Dragon Ball 10 Times The Z Fighters Made Things Worse

The Z Fighters are responsible for having saved the earth on a few occasions. But they've also made things worse more times than we can count.

For all the critics talk of Dragon Ball Z not having a storyline, fans everywhere know this couldn’t be further from the truth. It certainly has a plot...it just frequently involves it’s lead characters holding the Idiot Ball long enough to get from point A to point B. Yes, although the Z Fighters are known for fighting to keep the planet safe, they’ve also been responsible for making situations far worse more than a few times.

When the strongest in their group are intent on fighting only the best, strongest opponents, it can often lead to some pretty unfortunate decisions being made. For this list, we’re looking at 10 times the Z Fighters’ actions actually made things worse.

10 MENTIONING THE DRAGON BALLS TO RADITZ

This has to be one of the most idiotic things to have happened in Dragon Ball Z, and it essentially starts the series off. After Piccolo narrowly beats Raditz because Goku was able to hold him in place and make them both take the Special Beam Cannon, victory isn’t enough. Piccolo has to explain how they’ll revive Goku with the Dragon Balls, something that Nappa and Vegeta are able to hear several planets off. It’s this which results in the Z Fighters being placed at the center of the Frieza Saga at all.

9 LETTING GERO BUILD THE ANDROIDS

This instance is going to come up a lot on the list. After Trunks saves everyone from Frieza, he explains why he actually came back in time: to warn the Z Fighters and give them a fighting chance against the androids. His mother Bulma however, realized there was a much simpler, better solution: destroy Gero and his androids before anything happens.

This was in fact a genius suggestion, and would have given Cell nothing to absorb when he arrived in their timeline later. But the Z Fighters didn’t think it would be “fair” to attack Gero before he had done anything, complaining that it felt like running out on a challenge. A challenge which if failed would lead to the entire planet being destroyed. What a bunch of jerks.

8 YAMCHA LETTING HIS GUARD DOWN

Poor Yamcha has a terrible track record for irrelevancy in the Z era. After three years of training, the crew gather together to get ready to meet the Androids. They travel to the city they’re supposed to appear in, but aren’t able to detect any high power levels. Turns out, the Androids are able to hide their strength, and get the drop on Yamcha. Android 19 in particular stabs Yamcha and absorbs much of his energy, giving him a boost in power level that makes his battle against Goku harder than it has to be, eventually leading to aggravating Goku’s medical condition.

7 GOKU NOT TAKING HIS MEDICINE

So Trunks travels back in time to explain how miserable his future is, humanity subject to the whims of two powerful, yet psychotic androids. We learn how all of the Z Fighters attempted to fight the Androids, but all of them failed. All except Goku, who apparently wasn’t there because he had died before they even arrived thanks to a heart ailment. Because he dies of natural causes, the Dragon Balls can’t wish him back, which is a domino effect that leads to the androids winning. Trunks hands over a cure to the ailment to keep Goku safe and give them a chance, but...Goku actually forgets to take it until he starts to feel pain, keeping him out of action for several episodes.

6 TRUNKS TRAVELING BACK IN TIME

It sounds a bit crazy considering Trunks gave both the classic DBZ timeline as well as Trunks’ world their best chance of survival by going back in the first place, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t inadvertently make things worse. Despite the Z Fighters getting three years to prepare, they still get whomped by the androids, even though there are three different people capable of transforming into Super Saiyan. Eventually we learn these androids are actually vastly more powerful than the ones from Trunks’ timeline, and the only variable we have that could have caused this was Trunks going back in time in the first place.

5 LETTING CELL REACH HIS PERFECT FORM

Everyone’s aware of this one. Vegeta steps out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber after a year’s worth of training and a brand-new Super Saiyan form in “Super Vegeta”. He meets a powered up version of Cell...and proceeds to beat the brakes off of him. Handing out an utterly devastating defeat to Cell, everything looks in Vegeta’s favor...until Cell starts talking about his Perfect Form. Intrigued at the idea that he could be facing an even better opponent, instead of finishing the job he allows Cell to absorb Android 18. Unsurprisingly, this is more than enough power to put both Vegeta and Trunks away.

4 ALLOWING MAJIN BUU TO WAKE UP

Ultimately, Vegeta wasn’t ready for his character development. After years on Earth living with Bulma and raising a son, he found himself frustrated by having let go of his warrior lifestyle. So when Babidi arrived and was raising the power levels of weaklings multiple times over, Vegeta found himself swayed to that power.

Taking the Majin power for himself, he wound up helping Babidi achieve his goal, at the same time getting the one thing he’d always wanted: a rematch with Goku. Though the battle was one for the ages and even topped their original match, in the end the energy released caused Majin Buu to wake up once more, resulting in many sacrifices being required to finish him off again.

3 GOTENKS GETTING ABSORBED BY BUU

After beating Cell, Gohan retired from the life of a warrior, ignoring his training and choosing to use his power as the Great Saiyaman. Entertaining as this was, this meant he didn’t have the power to fight Majin Buu on his own. But after a ceremony performed on him by the Elder Kai, Gohan was more than able to beat down Super Buu like no one had yet. Unfortunately, Goten and Trunks allowed themselves to be goaded by Buu, and fused in an attempt to beat him again. This lead to Buu absorbing Gotenks, taking his power and easily defeating Gohan with it, leaving only Goku and Vegeta left to battle against the magical monster.

2 LETTING ZAMASU SEE GOKU'S POWER

This is one of the few Super mentions on the list. When Trunks goes back in time a second time to visit Goku and Vegeta, he talks about a brand new threat that exists in his timeline. Though Goku and Vegeta battle against Goku Black, they find themselves outmatched and return to their own universe. They attempt to find out the true identity of Goku Black, only to run into Zamasu, a Kai in training with an intense hatred of human beings. While attempting to see if Zamasu is Goku Black, Goku spars with Zamasu and winds up revealing how powerful he is. It’s these actions which actually inspire Zamasu to take Goku’s body and begin the Human Extermination Plan.

1 CONVINCING ZEN-OH TO BEGIN THE TOURNAMENT OF POWER

After the contest that occurred between Universe 6 and 7, Zen-Oh mentioned wanting to see another tournament like that. Getting excited at the idea, Goku decided to ask Zen-Oh when he finally wanted to get started with this new tournament, so he could meet strong challengers from other universes. This went against the express wishes of his master Beerus, who believed that only trouble could come from bringing this up to Zen-Oh once more. This turned out to be correct, as everyone blamed Goku when it was revealed that losing in the Tournament of Power meant seeing your entire universe get erased. Of course eventually we learned that Zen-Oh never really wanted the universes gone, it was simply meant to be additional motivation.