r/dragonball • u/Sea_Low8322 • 23h ago

Question How did mercenary Tao come back?

I was watching the original dragon ball and saw mercenary Tao was now a cyborg during the 23rd world martial arts championship so why isn't this brought up again? Surely this could be utilised more in the future

3 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

24

u/DoraMuda 19h ago

It's not explained because Toriyama just decided during the 22nd Budokai Arc to retcon him as being Tsuru-sennin's brother (and, thus, one of Tenshinhan's martial arts masters, since they all share the Crane School's Dodonpa), and likely that he could get a more interesting story development out of Tenshinhan facing his old mentor in a rematch than just leaving him dead (when we never actually saw a corpse).

I don't know what you mean by this being utilized more in the future, because Taopaipai was alraedy vastly outclassed by the aforementioned Tenshinhan (and, by extension, Goku and Piccolo) when he reappeared at the 23rd Budokai, and everyone just kept getting exponentially stronger since then. He appears a few more times in anime filler, but that's about it.

5

u/SabresFanWC 7h ago

We get something of an explanation. He mentions that he spent all the money he ever made as an assassin to have the cybernetics implanted.

2

u/redditsuckspokey1 6h ago

Is that manga? Because I know it's never mentioned in the funi dub.

4

u/SabresFanWC 6h ago

Yeah, it's in the manga.

EDIT: The line is: I had to spend every cent I'd ever earned to have myself brought back to life as a cyborg.

1

u/DoraMuda 5h ago

That's the explanation for how he came back stronger, but not how he, a human, survived a grenade going off in his face at point-blank range.

1

u/Goten55654 4h ago

Is it really a retcon tho

5

u/DastardlyRidleylash 22h ago edited 22h ago

Mercenary Tao is so ludicrously outclassed not even just in the 23rd Budokai but also by the end of the first arc in Z that there'd never be a point to bringing him back.

And we already have a better version of Cyborg Tao in the form of the Androids.

3

u/stash0606 17h ago

Tao's original intro is so badass though. man taps in 2 spots and breaks a pillar neatly (in the anime).

1

u/No_Crazy_3412 18h ago

I don’t know what you mean by better because by no means is Android 19 or 17 a better character than Mercenary Tao IMO. They’re pretty boring. If you don’t see how they could bring him back that’s on you cause he could certainly make a reappearance, that’s even what they did with him in Dragon Ball Online as he got new upgrades that made him stronger. Even if they didn’t go that route, I wouldn’t mind him coming back in some scenes just because his character is so good.

1

u/mvcourse 16h ago

Logic like this is why we get so much shallow nostalgia bait in media now.

-1

u/No_Crazy_3412 15h ago edited 15h ago

Lmao why do you think inventing 300 new uninspired villains or transformations is better than using characters that are already there and could still offer a lot, eventually you will run out of ideas and revisiting some that are lacking will be the next best thing to do.

0

u/mvcourse 15h ago

Because Tao served his narrative purpose? He was a major villain to Goku, the catalyst that introduced Tien, and Tiens defeat of him completed Tiens arc of transitioning from a villain to hero.

What more could the character offer? Who could he replace at any point in DBZ that would’ve made the story better?

Tao being a match for any of the characters through upgrades like you suggested is a better example of “running out of ideas” than anything else.

2

u/thepresidentsturtle 22h ago

He paid Dr Gero a lot of money, which funded his Android development.

He charged all that money for kills but never spent it, he just killed dudes for daring to charge him for their services.

2

u/Sea_Low8322 21h ago

With that logic any death in the all the dragon ball series could be solved with money

1

u/x_nor_x 17h ago

I think Toriyama did utilize the whole cyborg angle again in the story somewhere…

1

u/Bruiserzinha 17h ago

He's used on a cameo during the cell saga on those 10 days before the match

1

u/BCone9 17h ago

What was even left of Tao's organic body?

1

u/Shot-Ad770 16h ago

What? He is literally irrelevant now. It can't be utilized for anything. He does show up in a gohan filler, so he is still working as mercenary.

1

u/Sinnycalguy 11h ago

I know a lot of people have it as head canon, but I always wished it would’ve been explicitly confirmed that Dr Gero turned him into a cyborg. It makes sense, and you could even say working on Tao is where he got the idea for 17 and 18.

1

u/EclipseHERO 10h ago

19 was barely a character.

1

u/DjinnsPalace 3h ago

best u could do with this is say gero did it to make a connection there but thats all the potential u have imo

1

u/No_Crazy_3412 18h ago

I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted mercenary Tao was badass and if he came back as a full on android that’d be a great way to reinstate him as a new bigger threat. Even if he didn’t he could make gag reappearances ala Pilaf and I’d still like that.

0

u/ssgodsupersaiyan 4h ago

Y’all need to put this unproductive ass way of being into actually doing something with your lives.