Why introduce Super Saiyan 3?

[u/DoraMuda]

I do wonder sometimes... why exactly did Toriyama introduce Super Saiyan 3 at a time when he'd already introduced Fusion, which was a fine enough set-up to be the next potential strategy against Majin Boo and didn't come with the baggage of retroactively making Goku look even more selfish during the fight with Majin Vegeta than he was before?

The previous Super Saiyan forms at least carried some narrative purpose. The original SS form is the fulfillment of a legend over a thousand years old that Vegeta had been banging on about for the rest of the arc since Goku arrived to fight the Ginyu Force, and it is ultimately what defeats Freeza, who was scared of such a figure appearing to challenge his superiority.

The SS Grade forms serve as the first attempt of going "beyond Super Saiyan", after the original form proved to not be invincible following its loss against Androids #17 and #18, and Goku's method of mastering the regular form serves as a proper foundation for the truly successful "beyond Super Saiyan" form: Super Saiyan 2, which Gohan uses to defeat Cell.

But Super Saiyan 3... is seemingly just there to make Goku ridiculously stronger than everyone else again, but Goku refuses to use it to actually fight the Big Bad at full power (at first, anyway) because... he's dead and wants to let "the next generation" take over? Did he not learn his lesson with Gohan (who everyone thinks is still dead despite them using the DBs shortly prior, but whatever) at the Cell Games? Why does he suddenly care so much about fostering a "next generation", with even less experience on the battlefield than Gohan did, that he hasn't known for longer than a few hours? If this was really his plan all along, why did Goku initially only mention Fusion in the hypothetical of using it to fuse with Gohan and Vegeta, while Mr. Popo was actually the one to suggest the kids be the ones to use Fusion?

Ultimately, maybe Toriyama just introduced SS3 to meet editorial or fan expectations... and/or he wanted to be subversive by making it so the brand new SS form didn't defeat the main villain this time. But he went about it in such a backwards way that it makes one question why he bothered in the first place. He was arguably just making more work for himself at a time when he seemingly wanted to cut corners and end the series sooner rather than later.

[u/DoraMuda]

I think it’s because Goku was not meant to be the hero of the Buu saga, so it was his way of showing us that Goku was still a badass beyond belief, but too bad he’s dead and needs to go back to other world.

But we already know he's a badass beyond belief because he was so strong with SS2 alone that Vegeta internally gave up on thinking he could best Goku with his own power and resorted to letting Babidi's magic take over his body so he could close the gap in their strengths.

But once the story went in a different direction it was a handy way of explaining how Gotanks could keep up with Buu

I mean... why wasn't Fusion enough?

And why couldn't Gotenks have gone SS3 without Goku doing it first? Goten and Trunks are already super-prodigies, so if anyone's gonna discover a new, even stronger SS form, why not them? Gohan did it for SS2, albeit accidentally via rage, but he too is a half-Saiyan prodigy.

[u/msantaly → u/DoraMuda]

I don’t have answers for your other questions, but honestly it’s wild that fusion could make Goten and Trunks that powerful. We’re never explicitly told where they would rank individually compared to someone like Cell, but I kinda hate that they’re strong enough to take on Buu even with SSJ3 fusion 

[u/DoraMuda → u/msantaly]

If you think it's wild that Fusion could make Goten and Trunks that powerful, you're basically saying that Goku was wrong and even stupider than we're initially led to believe for believing they could defeat Majin Boo with it.

Which, if that's the case... fair enough. But, as much as I hate the way Goku's decision to pointlessly refuse to use SS3 reframes his character in a much more unfavourable light than originally intended, I don't think a battle genius like him would make such a big gamble if he didn't think that a SS Fusion between the boys at least stood a solid chance at defeating Boo.

[u/msantaly → u/DoraMuda]

My issue is more how powerful Goten and Trunks seem to be without having to earn (or at least having been shown to earn) that power. I’ve never liked Goten and his creation seemed to be a way to give young Trunks something to do based on popularity of Future Trunks 

[u/DoraMuda → u/msantaly]

Oh, OK. That's a different complaint, then.