The Saiyan Race

[Guest Jupiter]

I have always wondered why the Saiyan's have a god complex in the show. Vegeta and Goku are always getting stronger...and stronger.....and stronger....etc. and the the training to get stronger seems so over exaggerated. Don't get me wrong, I like the show and I don't have a problem with it. But I am merely making an observation. Even Frieza some how knew that the Saiyans would grow far too strong for him to able to control. So he decides to go Skynet and elimate all Saiyan's in a micro second because he knew that a Saiyan would eventually over throw him and rule over the entire universe; however that didn't happen. But it just makes me laugh when the characters are like " well, its time to train so we can go fight Cell. Have to get Ascend to a level above that of a Super Saiyan."  

 

Dragon Ball Z and the Saiyans reminds me alot of Superman. Goku's planet is destroyed....Superman. Goku lands on Earth....Superman. Goku learns he is different....Superman. Goku's strength and powers have no limit.....Superman. The Saiyan complex is so similar to Kryptonians that its insane. 

 

So on and so forth. The show seems widely based on Superman ( Season 1- The Saiyan Saga) and Terminator ( Season 4- The Adroid Saga). It really seems that Dragon Ball Z has a lot of references to many things.

 

Thats pretty much what I was thinking the entire time I was watching the show. Goku just seems like a Japanese Anime version of Superman.

[odin]

I would not say that they have a god complex, that would be their enemies who think they are all powerful, unlike kriptonians, saiyans are not technologically advanced and their downfalls where vastly different where as saiyans like you said where killed by frieza because they would eventually become a threat Kriptonians in most media where killed because of their own ignorance and unwillingness to leave out of their comfort zone since they where already THE most advanced species in the galaxy. Goku just wants to rise up to the challenge and become stronger BECAUSE he has limits, that is the purpose of his character, the ultimate underdog where as supermans is the one who really has no limits (well depending on the writer) who is more about how he affects the world around him and show humanity of the potential they can achieve, if you have watched the recent dbz movie battle of gods you can see that this is being addressed on the origin of the super saiyan god stating that Saiyans where not always evil.

 

Yes, Dragon Ball Z could be seen as the Japanese equivalent of Superman but only on how they are brought upon cause their messages are vastly different as I said above and you could also say that their origins  are just a re-telling of the story of Moses if you think about it, it all depends on how you view it but honestly I don't see a God complex in Goku nor Vegeta, Vegeta started off having a superiority complex but then as the series progressed he started having an inferiority complex which drove him into being better than goku until we see the results of that development in the buu saga where he finally acknowledges Goku and now no longer fights for selfish reasons. 

[*Jess♥]

seems like the saiyan race were like the pinnacle of evolution. their bodies are capable of rapid adaptation to fast changing environments. They are able to use energy conversion in such a way that they can convert a lot of matter (lots of food) into very strong body. this process can constantly react to the environment through what must be super intelligent processes within the body itself. it seems to be able to adapt to increasing adversity via the channelling of ki. whereas most creatures have a limit to the amount of ki they can channel, the saiyan seem able to reconfigure the methods of channelling and making it more efficient. through training, the body can be told to make it more efficient, to open more pathways to channel more energy. it seems they are connected to a source of energy even beyond the afterlife. I was surprised that the dragonball series did not explore beyond the afterlife and introduce even deeper dimensions  that could hold the origin of ki energy.

[Aether]

on the Suoerman thing , Toriyama freely admits he was inspired by Superman to some degree... I remember we discussed this a few years back in the ''if you like Naruto...'' thread where we were discussing other anime recommendations for Yuki, and we got to plagirisnm vs inspiration due to naruto and dbz and dbz and superman... I think it came down to the fact that if something inspires something greater and isn't a carbon copy then its all good...

as for ridiculous training the gravity thing (based on superman? wasn't that the reason for his strength on earth - krypton's gravity was stronger?) was expanded upon, with the gravity chambers etc and took to another level in the time chamber...

did superman train to get stronger? - no (not as far as I know) he just rets on his abilities like a gifted slob... wheres the lesson in that???... Goku and the Z fighters are inspirational... try hard and get results... in the past when I was training (tai chi, chi, weights etc.) constantly throughout the day I would keep the efforts of goku in mind, and I will do again in the future when I start training again.... some limits are there to be surpassed until you reach the rubicon of death... but even that didn't stop GOKU for F's sake!!

maybe saiyans have some electrical resistance thing going on , as at the end of the day the ki gathered manifesting is usually of our dimension and thus bioelectricity in the physical world, any normal person woukd just burn, fry, blow up if so much electrical energy was introduced into their body, so maybe saiyans can just resist and convert massive amounts of electrical charge without blowing up ... I mean since the Namek sagas they have been releasing the equivalent energy of small scale atomic bombs in power blasts from their palms!!...

beyond that if they do have all their physical body open, their chi/ki/ethereal energy pathways and every single major vortexes (chakras) and subtle vortex energy points open then they are virtually a perpetual energy system that would be unlimited, as they would only be limited by the source of that - which is the universe - and that has infinite reserves!

it is interesting that in Battle of the Gods the concept of 12 universes is introduced (I dont think is a spoiler as its not done with any great expalantion or with any depth at all ) maybe this has something to do with a toriyama version of string theory, and there is some energy conversion thought in there?... but probably not

Edited July 6, 2014 by Aether