For any fan of dragon ball, the word power level is something that is likely ingrained into the back of your brain.
Sentō Ryoku or Combat power is the potential ability of a fighter. Power level is the numerical quantification of one's combat power.
Akira Toriyama introduced it in Dragonball when Goku first learn to sense energy, but the power level concept didnt get a measure until the introduction of scouters and Power levels at the start of dragonball Z.
Though I hear you ask, how does combat power even get measured? What is it measuring? Simply put, its a Ki measurement device, the more Ki someone has, the stronger they are.
Now the next question is, why are power levels so important anyway? Well they help us gage how much stronger one person is to another in a straight up fight.
For example lets say Person A has a power level of 5000 and person B has a power level of 7500. Person B is a lot more likely to win in typical circumstances. But that doesnt include special skills, magic, techniques, or strategies Person A or B might have that change the outcome of the fight. Thats the point.
The point of power levels was to on paper seem definitive but then be defied by the heroes.
Though there was a problem, Toriyama was too good at making the Power level system.
If the power level system was properly explore and articulated... the power scaling would be even crazier.
There is something rather interesting that is over looked when it comes to the discussion of power levels.
Having a power level 2x greater than someone makes said person able to take attacks from that person without taking any damage.
Raditz gloats over piccolo and Goku by saying he is 3x stronger than them, though he was refering to power level not actual physical strength.
Many people have the assumption that having a power level double that of another person simply means you are twice as strong and twice as fast as said person. That is NOT the case.
Allow me to put into perspective for you.
In DBZ a normal human has a power level of 4 or 5.
According to the Daizenshuu (Basically Dragonball z encyclopedia). Kid Goku at the VERY START of Dragonball, had a power level of around 10.
At a power level of 10. Kid Goku was able to, TANK GUN FIRE with relatively no injury. Get flung into rocks and mountains, and was able to lift a car and throw CAR.
(And goku as a child has been shot several times even outside of Gags and the reactions are relatively the same, he comments it hurts but is relatively unharmed)
Even if a normal person is given twice the strength and durability. Getting shot point blank would still be deadly, and picking up and chucking a car (while still small, is arguably at least 1 ton) Goku is much more than double the strength and speed of a human.
Based on the image, Goku chucked that car at least 10 meters. The average human throwing capacity of a 5KG about 10 to 15 meters
That car was a 1980–1984 Renault 5 Turbo, which generally weighs about 970 kg and if we include Bulma. Round it to exactly 1 ton.
If this is to be believed
Goku at a power level of around 10, was nearly 200x physically stronger than an average person with a power level of 10!
This actually makes a lot of sense on why a normal person could not beat some trained Martial artist. Why Goku and Krillin after training with Roshi were easily outclassing most of the tournament competitors with barely a finger. They were so above human level it was crazy. Moving faster than the eye could track.
And you know what is crazy. Roshi Blowing up the moon is actually not hard to believe. Roshi had a power level of 139,
Now we know he used a full power Kamehameha to do it. Thanks to the fight with Raditz, the focus and power of the Kamehameha is shown to double the power level output, So that Kamehameha arguably had a power of around 378. Which tracks because Piccolo does the exact same thing with a regular beam attack in DBZ
Which Piccolo at the time his power level with weighted clothing was 329 as he was wearing weighted clothing. We can argue this was a demon wave. Which would be around 400.
So we can make a proper estimation of completely obliterating the moon takes a power level of over 300.
In DBZ filler we see King Vegeta (who is said to have a power level of 10,000) do this
Now one could argue this is filler, and by the size of the planets we could even argue that they are smaller planets. not earth size.
Well we can confirm vegeta threatened to blow up the earth with his power level of 18,000
So for the sake of simplicity, lets say its 18,000
So lets take the power level needed to blow up a moon and divide it by power needed to blow up earth
So a power level of 60x that of 300 is needed to blow up a planet
Now, doing the math, the amount of energy needed to blow up the earth is 2.24 x 10^32 Joules.
While the moon would require 1.24 x 10^29 joules
To save the time, that is roughly 1800x. Thats how many times more energy needed to blow up a planet compared to the moon
now, remember how I said Goku with a power level of 10 was 200x stronger than a person with a power level of 5?
That is Well over the needed to match output.
But lets actually circle back. Some say that the power level needed to blow up the moon was actually 400 and lets take the 10,000 as needed to blow up a planet.
So not only does this make it feasible that the power levels needed are accurate, but also show how insane of a difference power levels are.
It also puts into perspective how F***ing horrifying Frieza actually is.
Lets really do the math. The power needed to destroy an earth size planet is
The power level needed to do such a feat is around 10,000
Frieza's first form had a power level of 530,000
In terms of power level that is 53x higher, and with how being double a power level is equal to being 200x stronger.
That is roughly 10,600x stronger than someone with the power to destroy a planet.
That amount of power is 2.3744e+36
Do you know what the Joule equivalent of that is? it represents an immense amount of energy, roughly equivalent to the total energy output of the Sun over approximately 200,000 years!
And you want to know whats crazy? THAT IS ACCURATE TO FRIEZA BECAUSE LOOK
He has a move that looks like a miniature sun!
THIS IS HIS FIRST FORM! THIS IS NOT EVEN A FRACTION OF A FRACTION OF HIS TRUE POWER
Frieza at his full power in DBZ had a power level of 120,000,000
If the calculations were accurate. with the 200x boost
Frieza's power output would be 5.376e+38
To put that into perspective. That amount of energy is roughly 1.4 trillion times more powerful than the Sun, which is comparable to the luminosity of an extremely bright quasar or an entire large galaxy.
And you know what, THIS ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE FOR FRIEZA. Frieza was said to be so powerful that the only two beings in the entire universe he was not allowed to mess with were Majin buu and the god of destruction Beerus! The later of whom we know fighting goku casually was able to send ripples THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE.
Its no wonder Beerus is shocked that Frieza lost, Its no surprise it took a saiyan Legend to actually fight Frieza. Heck Frieza having restriction forms even makes a ton of sense if he was rocking more power than a f***ing sun.
Its actually after power levels are removed that the abilities and scaling fail to make sense. Like why can Goku in the Buu saga not lift 40 tons? Or in DBS Goku can clash with Beerus thanks to god ki, and vegeta who has trained with goku and gotten god ki struggle to lift 1000 ton robot? It actually makes people be confused.
But all of what I said was just power scaling, and toriyama didnt want to talk about power and what character could blow up universes, it was about telling a story of self improvement and adventure. It was about the fun and the journey. Thats what really matters. Thats what it actual is.
So when people say power levels are bulls***, its means that at the end of the day its not if they are right or wrong, its about the show being fun.
