r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Unable-Buyer4087 • 8h ago

Characters "Weak" character goes to a much lower stakes environment, becomes super powered by comparison

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Yamcha - Dragon Ball Super

In dragon ball, Yamcha has it pretty rough. He hasn't won a fight since OG dragon ball, and was outclassed almost as soon as he was introduced. By the buu saga, yamcha had all but given up on being one of the Z-fighters and tried playing baseball instead. But here's the thing: Yamcha still has basically superhuman strength, he just so happens to surround himself with people vastly stronger than him. He uses his martial arts skills and ki control to become a rich and famous baseball star.

Shocker - Spiderman / Ms Marvel

Shocker has become an absolute joke in Spider-Man and tired of being constantly beaten down by the many, MANY superheroes in Nyc, he decided to move to new jersey as it only has one superhero defending it. The inexperienced teenager, Ms Marvel. Due to the fact that shocker actually has quite a good power and literal decades of fighting experience, he actually puts up a very good fight and the only reason he doesn't win is because Ms Marvel is teleported away.

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384

u/PragmaticBadGuy 8h ago

As much shit as Yamcha gets, he's ridiculously powerful in almost anything else and keeps coming out to help in fights despite being crazy underpowered compared to the bad guys since early DBZ.

205

u/MukoNoAkuma 7h ago

Yeah, put him in almost any other setting and he’s top tier. He’d be one of the Justice League’s heaviest hitters for example. Hell he’s top tier in the Dragonball setting, he’s just a top 100 dude who hangs around with people in the top 10.

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u/Xeoz_WarriorPrince 7h ago

He is closer to Goku than we are to him.

33

u/Incidion 4h ago

He's a lot closer to Goku than we are to him. That's like comparing the average person to Elon Musk in terms of wealth.

Yamcha's at maybe 5% of Goku's power, generously. The average human is at about .0002% and that's just with the canonical power levels from the Frieza arc for an average human (5 vs 2.5M in SSJ1). Looking at Cell, Buu, or Super just makes it so, so much worse.

3

u/RaizePOE 2h ago

but how close is he to lebron

1

u/hieronymous-cowherd 1h ago

Ok but what does Ja Rule think

73

u/Erlox 7h ago

I mean, he is top 10 on the planet. He just hangs with the top 3 haha. I'm a bit out of date, but it goes something like Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, Piccolo, Android 18, Krillin, Tien and Yamcha, right? That's 9th strongest on a list of planet busters at a minimum.

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u/AluminumGoliath 6h ago

I'd put 17 and Gamma 1 above 18, Buu definitely ahead of Trunks, and Broly above Trunks (and maybe Gohan?) whenever he's in the neighborhood, but yeah. 

Still, top 15 isn't bad, especially top 5 among humans. 

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u/DisastrousBuddy4679 2h ago

i thought gohans #3 sometimes #1 or #2?

4

u/AluminumGoliath 2h ago

Yeah, like I said, maybe. Gohan is hard to place, especially since we haven't had much of anything since Toriyama's passing set after Super Hero.

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u/D72vFM 5h ago

Not counting hybrids/aliens/androids it could be Tien, Krillin, Yamcha, Roshi, Chaotsu, maybe Videl or Chi-Chi, most of the DB villains, Hercule (he's very strong for a human that doesn't use Ki at all), the rest of the humans.

It's an issue of being a top 5 human but when the team has members from the top 10 saiyans/hybrids, the top 10 aliens/demons and a couple of the top 10 androids that you start looking weak.

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u/Grohlyone 4h ago

Chaotsu's a Pokémon, he doesn't count

3

u/Paran0id 2h ago

Pikachu in white face

10

u/rouxlsnareff 6h ago

I would say: Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, Majin Buu, Android 18, Android 17, Goten, Trunks, Gamma 1, Krillin, Tien, Roshi, and only then Yamcha would be there followed by chaoz probably. Although even then he's extremely strong and someone that could decimate most of the universe. (except those I listed there, Broly, Freezer and a few more)

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u/natzo 6h ago

He stopped training for a long time, but during the Moro Saga he got back into it and could fight with the average escaped alien prisoners empowered by Moro. Only the top tier gave him trouble. Shame that the humans didn't get god ki. It should been the thing that let them catch up, but again is Saiyan only.

