Yamcha

Yamcha hi! (Says sarcastically) Ah, Yamcha, my favorite character…. to bash!

Okay, I will explain myself: most people do not like Yamcha because of Bulma and Vegeta, not me!

No, I started developing a deep loathing for him a while ago. As a matter of fact, it was back in DB and coincidentally that is where I’m going to start. Now remember, this is simply my opinion and observation, but perhaps I can mention something most Yamcha lovers neglect to see.

Okay, I must admit when Yamcha first came to the scene I thought he was an in interesting character, but that started to fade when he was beaten by Goku and ran away because he was shy around women… More like sissy. I’m sorry, but that is not a strong warrior quality. "Desert bandit", give me a break.

Okay, even after that I still held interest for his character. I thought he was funny and the fact the he was not into ruling the world was an added bonus…

Now this is where his personality started to go down…Chichi’s first appearance.

All right, little Chichi is seen panicking, running away from a huge dinosaur that basically wanted to eat her. Yamcha sees this and does not aid her, but to his credit, Chichi didn’t give him enough time because by then she manages to decapitate the dinosaur. Nervous and still shaken up from the ordeal, Chichi is frightened by Yamcha's sudden assertiveness and goes on the defense. (Stop right here) Before moving on I would like to mention that Yamcha is an expert thief; he knows when people are frightened. He is skilled in that area. I’m pretty sure he observed people's reactions. He had also witnessed firsthand how Chichi would react on instinct. She would attack I.E. the dinosaur. (Okay, continue) Chichi panics and attacks Yamcha blindly out of fear. Yamcha is angered by her attack and slaps the little girl into unconsciousness…

This is the beginning of things to come. Any man that would strike at a female, a frightened child at that, is a weak pathetic bastard, plain and simple. Just look at the evil expression on his face after he slapped her.

So Yamcha hits Chichi, knocking her out and leaving her to the mercy of the wild dinosaurs roaming about. This is no exaggeration. Think about it: one was just chasing her and there are constant scenes where dinosaurs are seen roaming around.

Now this is the worst part. Yamcha comes back, not to see if she is okay, only to save his own skin; after finding out she was the Ox King's daughter, he was afraid of the backlash of his action. (I read some stories where Yamcha is abusive and the writers were criticized because supposedly Yamcha would never hit a woman? Well, this is a good example of how Yamcha can be when he is pissed. Throughout Dragon Ball the only people he fought were women. Just observe and you will see.)

Okay, so supposedly he was evil at the time. Hnm, whatever. Fine, then. Let's move on to Dragon Ball Z…

Ah, Goku is dead and Bulma and Krillin search for Yamcha. They find him and he and Bulma get into an argument.

Now this is interesting. Many people say that Yamcha is rich because he is a baseball player. Funny, Bulma contradicted that theory by saying Yamcha was broke ninety percent of the time. In addition, Puar made a statement earlier that they need money to pay the rent. Hell, before he met Bulma he was living in a cave. Therefore, Bulma referred to this while they were together, meaning he was a sponge living off her money, which is true.

There are a lot more examples of this but I will be stating them in order.

Now, when most writers write stories with Yamcha cheating, it is very valid looking back, starting with DB. Yamcha did flirt with other women but then again, to his credit, he was an teenager. However, when you are almost thirty it gets ridiculous. When Bulma and Yamcha meet up for the first time in DBZ, Bulma makes a statement that proves that Yamcha cheated. She says, "You took Becky Hather to the concert," meaning Yamcha broke their date for another. It is very interesting, you might want to look it over. Now I am going with the English version on this but the Japanese version is not much different anyway. In the movie "The Tree of Might" Yamcha’s excursions are also mentioned.

However, to be fair, I really do not think her and Yamcha really loved each other. Well, maybe he loved her but she did not really love him like that. I think Bulma just used him because he was convenient and was there. She was desperate as he was. Anyway, it was funny to watch Bulma wearing the pants in the relationship and she always talked about getting a better boyfriend. Hell, she ogled every guy she thought was attractive. She didn’t trust Yamcha. She was constantly looking over his shoulder. Now this is very interesting: have you noticed once Bulma and Vegeta got together she never looked at another guy? Seriously, I looked and can’t find her checking anybody out, and plus she never once got on Vegeta about other woman. Now that was complete change from her relationship with Yamcha. She was satisfied with Vegeta and trusted him. The attractions started even before they got together… Err, that’s another story.

