How Dragon Ball Quietly Avenged Golden Frieza Movie’s Yamcha Insult

Dragon Ball Super quietly fixed Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F’s Yamcha insult. In both versions of the Golden Frieza story, Yamcha wasn’t among the Z-Warriors on-hand for the fight with Frieza and his army. Apparently, he wasn’t deemed powerful enough to be helpful.

For the battle with Frieza, both Yamcha and Chiaotzu were sidelined completely. Instead, it was left up to Master Roshi, Gohan, Tien, Piccolo, and Krillin to hold off Frieza’s army while they waited for Goku and Vegeta to return from training with Whis. Yamcha wasn’t mentioned at all during the anime’s take on the fight, but the movie version did touch on why the two characters were missing. Tien mentioned to the Z-Warriors that he thought fighting Frieza was “too dangerous” for them, and that it was best for them to remain behind. Considering that Chiaotzu previously skipped the fight with the androids and the Cell Games for similar reasons, this made sense for his character – but not for Yamcha.

Before Resurrection F, it was always implied that he was in the same class as Tien and Krillin, but Tien’s comment indicated otherwise. Tien saying that fighting Frieza was “’too dangerous” for Yamcha (but not for himself for Krillin) was a huge insult to Yamcha’s character and power level in the franchise. Dragon Ball Super episode 70, titled “A Challenge From Champa! This Time, a Baseball Game!” referenced this line from Resurrection F when several Z-Warriors came together for a baseball match with Universe 6’s strongest fighters. In direct contrast to the Golden Frieza movie, Yamcha was there but Tien wasn’t. When asked about it, Yamcha said he intentionally didn’t invite Tien because he thought it would be ‘’too dangerous” for him to be involved.

Yamcha repeating Tien’s line can be interpreted as a not-so-subtle dig at the Z-Warrior who dissed his fighting abilities during the fight with Golden Frieza. In a way, it’s a sign that even though Resurrection F insinuated that he was weaker than his fellow Z-Warriors, Yamcha himself may not be in agreement with this assessment. In fact, he may have taken offense to Tien’s remark. By reversing Resurrection F and having Yamcha purposely sideline Tien, Dragon Ball Super succeeded in avenging the movie’s insulting omission of him.

While this was certainly a stand-out moment for a disrespected Z-Warrior, it doesn’t mean that Dragon Ball Super has fixed its problematic approach to Yamcha. Episode 70 did do right by the character, but overall, the anime failed the hero. Much to his disappointment, Yamcha was ignored by his friends for the second time when Goku didn’t try to recruit him for his Tournament of Power team. However, Yamcha could still one day get his chance. Depending on what the future holds, Yamcha can prove that he can still hold his own alongside fighters like Krillin, Tien, and Master Roshi.

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