Forum - Dragon Slayer vs. Former Bandit (Popon vs. Yamcha)

Popon would say he'd win this one. At the start, Yamcha has barely any martial arts training, and he has to face someone who has already fought tough enemies, not to mention having a wide variety of weapons at his disposal. I don't see how Yamcha could stand a chance here.

Posted by Eldrazi Kido160 on 12 August 2026 at 22:07.

»Popon would say he'd win this one. At the start, Yamcha has barely any martial arts training, and he has to face someone who has already fought tough enemies, not to mention having a wide variety of weapons at his disposal. I don't see how Yamcha could stand a chance here. «

Small corrections, Popon only has the dragon slayer sword, but they do have different elemental parts at their disposal. Also this is 23rd Budokai Yamcha, so this is end of original Dragon Ball Yamcha.

Interestingly enough, I wanna give Yamcha some credit here. He should outskill her and hes faster than her. He's gonna look at her do Guard dash, get punished...make a goofy one liner and bait it out next time. Afterimages might also screw over Ponpon. It's true, she does have healing..it's a close fight...but you know? i think in the Long run..Yamcha might just adapt and win

Posted by StinkyGumi on 13 August 2026 at 01:20.

»Interestingly enough, I wanna give Yamcha some credit here. He should outskill her and hes faster than her. He's gonna look at her do Guard dash, get punished...make a goofy one liner and bait it out next time. Afterimages might also screw over Ponpon. It's true, she does have healing..it's a close fight...but you know? i think in the Long run..Yamcha might just adapt and win«

I also don't really see it being good for him if he gets punished from the guard dash since DB characters consistently are not good against piercing/cutting attacks.

In terms of outskill: The Turtle Hermit style is a style specifically made to "counter" skill and technique by using raw strength against it (as noted in the weakness), so I don't think Yamcha is really going to outskill since he doesn't actually know any true techniques asides from standard punches and kicks.

Oh also, the afterimage technique in actuality wouldn't really do much to Popon, since both her and Parin fought Black Bean who literally uses clone techniques in his boss fight.

Posted by GiverOfThePeace on 13 August 2026 at 01:31.

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Posted by StinkyGumi on 13 August 2026 at 01:20.

»Interestingly enough, I wanna give Yamcha some credit here. He should outskill her and hes faster than her. He's gonna look at her do Guard dash, get punished...make a goofy one liner and bait it out next time. Afterimages might also screw over Ponpon. It's true, she does have healing..it's a close fight...but you know? i think in the Long run..Yamcha might just adapt and win«

Yamcha doesn't use the afterimage technique, he mainly uses punches and kicks and the occasional beam attack.

I also don't really see it being good for him if he gets punished from the guard dash since DB characters consistently are not good against piercing/cutting attacks.

In terms of outskill: The Turtle Hermit style is a style specifically made to "counter" skill and technique by using raw strength against it (as noted in the weakness), so I don't think Yamcha is really going to outskill since he doesn't actually know any true techniques asides from standard punches and kicks.«

I'd argue he'd be still be more skilled than Popon in general because we've seen the fighters he's had to contend with like Tien and Goku, even if you want to say that the fighting style itself is only good against technique users...better than "i fenced with my grandpa" which feels kinda vague.

I wanted to give Popon Credit with the "he'll probably get punished" but honestly it's probably a 50/50 since Yamcha is still fast. She does have Lock-on but that's only gonna help track him against something like after images, which is something he doesn't do. Also Range is nice...especially against someone for, what i'm reading, barely has any range of her own. The exploson attack she has..has quite a tell to it.

Yamcha is no slouch, I really do think he can win this more times than not.

Posted by StinkyGumi on 13 August 2026 at 01:42.

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Posted by GiverOfThePeace on 13 August 2026 at 01:31.

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Posted by StinkyGumi on 13 August 2026 at 01:20.

»Interestingly enough, I wanna give Yamcha some credit here. He should outskill her and hes faster than her. He's gonna look at her do Guard dash, get punished...make a goofy one liner and bait it out next time. Afterimages might also screw over Ponpon. It's true, she does have healing..it's a close fight...but you know? i think in the Long run..Yamcha might just adapt and win«

Yamcha doesn't use the afterimage technique, he mainly uses punches and kicks and the occasional beam attack.

I also don't really see it being good for him if he gets punished from the guard dash since DB characters consistently are not good against piercing/cutting attacks.

In terms of outskill: The Turtle Hermit style is a style specifically made to "counter" skill and technique by using raw strength against it (as noted in the weakness), so I don't think Yamcha is really going to outskill since he doesn't actually know any true techniques asides from standard punches and kicks.«

I'd argue he'd be still be more skilled than Popon in general because we've seen the fighters he's had to contend with like Tien and Goku, even if you want to say that the fighting style itself is only good against technique users...better than "i fenced with my grandpa" which feels kinda vague.

