Trying For Some Logic In DragonBall Z

Yes, I'm certain that's a futile gesture, but we are all about the futile gestures here.

I've been playing a lot of DBZ Budokai 3 lately, going through story mode, reliving the big fights, and some fights that they made up, which is cool (I'd have liked it if Krillin could have gotten a bit longer Dragon Universe mode, but oh well). There's the Cell saga, about the 'ultimate lifeform' planning to destroy the Earth, but wanting a challenge first. So he sets up a little tournament, and gives everyone 10 days to get ready. If no one can beat him, he'll blow up the world.

Anyway, Goku and Gohan have been training in the Time Chamber and don't know anything about this initially. They eventually emerge and find out about it, but everyone notices they're quite different. They're in their Super Saiyan state, but it seems natural to them, whereas previously it required considerable effort to achieve that transformation, and the increased power that comes with it. Goku is not terribly concerned about Cell's announcement (for reasons he keeps to himself), and flies home wth Gohan. This is after demonstrating that his power has increased by a considerable amount. This is a source of great consternation to Vegeta, who is always trying to surpass Goku, and had actually pulled that off. . . for about a day. But now he's fallen behind again.

Anyway, everyone is discussing Goku and Gohan being in their Super Saiyan state, and Vegeta is the one who correctly identifies why they've done it (so that all the power they have to burn normally to reach that level can instead be used for fighting, since they're already at that level*). Like I said, Vegeta wants to surpass Goku (he's royalty, Goku was tagged as a low level fighter at birth, but is always ahead of him, it's an ego thing), and eventually he gets a chance to go back in the Time Chamber and put in another year of training**. Now here's what caught my attention. He had a whole year in there, and knowing Vegeta, he would use every second of it. He knows Goku's leapt ahead of him again. He knows that the route he went to reach his current level can't proceed any further***, and he recognizes what Goku's done to achieve the power he has. Yet, when he emerges, he hasn't made any sort of a leap.

How is it, I wonder, that he couldn't reach the same stage Goku had? The only explanation I could come up with (besides literary license), is that when Goku went that route, he eased back on his training for several days. Since it stresses the body being a Super Saiyan, he focused on just doing day to day things, rather than flying all over the placet, sparring with his kid and unleashing mountain destroying energy blasts, until his body got used to it. Vegeta's one of those characters that's always in 5th gear, always intense****. The best I can figure is, he simply couldn't make himself calm down enough to make the same leap his rival made.

Quick note: No post tomorrow, 'cause I'm on the road. Probably a post Monday. Until then, buckaroos.

* In a real world comparison, your body occasionally combines two proteins to form one protein that is needed for some function. This requires an expenditure of energy. However, your body has enzymes which are designed tocatch the proteins and help them bond together more readily, so that it doesn't require more energy. Your body burns a little early on to create the enzyme, but over the long run, it simplifies enough combinations that it makes up for that. So Goku being Super Saiyan constantly, without it being a strain on his system, is a bit like having a enzyme to make the combination of him and the factors that are necessary for the transformation, so as to simplify the whole process. It's not a perfect analogy, since I think it may be more like your body somehow evoling so the two proteins are simply assembled together, rather than separately, but it makes some sense in my head. Your mileage may vary.

** For those who haven't watched the series or read the comics, the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, as presented in that Saga, is in a sepearate dimension, one of seemingly limitless empty space, where time moves much faster. A person could train for a year in the chamber, and when they emerged, only one day would have passed for everyone else.

*** The way vegeta was gaining power, he was also gaining considerable muscle mass. We are talking Hulk level muscles, on someone who can't be six feet tall. The more he increases his power that way, the bigger the muscles get, to the point he loses speed because those muscles get in the way of his movements.

**** Except when he's fighting and perceives he has a big advantage, at which point he just becomes a smug jackass.