Okay, now we are going to move up to the Saiyan Saga. Vegeta and Nappa let their little saibamen do their dirty work. If you notice, Yamcha starts to act like a Goku wannabe and tries to take on all the saibamen. He says,"Sit this one out Krillin, I’m really anxious to show these goons what we are all about here." He says it overconfidently and ends up fighting one saibaman, making himself and the others look like a fool by letting his guard down and getting killed by the same saibamen he fought with. Therefore, Yamcha never defeated anyone and was the first to be killed by a saibaman, the only one to die at their hands.

(You know what is very inaccurate, to say that Vegeta killed Yamcha, Piccolo, and Tien during this fight. In fact, Vegeta didn't kill anyone during this fight. No humans were killed by Vegeta until the Buu saga, with the exception of the fight with 18, but then again 18 shot the blast, killing the paperclip trucker. Vegeta just didn’t stop it. Anyway, the point is everyone holds a grudge against Vegeta because of their deaths. Why, he didn’t kill them, it was Nappa. He didn’t really do anything until he fought Goku. Err, sorry, I’m getting off track…)

All right lets fast-forward because I want to get to Piccolo. J Cell saga: Yamcha tries to fight Vegeta. Why, what makes him thinks he is so tough? I’ll tell you why: because Piccolo, Chaotsu, Tien, and himself fought the Ginyu force and defeated them in other world. (Um, does anybody notice that once the bad guys go to HFIL they get weaker, like the Ginyu, Frieza, and Cell? Think about it, Cell was at twice the power of Goku and was defeated by Pikauhn easily, yet Goku manages to defeat Pikauhn. Is it just me or does something seem a little off?) So anyway, he still thinks he’s so tough, he is cocky forgets the fact that Vegeta's power has dramatically increased during the battle with Frieza. Then, traveling in a gravity pod to find Goku, fighting numerous enemies along the way (don’t forget that pod also went up to a hundred times gravity), why do you think in the Cell saga Vegeta started at such a high level of gravity? Because he was already used to it…

Okay, back to Yamcha. So he is like Mr. Tough and was extremely jealous of Vegeta. It was obvious. Then he gets scared when Vegeta is ready to fight. He backs off after talking some junk. You see, Yamcha thought that Vegeta might had found Goku, because he was shocked when he found out Vegeta did not find Goku and started to back off. Why? I’ll tell ya - because he was scared to fight Vegeta. Yamcha is never tough by himself.

Anther example is when the Z-fighters meet up to fight Frieza. Yamcha gets a backbone because Tien is there, so they double-team Vegeta.

Mr. Tough guy starts to panic when Frieza arrives. He starts whining, making himself look like an utter fool. Hell, Puar is more brave than he is, and Bulma made him look twice as pathetic by speaking her bravery and then backing it up. Also, as the Z fighters were climbing the cliffs, she was ahead of him. He makes such statements as this: "I don’t think I can do this, guys" and "There is no way to defeat a monster like that," or something like that. Nice going, Yamcha, a real confidence-booster, telling everyone they are about to be killed and what is the point in backing out. Frieza came there to kill and destroy the planet; better to die a warrior then a coward. Either fight or die, so it would have done no good to run away.

Okay, skipping to after the death of Frieza, Yamcha gets his backbone back

By bullying Trunks, think about it: Yamcha was so afraid of Frieza and then here comes Trunks and destroys Frieza as if he were nothing. He should have automatically been afraid of him but he was not. Why? As I said before, Tien and Vegeta were messing with Trunks so he joined the bandwagon. He is such a coward.

Now I was going to mention the gravity room incident, but then I thought "Nah, that is just too pathetic." What an idiot, setting it at three hundred... Ah, never mind….

Oh, now this is a good insight into Yamcha’s character: the Android Saga.

