So this is something that has bugged me for awhile. How strong are the humans? Especially in relation to eachother. I hear that in an interview, krillin was stated to be the strongest. So krillin then it usually goes Tien, Yamcha, Yajirobe, Chiaotzu, roshi, chichi, videl, and Hercule satan finishing it off. But now Roshi goes into fights instead of the three guys ahead of him and now I'm all lost.
The way it seemed presented in the show was having Tien way out in front with Yamcha and Krillin pretty much tied for second. Anyone want to help me out?
Ok, on Roshi, that's a sudden power boost. DBZ is, frankly, inconsistent. Which is the cause of some confusion I'm sure.
It also varies a bit story arc to story arc.
Yamcha is definitely always behind Krillin and Tien, who are in contest for the top. Always. In the Saiyan Saga, Krillin was right behind Tien, and Yamcha was about 350 power between the two of them. Which is why Yamcha beat 1 saibaman, and Krillin finished 4.
Krillin went through the Namek stuff and had his power unlocked by Guru as well, which probably causes him to pass Tien, but I'd say at that point it's Krillin, Tien, sizable gap, Yamcha.
Chaoitzu's listed power is consistently below Yamcha, but frankly he performs not much worse in fights.
Yajirobe never gets any stronger, so probably, even though he's reasonably strong in the saiyan saga, everyone above passes him by the next arc.
Chichi and Videl both kinda fall into 'superhuman by normal standards, but don't really get into the chi stuff so much, so remain relatively low-end. Above any normal human or even martial artist, but below everyone listed above.' With Hercule even more-so like that, pretty much the top of the 'normal' martial artists but below Videl and Chichi.
Roshi used to be consider 'eternally at the same power, lowest of the chi users, not far from Chichi,' but then, whoops, sudden huge upgrade. I don't know either.
Also on Krillin and Tien, they both notably have abilities that let them punch above their weight class. Solar flare, Kienzan, and Tri-Beam (which lets Tien trade life for power). So they're effectively stronger than even their power levels indicate, IMO, and strong in slightly different ways. Krillin is one of the smartest fighters around too.
Ok. So krillin got his potential unlocked and tien and yamcha went through King kai training. After that they had their android training. Followin the cell games both yamcha and krillin stopped training for a bit, but tien kept on trucking. If I remember correctly, yamcha had a higher level in the saiyan saga than krillin. If they both trained for relatively the same amount of time, how did yamcha end up at the bottom of the barrel and krillin the top of the heap? Was that potential thing really thst big of a boost?
Yamcha died to a single Saibamen. Krillin killed more than all of them. Yamcha was rarely if ever his equal whereas Toriyama has called Krillin the strongest human several times.
So how big is the gap between all of them? Is krillin that far ahead he could easily oneshot everyone or is it close enough that a fight could swing either way?
I would actually say Tien is so far above Yamcha or Krillen that it be a stomp. Krillen has all but stopped training by the Buu Saga and then only gets back into shape for the tournament. Yamcha stopped training after androids and never started again. Tien trains constantly. I would not be surprised if Chiaotzu has actually became a match for Krillen as he does train also a lot. Tien just won't let him fight
__________________ If you try something stupid, and it works it ain't stupid.
there has been no evidence of Krillen above Tien. The only time it was said was by Yamcha to Marron during the tournament. When nobody has seen Tien for 7 years and he's also telling Krillens daughter it cause she was worried about him fighting. Not a reliable comment.
Tien is pretty much in the same situations except namek. But during namek Tien trained on King Kai's planet. Which would pretty much make up for Krillens random power up without having time to train and get stronger from saiyan saga to freeza saga. And Tien stayed on the planet the longest, training when Krillen would have relaxed some before Trunks came and they all started training again even Yamcha
__________________ If you try something stupid, and it works it ain't stupid.
It should also be noted that while Tien trains more than Krillin on average that does not mean that his training is better. After all if all it took was a buttload of training, Vegeta should not have been weaker than Trunks and Gohan. Likewise, Goten and Trunks put adults to shame and they certainly don't train as much. How they train and the quality of talent they have is also very important. Krillin trains with Roshi who is far more useful a training partner than Chiaotzu because of his experience. Before Buu he was sparring with an Android. One could also argue that releasing hidden potential makes drawing out more power much easier. After the power up Gohan was growing at a frankly stupid rate in power.
There is one other thing to consider. Tien tends to overexert himself too much in his fights. In Dragon Ball it is very important that you pace yourself more than anything else. Goku and Vegeta went into the Time Chamber at the same power(more of less) but Goku made way more out of his time by throwing in a lot more rest and trying to help Gohan. Another example: look at how they approach gravity training. Goku paced himself. Slowly working up to 100, always being sure to take senzu when his body was injured, and resting. Whereas Vegeta ran straight into 300x normal gravity. Yeah it's a hell of a workout but it is so very taxing on the body whereas Roshi taught his students the importance of rest.