S
SSJ Squirm
Guest
We all know the story. Goku begins DBZ around 300kilis. Incredibly weak by DBZ standards. He undergoes massive training, learns techniques such as the kaioken that give him incredible boosts in strength. After much training and fighting the ginyus, Goku finally faces Freiza. Almost immediately you realize how poorly Goku is prepared to truly face Freiza. Freiza toys with Goku virtually the entire fight. Yes, Goku managed to get in some shots on Freiza, but Freiza could have easily killed him at any point. We all know what happened. He uses the spirit bomb only for Freiza to come back, nearly kill Piccolo and obliterate Krillen. At this point, Goku was roughly 300,000 killis and then his rage shoots him to become a super saiyan. Goku's power level once acheiving that transformation was 7 Million killis. This was enough for him to beat Freiza and he did. Let's take a look at the transformation in particular.
There are different theories as to how Goku was able to do this. All will agree the rage of losing Krillen so brutally was what put him over the edge. What was actually happening inside of Goku? Only thing you can possibly draw is that the key to his saiyan to super saiyan transformation was his emotions. But didn't Goku feel this pain before? What makes it different now? His power level? The fact that he doesn't have his tail? His hatred for Freiza? Let's examine this.
At 300,000 kilis, Goku loses Krillen. Only thing going through his mind is rage. The Goku who was truly innocent was lost at this point. True anger marred him. In the matter of a couple minutes he obtained an increase in strength many times that he had ever gained before. How he was able to remain in control of this is unbelievable. The stress on his body must have been unreal. Yet Goku was able to control it. Perhaps that is the beauty of the Super Saiyan transformation. If Goku had been given all this power without the transformation or without the training necessary, he may have gone mad. The transformation perhaps isn't just a means to an incredible power gain, or even the fullfillment of a legacy. Perhaps it is the reason that Freiza secretly feared all Saiyans. Not just the fact that they could gain strength, but if the legend were real... well... it is and it happened.
Now it's at this point that the series truly stops accounting for actual strength and focuses on transformations. As a result, we end up getting crap like Goten and Trunks going super saiyan so young. I argue that Gohan's early transformation was earned and makes sense because the series makes a big deal of his ability to use his rage which makes total sense and the fact that he trained too.
Especially after the android saga, the Super Saiyan transformation seems meaningless since it's no longer enough. It's one of the main reasons why they should have kept power levels. Power levels help bring real reference and real differences between characters who can transform. That Super Saiyan transformation never meant as much as it did the first time Goku transformed. The only other instance that half seems appropriate of Saiyan to Super Saiyan was when future Trunks lost Gohan in the movie. All others seem lacking. Now again, I'm only referencing super saiyan 1 transformations. In some cases, I almost only Goku would be able to go Super Saiyan, but then we'd lose out on quite a bit.
I suppose the reason for all this is, I'm trying to find the value of the Saiyan to Super Saiyan transformation. To me it was lost after Goku. Am I wrong? Is it still valuable? Is there some intrinsic value I'm missing? Perhaps it was just to make the series cooler to let all the saiyans get the golden hair thingy. Perhaps it was to make the SSJ2 level more credible... I don't know, it all seems hollow to me.
There are different theories as to how Goku was able to do this. All will agree the rage of losing Krillen so brutally was what put him over the edge. What was actually happening inside of Goku? Only thing you can possibly draw is that the key to his saiyan to super saiyan transformation was his emotions. But didn't Goku feel this pain before? What makes it different now? His power level? The fact that he doesn't have his tail? His hatred for Freiza? Let's examine this.
At 300,000 kilis, Goku loses Krillen. Only thing going through his mind is rage. The Goku who was truly innocent was lost at this point. True anger marred him. In the matter of a couple minutes he obtained an increase in strength many times that he had ever gained before. How he was able to remain in control of this is unbelievable. The stress on his body must have been unreal. Yet Goku was able to control it. Perhaps that is the beauty of the Super Saiyan transformation. If Goku had been given all this power without the transformation or without the training necessary, he may have gone mad. The transformation perhaps isn't just a means to an incredible power gain, or even the fullfillment of a legacy. Perhaps it is the reason that Freiza secretly feared all Saiyans. Not just the fact that they could gain strength, but if the legend were real... well... it is and it happened.
Now it's at this point that the series truly stops accounting for actual strength and focuses on transformations. As a result, we end up getting crap like Goten and Trunks going super saiyan so young. I argue that Gohan's early transformation was earned and makes sense because the series makes a big deal of his ability to use his rage which makes total sense and the fact that he trained too.
Especially after the android saga, the Super Saiyan transformation seems meaningless since it's no longer enough. It's one of the main reasons why they should have kept power levels. Power levels help bring real reference and real differences between characters who can transform. That Super Saiyan transformation never meant as much as it did the first time Goku transformed. The only other instance that half seems appropriate of Saiyan to Super Saiyan was when future Trunks lost Gohan in the movie. All others seem lacking. Now again, I'm only referencing super saiyan 1 transformations. In some cases, I almost only Goku would be able to go Super Saiyan, but then we'd lose out on quite a bit.
I suppose the reason for all this is, I'm trying to find the value of the Saiyan to Super Saiyan transformation. To me it was lost after Goku. Am I wrong? Is it still valuable? Is there some intrinsic value I'm missing? Perhaps it was just to make the series cooler to let all the saiyans get the golden hair thingy. Perhaps it was to make the SSJ2 level more credible... I don't know, it all seems hollow to me.