It has become a common misconception that Yamcha is a good for nothing weakling. Let me tell you that this is certainly not the case. During the entire original Dragonball series, Yamcha is definitely one of the strongest fighters on the planet. He actually was evenly matched with Goku when he first met him. One of the main reasons why Yamcha falls behind Goku for sometime is the fact that Goku, along with Krillin, got training from Master Roshi before the 21st World Tournament, and Yamcha did not. However, he did get training from him the years after that, and even was able to learn the Kamehameha wave before Krillin did. Yamcha is certainly not useless. For most of the Dragonball series, he had developed more of his own original techniques then any of the other humans, as well as Goku who at that time was thought to have been just a human with a tail, not including any of the martial arts masters such as Master Roshi or Shen, and Tien and Choutzu although it later becomes evident that many of the techniques that Tien and Choutzu displayed during the 22nd World Tournament may have been taught to them by Master Shen, and not originally developed by themselves. Yamcha already knew the Wolf Fang Fist, which is a very impressive technique, which he even used to defeat Goku the first time they fought, as well as developing a variant of it, which he used to hold Tien at bay for sometime. He also developed the Sudokan which is a very useful Ki attack which involves taking a small Ki Sphere and controlling it to move around at the user’s will. None of the other fighters showed such ability at that time. It can and has been theorized that at that time, Yamcha may have been able to control his Ki outside of his body more then the others fighters. People have often criticized Yamcha for being eliminated in the first round of every World Tournament that he participated in during Dragonball. However, this should not be held against him, as he was beaten in the 21st and 22nd World Tournament by the person that would later end up being the champion (Jackie Chun/Roshi and Tien), so if any of the other fighters had taken Yamcha’s spot, they would have been eliminated in the first round as well. In the 23rd tournament, he was beaten by Shen, later turned out to be Kamisama himself, and was the third strongest fighter present at the tournament, so that should not be held against Yamcha either, especially since Krillin was also eliminated in the first round of that tournament as well. During the Saiyan Saga in DBZ, Yamcha actually becomes stronger the Krillin is according to AT’s own power-level’s, so he is certainly not weak then either. People complain that he got killed very early on during the battle against the Saiyans; however, Yamcha actually defeated the Saibamen that he had been fighting, but unfortunately, was distracted by his conversation with Vegeta that he did not notice that the Saibamen jumped up and self-destructed on Yamcha taking him with him. But this could have happened to any of the other fighters, and ever Piccolo admitted that there would have been no way to defend against that technique, so Yamcha really isn’t to blame for that. And Krillin later goes and destroys four Saibamen with one shot, and since Krillin is weaker then Yamcha, it just shows what Yamcha could have done. On King Kai’s planet, Yamcha gets plenty of training, and although he does eventually fall behind Krillin in terms of power, he still keeps up and should certainly not be considered weak, although the fight that he had with the Ginyu Force on King Kai’s planet is filler, and shouldn’t be used as evidence. People talk about how easily Yamcha was taken over by the Black Water Mist, and how easily he was slapped aside by Piccolo in the Garlic Jr. Saga, well, that entire saga was filler so it shouldn’t be used against Yamcha either. During the Android Saga, Yamcha got three good years of training in, so he doesn’t let himself go then either, despite the fact that he probably didn’t train as hard as he could have, although most of the scenes of him slacking off were filler, so that shouldn’t be held against him either. Also the scenes where Yamcha attempts to use Vegeta’s gravity pod are also filler, but this really shouldn’t be held against him since Krillin wouldn’t have done any better in that amount of gravity. Then people laugh about how easily Yamcha was taken out by Android 20, but isn’t as pathetic as it may seem. The reason is because once Android 20 had placed his hand on Yamcha, he immediately began sucking Yamcha’s energy away, taking away any chance of Yamcha getting away. But, the same thing happened to Piccolo until Gohan knocked Android 20 away, and since Piccolo at that point was much stronger then Android 20 and the same thing happened to him, Yamcha shouldn’t be looked down upon as much as he is. In fact Android 20 even mentioned that Yamcha was a human with extraordinary power. And Yamcha certainly isn’t useless during the rest of the Android/Cell saga either; as he went with Piccolo and the other humans the entire time to search for Cell. And during the Cell Games, Yamcha lasted just as long against a Cell Jr. as Tien and Krillin did, so he obviously wasn’t that far behind. Now the main thing that people have always gotten upset about with Yamcha is the fact that he stopped training after the Cell Games during the seven-year period, yet Krillin and Gohan also stopped training but people don’t get near as upset with them. None of those three truly were into fighting anymore, but it could be that because both Gohan and Krillin signed up for the tournament and Yamcha did not that they give them more slack then they do Yamcha. Well, considering the type of people that Krillin fought, I’m pretty sure Yamcha would have done just as well as Krillin did. And Yamcha still stuck around with the good guys to offer his support even when they went to Kami’s lookout and Buu showed up. He met the same fate as Krillin did so none of that should be held against him. In DBGT, Yamcha does absolutely nothing, which Yamcha giving up fighting combined with the fact that Toei just didn’t care about him at all is what let that happened, but since DBGT is entirely made up by Toei, Yamcha not helping at all is not his fault either. In fact there is only one movie that Toei made where Yamcha actually got to do anything, is Movie 3, and he puts up just a good of fight against the enemy as the others did.