The 'Unearned' Power-Ups of Dragon Ball

Which power-ups in Dragon Ball are actually unearned? Which are just misunderstood?

The longer Dragon Ball goes on the more people throw around a specific phrase - “unearned power up.” Whether it be a transformation, a new technique, or even just a character getting stronger in a disagreeable way, you’ll always hear about “unearned power ups.” So let’s go over every power up that’s supposedly unearned in the series and see if it actually is.
Original Dragon Ball is where we’ll start, but honestly there aren’t many cases of a character powering up in a way that isn’t training related. I think the first one you could look at is Goku’s fight against Giran - no not Jiren - Giran in the 21st Tenkaichi Budoukai. Giran uses his Merry Go Round Gum technique to entirely immobilize Goku and seemingly he can’t escape. That is, until his tail conveniently grows back and even more convenient - his tail makes him stronger! This lets Goku escape the Gum and with a quick display of power Giran resigns.
It’s obvious why people think this is an unearned power up, but what if I told you it just isn’t a power up. Only the Dub has Goku say he feels so much stronger with his tail. The sub and especially the manga imply that his tail only gave him enough time to break out of the gum since it took a bit of effort. So, I’d say this isn’t a case of an unearned power up, more so just a classic dubbism. Find out more in the video itself from Beast Gohan and Orange Piccolo to Super Saiyan 3 Goku and Super Saiyan Blue Evolution Vegeta to Ultimate Gohan and Golden Freeza.

#DragonBall #DragonBallZ #DragonBallSuper #dbssuperhero #ultrainstinct #ultraego #dbsmanga #beastgohan

[CarthusDojo]

What power up is the most unearned? Let me know! Also leave a like on the video :)

[natzo]

If you read the manga, Ultra Instinct is not only Whis. It's the culmination of his training with Roshi, Korin, and Whis. So its even more earned.

[yisussb]

I think many people confuse "unearned" with "unsatisfying". Golden Frieza is the perfect example, because he literally trained for it, but suddenly seeing a Frieza who's now golden as a result of offscreen training, yeah, it felt very anticlimatic, which is exactly the problem people tend to have.

[j-red]

I feel like Orange Piccolo is a unique case, in that while it’s “unearned”, it’s absolutely deserved. He’s had a couple big power jumps in the series, primarily fusing with Nail and Kami, but he’s essentially had nothing since the Cell saga.

TLDR: Big Green deserves his Vitamin C.

[damnboymusic]

AKIRA TORIYAMA WAS AN ANGEL SENT TO EARTH! RIP

[Atomic_Dusky]

I like it imagine that the reason why Piccolo become so strong after getting his potential unlocked is because in addition to Shenron's Bonus, since Piccolo is fused with Kami and Nail, all three of them got their potential unlocked, thus adding up to a massive boost.

[drewboden]

For me, the issue isn't a transformation being unearned; it's that there are too many transformations. At this point I just want strategy and technique rather than a new color

[LuoSon_G]

Wasn't Gohan's "ultimate" form supposed to represent Gohan's power at his peak? Elder Kai even stated during the Buu saga that it'd remove any need for further transformations, Gohan could be trying to enter SS1, SS2, SS3, or even "beast mode" and he'd look no different, the only constant being the clear aura around him.

[lanefuller]

How is Roshi not included here? He had a power level of 150 in the beginning of Z as a 100+ year old man who spent his whole life pursuing Marshall arts, then somehow becomes millions of times more powerful within a few years or perhaps months? Ain't no way.

[AKX]

Piccolo was criminally under developed, and deserved his boost. He’s a main character and they treat him like a sideman. Looking forward to seeing more of him and this incredible DESERVED!!! Awakening. (Hate the name tho, “orange piccolo” terrible lol)

[TheSeranath]

My issue with Caulifla is less the way she transformed, and more that it just shouldn't have mattered that she did. The gap in base power and skill was just too huge.

[mcaz]

The Vegeta rage boost against Beerus serves the purpose of showing how Vegeta had changed to a loving husband now. It also didn't last long enough for it to be too overpowered, which makes me feel it was justified

[Heygranny]

The thing is with caulfla is that she gained ssj after just seeing cabba but goten and trunks were RAISED by supersaiyans Vegeta and Gohan

[Mikkeru]

Piccolo might not earned it story wise, but character wise he earned it big time.

[dartagnanjames]

Honestly to me personally, Piccolo's power up felt like a thing that was a long time coming. I understand why people think it's unearned narratively, but It feels like the character totally deserves it because of the place that he's earned in with the fans. Like if Tien suddenly got a random power up, I wouldn't be mad at all. His character totally deserves to step up and feel important again.

[michaela]

To me at least, Vegeta's rage boost vs Beerus was earned when looking at both a story and power perspective. In the story, Vegeta learned to care for his family, even throwing hands with Beerus because he ruined her Birthday Party. It even makes sense for a power perspective as Vegeta never thought of getting SSJ3 instead pushing his body using his preexisting toolkit and was rewarded by surpassing Goku

[CharlesMoreau-tj]

I've never had a problem with Caulifla's Super Sayan and the "tingle in the back"
We saw Goku transform, and then be able to use the form at will, but when it came time to teach the form to Gohan, he wanted to put Gohan through similar strife as he went through to "unlock" it instead of teaching him the technique of how he does it at will.
Same with Future Gohan and Future Trunks. Gohan tries to focus on the trauma and anger.
Vegeta also did the same thing with Cabba...
All of them were so concentrated on how they first turned super sayan that none of them even considered that now they do it without it.

Cabba would never have been able to bestow that sort of anger uppon Caulifla, and she rightfully asked him how he does it now that his first time is through. He tells her and she can transform.

Dragon Ball often also does that whole thing where people are "on the cusp" of a new form and just need to push through the glass ceiling. From Cabba's admission, Caulifla was already much stronger than he was. She wasn't just almost Super Sayan level, she had burst through that level already and just needed to learn how to trigger and control the form.

As far as unearned powerup go, it is hard not to mention Super Dragonball Heroes... it has a dubious canon, but Future/Xeno Trunks becoming Super Sayan God OFFSCREEN was quite the kick in the nuts.

[gnarlyboyjai]

Idk if ultra ego would be considered earned or not but honestly it’s hella interesting. It’s like a berserker class in an rpg. The more damage you receive the more you dish out. Seeing vegeta eyebrowless and talkin trash to granolah to taunt him while eating his attacks was so cool and different than any other form

[bananamerchant]

The problem is that all the "training" happens off screen. We're not given any information on what that training entails other than some vague notion of increasing one's power level. We also never get see the effort and the pay off afterwards. The problem isn't unearned powerups, the problem is that these powerups are poorly justified. And then the fact that these powerups often become worthless after the villain is defeated because the next villain is going to be too powerful for that power-up. So it often invalidates the the entire point of getting stronger because they'll never be strong enough for that strength to mean something narratively.

[Frostman]

I really liked Vegeta's rage burst against Beerus. A lot of Gohan's early rage came out in response to seeing his loved ones hurt. Vegeta experiencing that in response to Bulma being hurt I think showed a lot of his character growth from the Buu saga coming to fruition. He loves his family and throws down with a god when they're harmed.