I wanted to give Popon Credit with the "he'll probably get punished" but honestly it's probably a 50/50 since Yamcha is still fast. She does have Lock-on but that's only gonna help track him against something like after images, which is something he doesn't do. Also Range is nice...especially against someone for, what i'm reading, barely has any range of her own. The exploson attack she has..has quite a tell to it.

Yamcha is no slouch, I really do think he can win this more times than not.«

Range point confuses me too cause Yamcha rarely uses ranged attacks and the two ranged attacks he has at his disposal, one is the kamehameha which leaves him as an open target to attacks and the other is the spirit ball, which also requires significant charge up to use.

not quoting anymore before my codex becomes a new color lol

I wanna look back at the 22nd tournament when Tien and Yamcha fought...while it is implied that Tien was holding, he still contended against him after it Tien remarked "interesting", which obviously shows he held back even less! Theres an argument to be made that it could imply he's stronger than Popon by the time of 23rd tournament, he grew stronger at least by twice AFTER defeating someone who can handle the plane crash which is definitely stronger than that platform feat. it was stated that he gave him trouble. by the 23rd, he's improved his skill. Popon, while yes is a cartoony character, she is NOT FIGHTING CLUMSILY. She is not doing what Kami had done. Also Wolf Fang fist is also a ranged option...he could blow her against the wall and it's definitely not as slow as the other ki moves. idk if theres ring outs but if there is, he could just blow her out doing that.

It's not really an implied thing Tien straight up just is holding back, even the profile says "Fought evenly with a suppressed Tien Shinhan for a while". Tien vs Goku and Tien vs Yamcha are completely different fights with Tien being more serious and using more moves in that fight. The same with Tien vs Jackie Chun.

Also I would NOT use a character in Dragon Ball calling someone interesting ever, Frieza noted hearing two power levels of 1500 was interesting, he thought Nail's power level was interesting, Goku thought in his fight with Present Zamasu that he could get stronger then Beerus with training, "interesting" is just a benchmark term to say the character is vaguely strong even to someone insurmountably stronger then them so that wouldn't even imply Tien is holding back less just that he thought he would've one-shotted Yamcha cause of how much he and his teacher trashes on the Turtle School.

For the context of improving skill in Dragon Ball, it's synonymous with getting stronger. Goku is seen as more skilled because he's stronger, faster, and more durable, his actual techniques or approach to fighting doesn't change, a perfect example of this is him vs. Tao Pai Pai where he lost to Tao Pai Pai purely just cause he couldn't take his hits and the minute he trained and "got more skilled" he was able to beat Tao Pai Pai because he could facetank his attacks.

Also in terms of if Yamcha is stronger or not then Popon during 23rd, this is an important matter so let us take a look...
Firstly, he is downscaling from 22nd Budokai Goku and Tien, where 22nd Budokai Goku is already demonstrably far stronger then Yamcha to the point that the Bandaged Man Yamcha couldn't beat Goku beat in one hit. So it's impossible to truly say how much above 9-A he is or if he's even reached/surpassed Red Ribbon Army Arc Goku in strength, we just know he can at the very least fight them while suppressed which it wouldn't be impossible for Red Ribbon Army Arc Goku to do the same.
23rd Budokai he's also doesn't have much for gauging how much stronger he's gotten, we already know just hanging around Tien and Krillin doesn't mean he received immense buffs since Chaiotzu still easily lost to Cyborg Tao and we have no clue how Yamcha would fair against Cyborg Tao. We just know he vaguely got stronger, so it's hard to say he grew twice as strong.

Also another issue: "defeating someone who can handle the plane crash which is definitely stronger than that platform feat", I don't know how much I agree to that. The plane crash was violent yes and damaged the plane but it didn't fully destroy the plane. Meanwhile with a simple stomp Tokaroan destroyed an entire platform. Should also note the whole Tokaroan thing is based off upscaling from a previous version fought in the past and the previous guy that fought him noted he's much much stronger then before and then he absorbed everyone to gain even more power and become far more powerful.

So in terms of AP it's harder to say since one is downscaling from something with a vague amount of strength boost and the other is based off upscaling from a previous form.

Also the point of fighting clumsily wasn't that Popon herself does it; it's that Yamcha has almost no real skill dealing with other styles and something like blatantly fighting clumsily to get accidental hits off is a testament to how they're not realistically trained to deal with characters with unorthodox methods around turtle hermit style.

Wolf Fang Fist isn't a range option, it's a barraged of punches and then punching away.