Yajirobe is perhaps the most useless character in the Dragon Ball franchise.
He offers no combat prowess, intelligent dialogue, and his ability to flee dangerous situations is his strongest attribute. He is a coward that only thinks of himself, and whether or not he will make it out alive of any and every dangerous situation he finds himself in.
But nonetheless, who could blame him, really? It is hard to fare against aliens, let alone a warrior race of monkeys that level up when under intense emotional distress, and every time you beat them unconscious.
Yajirobe may be a quitter, a manipulator, and an ignorant man, but his sense of judgment is not without reason. He does not have an ego in the face of adversity, he leaves situations he knows he can’t handle, which in turn lightens the load of both those in and outside of the conflict.
In other words, his cowardice can be seen as a positive, as opposed to a negative. If he pulled a Krillin every time the battle got heated and stayed behind, he would be another death to add to their list of dragon ball wishes.
Regardless of all his wrongdoings, here is the history of a weak, yet honorable, man known as Yajirobe.
He met Goku when he was young.
Living a similar life to our monkey friend, Yajirobe was a survivalist. He managed to thrive off fish and very little work ethic for a long time. He lacked very basic social skills, making him hard to get along with. If he wasn’t eating, he was probably sleeping.
It was not until he met Goku that he experienced anything remotely mentally stimulating. With Goku’s adventurous lifestyle, it was bound to affect Yajirobe in one way or another.
Saiyan Saga — Yajirobe’s magnum opus.
Although he has many faults, we all remember the way he looked when he managed to save the earth from the Saiyans. He looked completely capable, and strong. In fact, Yajirobe single-handedly managed to stealthily cut Vegeta’s tail off him in the middle of his big ape mode.
Yajirobe had made a decision to go into battle, by himself, knowing he could probably die. In fact, he nearly got beaten to death for doing so. He had accomplished what others failed to do. We gotta respect his selfless triumph against a threat greater than he had ever seen up to that point.
Yajirobe and the beanstalk.
After helping Goku climb the tower to meet Korin, Yajirobe decided to stay and aid Korin on his endeavors. Which mostly involved staring into water that mirrors the outside world, like a t.v., or he ate a bunch of beans while looking at the vast amounts of clouds atop his ivory tower.
You would think that they would have a bunch of beans ready to go, sacked, and everything, but they are always low on it. Whenever the big battles happen, they should be able to provide 50 or something beans, but they have less than a handful each time. Yajirobe needs to eat less beans, because it is getting ridiculous.
Nothing detrimental happens to someone if they eat too many beans, as seen on two separate occasions.
Alternate future Yajirobe cements his greatness.
When the world was struck with catastrophe, Yajirobe rose to the occasion. He had joined the resistance against Goku Black, and with his power, he could be considered the second strongest human alive, behind Trunks of course.
Although being human couldn’t possibly be enough to destroy Goku Black at the end of the day, but at the very least, he gave others hope and sanctuary.
Although Yajirobe is a useless, pitiful excuse for a human being. A coward that constantly finds the easy way out, avoiding conflicts as he sees fit. Slumming away in a tower with no responsibilities besides growing beans, something which seems to always be out of stock, by the way.
But when it comes to it, Yajirobe is always there for you when you need it the most, sometimes.
