Akira Toriyama had created numerous Super Saiyan forms for Goku & Co., all of which were helpful in defeating various enemies. However, some Super Saiyan forms were not seen after their reception, mainly due to the faults in their powering systems.
Some of the most useless Super Saiyan forms in Dragon Ball are undoubtedly Super Saiyan 3 and Super Saiyan 1.5. These forms have a greater number of disadvantages when compared to what they can offer in combat.
The characters found out the impracticalities of these forms the hard way, and here is everything you need to know about them.
Super Saiyan 1.5 and Why it was Useless in Battle
Super Saiyan Third Grade, also known as Super Saiyan 1.5 was achieved by Vegeta and Future Trunks during their battle against Cell. However, the impracticality of the form inhibited them from defeating the villain.
Future Trunks ascended this state against Cell and did manage to hold off the latter for some time. Cell even admitted that the state helped Trunks surpass him in pure power, but it was not sustainable for the user. In fact, Future Trunks could not defeat Cell purely because of his inability to maintain equality in speed.
The form is extremely bulky, with muscles comically bulging out. The form is supposed to be an improvement of Super Saiyan but fails to be so. Due to the heaviness of the body from the muscles, agility is impeded. The speed boost that was supposed to come with Super Saiyan 1.5 is thus negated by its side effects. Thus, the form ultimately ends up slowing the user, despite the massive stamina depletion.
Because of this distortion of speed, this stage is Super Saiyan 1.5 is useless against enemies who are faster to begin with. The effort needed to simply maintain the transformation exceeds the benefits reaped from it.
Around the same time that Future Trunks and Vegeta used this form against Cell, Goku attained it in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. However, unlike the former duo, he realized how wasteful the power is. He explained to Gohan that the stamina drain will eventually cost the user. Thus, the pair simply resorted to perfecting the pre-existing Super Saiyan form.
Goku’s Impractical Super Saiyan 3 in Dragon Ball
It’s not just Vegeta and Trunks who were stuck with a useless Super Saiyan powerup. Goku’s Super Saiyan 3 is widely accepted as the worst Saiyan transformation, due to how useless it is.
Akira Toriyama himself stated in an interview that Super Saiyan 2 and 3 were just powered-up variants of the Super Saiyan form, and mastering the original would lead to better results due to the extreme power drainage of the latter forms.
The purpose of Super Saiyan 3 is to increase ki utilization, thus it consumes an ungodly amount of energy. After powering down, the user experiences too much fatigue. In fact, the awakening of the form causes a violent explosion which could potentially destroy the user himself.
During its first usage, the form caused clouds to gravitate towards Goku, dangerous tidal waves, and hurricanes that almost ended the planet. While Goku later controlled the side effects, Super Saiyan 3 has too many impracticalities.
You can read the Dragon Ball manga on Viz Media and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
