Warning: Contains spoilers for Dragon Ball Super chapter 91.Dragon Ball Super chapter 91 has just been released, and it serves to make Krillin an even bigger joke than before. While Krillin has been a main character since the early days of Dragon Ball, he has a longstanding history of being treated as a joke for looking weak compared to Goku and the other Z fighters. The fact that Krillin has died three times—four if Dragon Ball GT is counted—only exacerbates his poor reputation, and the parody series Dragon Ball Z Abridged even famously made a running gag out of having a counter for every time Krillin was humiliated.
Krillin has been treated as a joke for years, and unfortunately, the Dragon Ball Super manga makes that even worse. The latest arc of the manga adapts Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero and now has Krillin tail Magenta after he picks up Dr. Hedo from jail. Unfortunately, Krillin's chance to be cool is ruined when he's defeated by a cyborg wasp. Seeing someone like Krillin be beaten by a bug only serves to add to the idea of him being a joke, especially with how it relates to Super Hero’s story, and his treatment is even worse because of how a similar character was treated fairly recently.
How Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’s Story Hurts Krillin In The Manga
Krillin getting defeated by a cyborg wasp only hurts his image, and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’s story makes that even worse. The main story of Super Hero gets started several months after Dr. Hedo meets Magenta, something the manga also establishes, and just like in the movie, Piccolo is unaware that the Red Ribbon Army is back until he’s attacked by the Gammas. This means that Krillin never told anyone in the Dragon Team that the Red Ribbon Army was back, despite how helpful that would have been, meaning that Krillin’s actions paint him as being wildly incompetent.
The only saving grace that could be afforded to Krillin is the circumstances of his actions. The Dragon Ball Super manga puts further emphasis on Krillin being a police officer, so it could be that he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about the Red Ribbon Army due to it being a covert operation. That wouldn’t make Krillin any less incompetent for keeping quiet, but it would at least be something of an explanation for his actions.
Dragon Ball Super’s Yamcha Redemption Makes Krillin Look Even Worse
Another factor that makes Krillin’s treatment in the Dragon Ball Super manga so bad is how well Yamcha was treated recently. Dragon Ball's Yamcha is one of the few characters in Dragon Ball to be treated as an even bigger joke than Krillin, the writing often going out of its way to ignore or belittle him, but the Galactic Patrol Prisoner saga managed to redeem him a little by having him stand his ground against Moro’s henchmen, with Yamcha even reminding the audience that he’s one of Dragon Ball's strongest fighters who isn't a Saiyan. That did a lot to improve Yamcha’s reputation, which makes the manga going out of its way to worsen Krillin’s feels even weirder.
Dragon Ball Super making Krillin look even worse than Yamcha is certainly a big blow, and it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the manga can cleanly rectify that. The manga is set to retell Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, and while there might be some changes, the story is likely to be the same as it was in the movie, so Krillin is unlikely to have many chances to be redeemed. There will probably be plenty of chances for Krillin to have a good showing in future Dragon Ball Super arcs, but that doesn’t make his recent treatment in the manga any less baffling.
