The Potara Earring in Dragon Ball Z

The Potara earrings are a device in Dragon Ball Z introduced near the end of the Majin Buu Saga. They allow one character to fuse together with another and increase their power level dramatically.

Everybody knows and loves them. But is there more to these simple earrings than meets the eye?

When all hope seems lost, Goku is given a Potara earring by Eldar Kai (Japanese: Rou Dai Kaioshin) that allows him to fuse with another person. They look like spherical ball earrings suspended by silver beads attached to a hoop that is placed in the earlobe.

Goku and Vegeta Fuse Together

Goku convinces Vegeta to wear one of the earrings while Goku wears the other. Immediately they are drawn to one another and their two bodies slam together, creating a new superhuman warrior.

The pair combined has the best of Vegeta’s pride and Goku’s rage, creating Vegetto, self-named after the combination of Vegeta and Kakarotto (Goku’s birth given Saiyan name).

According to Kanzentai.com, in The Super Exciting Guide: Story Volume, “On p.63 it describes the Potara fusion as being closer to multiplication rather than simple addition in the way it increases power. Supposedly, Vegetto’s battle power is equivalent to Goku’s battle power multiplied by Vegeta’s. Also according to the introduction of the Super Exciting Guide’s training section, all the information in it is based on data that was supervised by Toriyama, though we have no idea how extensive this supervision was.”

This makes Vegetto the strongest character in the entire manga.

But where did Akira Toriyama come up with the idea of Potara? What’s the story behind them?

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