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u/haoxinly 5h ago

Yamcha already surpassed Roshi post Karin training. He even recognised it. After that the gap increased after training with Kami and Kaio. You could say Roshi got stronger in DBS cause he trained off screen but even then I find it hard to believe Roshi surpassed even the Ginyu force with just training at his home.

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u/rouxlsnareff 5h ago

It might be bullshit but I based it mostly on the pseudo ultra instinc scene we saw on the TOP. I think they're roughly equally as strong but for different reasons

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u/assymetry1021 6h ago

You forgot Android 17, Goten, Buu, all 7 Cell Jrs, Gamma 1, and hell even Roshi might be stronger than him ATP considering the manga feats.

3

u/ArokLazarus 4h ago

Well I mean virtually everyone got bodied by the Cell Jrs. But all the juniors are dead now so they shouldn't count.

1

u/Gamesgtd 4h ago

Cell Jrs aren’t dead. They’re on the island Android 17 watches over. He trained with them to get stronger.

1

u/Shivalah 4h ago

What? Gohan slaughtered them!

1

u/Gamesgtd 3h ago

I forget what happened verbatim but they survived the same way that Cell did. GoHan didn’t destroy there whole body and they regenerated.

https://dragonball.fandom.com/wiki/Cell_Jr.

1

u/ArokLazarus 3h ago

Oh wow. TIL

4

u/Skylam 4h ago

17 would be up there for sure too, probably around 18s or even Piccolo's level. Can't forget Master Roshi either. But still, dude is one of the most powerful humans on the planet by a wide margin.

3

u/SCDarkSoul 6h ago

Buu and Android 17 are both around. Future Trunks isn't normally with them most of the time, and young Trunks would probably have Goten next to him on the list. Master Roshi went to the Tournament of Power unlike Yamcha. I imagine Chiaotzu still trains with Tien.

He probably gets pushed a bit out of Top 10.

4

u/Ok-Beautiful4821 6h ago

They did him so dirty in tournament of power. Had him waiting around for an invite that was clearly never going to happen

1

u/CurryMustard 2h ago

Hes top 3 pure humans with krillin and roshi

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u/BaronAleksei 6h ago

Grant Morrison’s JLA would have an even fight with Yamcha at the very beginning of a story arc. Batman plucks Yamcha’s phone from his pocket as he lays in a crater in the appropriate pose (he got powerbombed by Wonder Woman) and analyzes it in the Watchtower.

Superman: Wait, Bruce, you’re saying there’s more on the way?

Wonder Woman: Yamcha said he studied at the Turtle and Crane schools, and under a “King Kai”. That’s at least three people affiliated with him, not to mention other students.

Green Lantern: Psh, that’s fine. A crew of Wolf Fang Freaks? Nothing we can’t handle.

Batman: We barely “handled” this one. If we were facing others of his caliber, the answer would be as simple as calling in reservists. No, it’s much worse than that. Take a look. puts something up on a monitor

Martian Manhunter: Moons of Mars…worse by orders of magnitude!

Flash: “Power levels”? Wait, what are these measured in?

Batman: No sign of any units, but the relative gaps speak for themselves.

Flash: [aside to Green Lantern] These names are great, you should use these.

Green Lantern: [aside to Flash] I’m not naming a single one of my characters after a woodwind instrument.

Aquaman: So this guy is the bottom of the barrel where he comes from. Could be he challenged us to prove his worth to this “Son Goku”.

Superman: Everyone likes an underdog.

Batman: You would.

