Gotenks

Gotenks was born out of necessity during the Buu Saga. With Goku dead and Vegeta defeated, Piccolo oversaw the training of young Goten and Trunks in the Fusion Dance technique, hoping their combined power could stop the rampaging Majin Buu. The initial attempts at fusion produced embarrassing failures: a grotesquely overweight version and an emaciated, feeble one. Once the boys perfected the technique, Gotenks emerged as a warrior of tremendous potential.

Inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Gotenks achieved Super Saiyan 3, a feat that even Vegeta had never accomplished. Despite this incredible power, Gotenks squandered much of it on flashy, self-invented techniques with ridiculous names rather than focusing on defeating Super Buu efficiently. His overconfidence nearly cost him the battle multiple times, and the 30-minute fusion time limit constantly worked against him.

When Super Buu absorbed Gotenks and Piccolo, their power was added to his own, creating one of the most dangerous versions of Buu that Goku and Vegeta would eventually face inside Buu's body. After the absorption was reversed, Gotenks appeared again briefly during the final battle but could not sustain the fusion long enough to make a decisive impact.

In Dragon Ball Super, Gotenks made minor appearances, including a comedic attempt to fight the Copy-Vegeta on Planet Potaufeu. The fusion remained a powerful trump card in theory, but the boys' lack of discipline continued to limit its practical effectiveness.

Gotenks is one of the few characters in the franchise to achieve Super Saiyan 3, a transformation that exponentially multiplies the user's power at the cost of extreme energy drain. In this form, Gotenks generated enough power to tear holes in dimensional barriers, ripping openings between the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and the outside world.

What sets Gotenks apart is his creative, if impractical, approach to combat. He invented dozens of original techniques with theatrical names, including the Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack, in which he exhales ghost-like copies of himself that detonate on contact. While many of his self-named attacks were more style than substance, the Ghost Kamikaze Attack proved genuinely effective against Super Buu.

The fundamental weakness of Gotenks is the Fusion Dance's strict time limit of 30 minutes, which decreases further when using energy-intensive forms like Super Saiyan 3. Combined with the character's tendency to show off rather than fight seriously, this makes Gotenks a high-ceiling but unreliable fighter.