing with a vendor about whether transformations are actually earned or just handed out. The vendor just shrugged and said "it keeps the fans buying toys, man." And honestly, looking back at all those power jumps in shows like Dragon Ball or Bleach, it's wild how they don't even try to hide it anymore. The whole thing is basically a video game loot box system but with episodes. Sometimes I wonder if the writers ever sit in a room and just say "okay, what color hair haven't we done yet?