4

u/pansexualbunny 5h ago

I would pay for someone to wrote a fancomic or a short story about this

0

u/Money-Gold-6508 3h ago

The funniest part is Batman would be the first one to realize they’re in serious trouble while Superman is still rooting for the underdog. 😂 The moment they discover Yamcha is basically a joke in his own universe, the entire Watchtower is going into emergency mode.

48

u/Wetbug75 7h ago

He brought towels!

54

u/unfrotunatepanda 7h ago

and just like that he's contributed more than Vegeta

(I also love how DBZA Cell has no animosity towards Yamcha like he has for the rest of the Z-Fighters because his dna wasn't sampled to create the bug man)

20

u/ArcadianBlueRogue 6h ago

For God's sake Yamcha, don't apologize!

16

u/CbaooseBLC 7h ago edited 2h ago

Yamcha was on the list!

4

u/nagrom7 4h ago

"How was I on..."

"Half-Time entertainment"

1

u/magikarp2122 5h ago

But he did forget they could fly.

8

u/NerdyMcNerderson 5h ago

Yamcha is probably the 2nd strongest human behind Krillin.

6

u/nagrom7 4h ago

Depends on if you count Tien (also I'm assuming you're disqualifying the Androids, even though they're really cyborgs). But yeah dude is definitely in the top 3 among humans, probably ahead of Master Roshi.

1

u/Wolfdude91 1h ago

They should have found Dr. Gero’s details for whatever operations he performed on 17 and 18 before destroying the lab. As powerful as 17 is by Super, Bulma could cook up more fighters who are willing to become cyborgs.

1

u/nagrom7 13m ago

They should have found Dr. Gero’s details for whatever operations he performed on 17 and 18 before destroying the lab.

They did, or at least they found the blueprints. That's how they were able to fix up 16 and build the detonators for their bombs (and knew the bombs even existed). This was back when they saw the Androids as threats though, not allies.

7

u/inuhi 3h ago

You can destroy a planet with a power level of 18,000 by the time Yamcha has a baseball career he has an estimated power level of 50,000-100,000 meaning he could destroy planets if he wanted to

4

u/PragmaticBadGuy 3h ago

Roshi took out the moon in early DB around 100.

1

u/LordofShit 1h ago

I imagine blowing up a planet scales geometrically with its mass

1

u/CoiledBeyond 28m ago

I thought Roshi was near 300 in his muscle form

4

u/kevihaa 4h ago

Yamcha is a “normal” human, but rather than being like Hawkeye he’s honestly pretty close to Thor.

2

u/CatsPlusTats 6h ago

Didn't he stop showing up after the Androids specifically because he couldn't keep up any more?

7

u/PragmaticBadGuy 6h ago

Yeah but he came back in Super in a couple instances and tried to help in the Buu saga when they were all at Dende's

6

u/Hatarakumaou 4h ago

Yeah the thing with Yamcha is that despite all the memes and himself knowing he got powercrept, dude stands on business and will go back to being a Z Fighter when there's fade to be had

3

u/online222222 5h ago

I think he actually does stuff during the Moro stuff in the Manga

3

u/manny011604 5h ago

In Moro arc he got a massive buff

2

u/Knever 5h ago

It's been a while since I've watched Z, and I frequently forget that he actually fought against the androids and (lived? died? I honestly don't remember if they killed him lol)

3

u/nagrom7 4h ago

Android 20/Dr Gero stabs him through the chest, but he gets a senzu bean in time and doesn't die. Then he spends most of the arc escorting the unconscious Goku as he recovers from the heart virus. He also gets beat up by a Cell Jr, but tbf so does everyone there.

2

u/DosSnakes 1h ago

Yeah Yamcha could solo most* other anime universes. Master Roshi blowing up the moon with a power level of 100 makes the scaling in Dragonball insane.

1

u/Gamerguy230 1h ago

Isn’t iseki plot with the character is that he is actually as good as everyone else if properly utilized?