Again, Yamcha is the first to panic and get overdramatic and is nearly killed. Goku tells Krillin to get Yamcha help along with Gohan.

They heal Yamcha and the chicken shit is afraid to go back…To be honest if I was as useless as Yamcha, I would not go back either. Anyway, Yamcha gets enough courage to go back into the fray. I think Goku and the others keep their power hidden simply because they did not want Yamcha getting in the way so they purposely hid their Ki. Just joking, but lets be honest: the only reason he went back out there is probably because he didn’t want to be around Bulma and Trunks, but again, that is another story.

All right, skipping ahead, Yamcha offers to take Goku to Chichi. Aww, isn't that nice of him…. NOT! He was chickening out. He was right, he would be in the way, but then again, Gohan was like 10 then. What hero leaves a child to fight in his place? I don’t care how strong Gohan was, he was still a boy and they should have tried to protect him from that more then they did. Gohan should have taken his father back. I guess they just really wanted Yamcha to leave and this was the perfect opportunity for a low-life opportunist.

Okay, Cell is going on a rampage Yamcha is rarely seen doing anything. The main objective was to not let Cell absorb the two twins. Well, Piccolo fights against the androids while the other stay at Roshie’s.

Yamcha looks on as the fighting ensues, looking stupid as Tien makes his way to the fight. Yamcha yells for him to come back because he’s a chicken and didn’t want to be the only one standing around with his thumb up his butt…There was no brave moment here as he and Rohie huddled together.

This next scene is typical. Yamcha sighs when everyone finds out there is to be a tournament held by Cell; the idiot blurts out in front of the wounded Vegeta that he would dominate in the tournament. Okay, that was just stupid. For one, Yamcha got beat up by Dr.Gero and saibamen, and in the tournament were major heavy weights like Trunks, Cell, Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, and my favorite, Vegeta. He would have to defeat these guys anyway. Vegeta makes the statement that they are deluding themselves and Yamcha get pissed. It was the truth. I guess it’s true what they say: truth hurts. Kay, now after this scene Yamcha is still bragging about being tough, and when it comes time for the tournament he says he will not be competing. Make up your mind! That is like starting a project and throwing it away when it’s due. The point is, Yamcha is all talk and has a very big ego, but he cannot back up his taunts. He is really trying to be like Goku but failing miserably because he is weak.

Now here is another remark about Yamcha being broke and being a freeloader. Hell, he stays at Capsule Corp. He wants to wish for money, too. Hello, he wears the same tacky-ass yellow suit that he claims is very expensive throughout the Buu saga and GT. Come on, that suit is cheap looking. In addition, if you really pay attention to the show you would know that there are several references to this fact. Yamcha has Goku’s vial in his hands and he tells Chichi that Piccolo said that they should also use the medicine because Goku’s disease might be viral contagious. Chichi agrees then looks at Yamcha sternly. "Yeah, but you have to get your own!" She scolds him, meaning he’s trying to freeload and is also suspicious of his funds. It’s obvious when he makes his reply. "Ah, come on, I'm good for it," he says nervously.

Okay the only brave thing he did in the Cell saga was help fight against Cell at the end. Let’s be honest: it’s not like he had much of a choice. Nonetheless, it was brave... But it was funny when the little Cell Jr. broke his arm and there was this dramatic image behind Yamcha as he cradled his arm. Hee hee, I’m sorry, I know it’s bad, but he just looked so pathetic compared to the other beatings shown on Dragon Ball. In fact, whenever Yamcha screams in pain he looks stupid and really sad…I.E., in the gravity room he also sounds like a wounded animal.

In the Buu Saga Yamcha has found his place. He is not pretending anymore. I respect this Yamcha because it is the true Yamcha, an admitted coward; his most dramatic scene was covering Marron’s eyes and jumping into the river to get a Dragon Ball from a dinosaur, which he honestly could have killed. Then again, he really let himself go. Gohan is a perfect example of what happens when you do not train, but still. Anyways, Yamcha is petty much a loser now and in GT he looks like a drug dealer with a ponytail. I could go into detail about Yamcha and facts about him being a cheater and his financial situation, but who gives a rat’s ass about Yamcha!