The Strongest Human

 This topic has been hotly debated by fans of the series for years now. I think it's time it was laid to rest. In my opinion, Tien is definitely the strongest human in DBZ, not Krillen. And now I'll show you why I think so.

 Tien first entered the series stronger than Krillen, and all throughout the rest of Dragonball, it's a given that Tien is the stronger of the two. For one thing, there is actual empirical evidence, in the form of official power levels written by Akira Toriyama himself. They obviously cannot be disputed. But even without them, simple deductive logic would tell you that Tien is more powerful. At the 22nd Budokai, where he first appears, he actually defeats Goku to win the entire tournament! And throughout the Piccolo and 23rd Budokai sagas, Tien remains the second strongest of the protagonists: being instrumental in Goku's victory against King Piccolo; easily defeating a cybernetically enhanced version of Mercenary Tao, one of Goku's greatest rivals; and giving Goku a truly amazing rematch in the second round of the tournament.

 In the first saga of DBZ, the Saiyan saga, there are still power levels which prove Tien's superiority. It's during the second saga, Frieza, that things get a bit murky. Tien died during the previous battle with the Saiyans, suiciding himself to save Earth. Since Krillen survived that battle, he went on to Namek to hunt for the Namekian dragonballs. While there, he got a power-up from the Namek Guru, which unlocked some of Krillen's power potential. This elevated Krillen's strength to a level above Tien's.

 But, while Krillen was fighting on Namek, Tien was training with King Kai in the afterlife. To say that King Kai's training is excellent is a true understatement. Goku trained with him for a year, and his power level literally increased tenfold. Piccolo also received a similar increase, and with the addition of fusing with Nail, his PL went from around 2,000 to nearly over 1 million! All in all, Tien ended up training with King Kai for nearly an entire year, obviously raising his PL enormously. With this incredibly beneficial form of training, it's quite likely that Tien made up the difference between himself and Krillen caused by Guru's power-up. (And in DB, he seemed to benefit more from training, constantly staying stronger than Krillen, so that information supports this idea.)

 After the Frieza saga, the Z-fighters go their own separate ways to train for the upcoming battle with the Androids. They train for 3 years. And once the Androids have arrived, Tien has actually been training almost constantly for the past 4 years!

 Quite a work ethic, huh?

 During the battle with the Androids and Cell, Tien accomplishes more than Krillen. Krillen has a short skirmish with Imperfect Cell that goes nowhere, with Krillen appearing to be on the losing end. But later on in the saga, had it not been for Vegeta's arrogance and Trunks' uselessness, Tien would be largely to credit for Super Cell not gaining his perfect form. After Android 16, who had been fighting Cell, was easily defeated, Tien held Super Cell down with his kikoho attack, preventing him from absorbing Android 18. Obviously, Super Cell is a much stronger form of Cell than Imperfect Cell, and since Tien's assault on him yielded much better results than Krillen's attack on the weaker version of Cell, the inference is quite obvious.

 After the final battle with Cell, Krillen retired from fighting and quit training... Tien didn't. He trained in the mountains for 7 years. If there had been any distance between them at that point, Tien made up for it then and surpassed it. Not training weakens a fighter dramatically; Gohan went from easily defeating Super Perfect Cell to being barely able to hang with Dabura. Krillen's loss in power was certainly just as drastic, whereas, conversely, Tien was only gaining even more strength at this point.

 In one of the early Buu saga mangas, Yamcha states that Krillen is the strongest Human, and this has often been used as evidence to prove Krillen's superiority. This, I feel, is wrong. Yamcha merely said that to cheer up Marron. And furthermore, Tien left the group 7 years before hand, so they hadn't seen, or even heard from him since then. Yamcha's statement basically meant that Krillen was the strongest human at the tournament; either way, Yamcha hasn't seen Tien in 7 years, so how does he know that Krillen is stronger?

 Once Buu arrived later on and the fighting with him began, Krillen proved himself to be a nonentity, never even fighting Buu once, unlike Tien. (Krillen's battle with Kid Buu was filler. And if you're counting filler, Tien is undeniably stronger, as he defeated Jeice and Burter single-handedly on King Kai's planet during the Frieza saga, something Krillen was completely unable to do. Furthermore, in movie 9, Tien fought Trunks in an amazing battle in which Trunks was forced to go SS to win; Krillen fought Piccolo and made a fool of himself.)

 Toward the end of the saga, Tien arrives to help Mystic Gohan fight Majin Buu, who has absorbed the power of SS3 Gotenks and Piccolo into his being. Buu fires a blast at Mr. Satan and the God of Earth, Dende...and Tien deflects it. Being able to deflect a blast from the second strongest from of Buu is quite a feat, and even Buu remarks on how strong Tien is. And by deflecting that blast, Tien saved the lives of Mr. Satan and Dende...and when you consider how vital Satan is to Earth's survival later, as he uses his celebrity status to rally all of Earth to Goku's cause, you realize it's safe to say that Tien saved the word. (And furthermore, by preventing Dende's death, he also prevented the disappearance of the Dragonballs.)

 As you can see, even in the sagas after official PLs were no longer given out, Tien contributed more to the major battles with his superior strength. But even with all that aside, Tien has a few more impressive accomplishments under his belt that Krillen. For one thing, his enlightenment is so great that the mysterious third eye which all beings supposedly possess actually materialized physically on him. Additionally, that place on the Human body, according to some Chinese philosophies, is a chakra from which power can be derived. It is safe to say that Tien is a master of this. He also has many impressive techniques: The Kikoho, which may be pound for pound the strongest attack in the entire series; the 12 Eyes technique, which allows him to replicate himself four times; the Taiyoken, which produces a blinding flash of light and stuns the enemy, a move that once saved Krillen's life; the powerful Dodon Ray, the first energy attack seen in the series outside of the Kamehameha, and many others.

 Still not convinced? Look at the differences in their characters. Tien is a recluse who dedicated his entire life to training and is a serious warrior. Krillen is most often a practical joker and retired from fighting after the battle with Cell so he could settle down and start a family. It's clear who has placed more emphasis on fighting and training, and it's also clear who is stronger for it.

 With all this evidence, both empirical and circumstantial, it is difficult to deny Tien's superiority. He is indeed the strongest human in Dragonball/Z/GT.

(As a minor note, Uub is Buu's reincarnation, and there is some debate as to whether he is considered a pure Human or not, so I disregarded him for the purpose of this editorial.)

Ten.