Yamcha has become one of the biggest jokes in the whole thing Dragon ball franchise, but most fans miss that he actually plays an extremely important role in the series. Despite starting out as a brave warrior, Yamcha is often considered to have fallen from grace the most of any Dragon Ball character: he is constantly overshadowed by Goku, given to him by a minor henchman. mercilessly explodes in Dragon Ball Z, and his girlfriend finally gets married. Vegeta. However, all this suffering and humiliation serves a greater purpose.
While it’s true that Yamcha has a history of being overshadowed by other characters, the same could be said for nearly the entire cast of the original Dragon Ball. Notably, Yamcha is not depicted without a shining moment. More importantly, from the beginning of the Dragon Ball series, Yamcha was always written to serve a very specific, very important narrative role. Unfortunately, that role is easily misunderstood. Yamcha’s purpose in the story is to make the new villains look as threatening as possible, while also making the actual main characters – Goku and the other Saiyans – even stronger more than they are.
Yamcha’s job in Dragon Ball is to make other characters look better
The key to understanding Yamcha’s important role in the story of the Dragon Ball series is the fact that he has historically been portrayed as as powerful as he needs to be. For a dangerous new villain to easily defeat established characters is a well-documented story. Of course, Vegeta and Nappa are one of the franchise’s best examples of this, crossing over not just Yamcha but the entire group of warriors returning from the original Dragon Ball. Even at his worst, Yamcha plays an important storytelling role in exactly the way he needs to.
In creative writing, a character like this is called a foil. At its most basic, a foil is a character that makes another character, usually the main character, look good in a contrasting way that highlights that character’s strengths and personality. Yamcha is one of the best examples of a foil in manga and anime and has been since his first appearance in the original Dragon Ball. While Yamcha was originally portrayed as a dangerous bandit skilled in martial arts, one of the premises that drove the plot of the original series was Goku’s pursuit of new techniques and new training to become more and more powerful. should be stronger. Although Yamcha is strong, the bad guys need to be stronger so Goku can defeat them to prove he is the strongest. This trend continued in Dragon Ball Z, where Yamcha was destroyed early in the Saiyan invasion and also during the Android Crisis.
Yamcha losing a lot of battles isn’t bad writing, it’s his character archetype working exactly as intended. Yamcha’s narrative aim was never to be the greatest warrior but to make the villains look like real threats to the heroes, while also highlighting the strength of the characters other. Even though he is (and not without reason) remembered as one of the weakest characters in Dragon Ball, turning Yamcha into a constantly defeated loser misses an important storytelling purpose. his. As a character mainly intended to highlight the main characters’ strengths and make them look good, Yamcha plays one of the most important narrative roles in the entire series Dragon ball The franchise and fans should appreciate him more for that.