Tien - Dragon Ball

Tien is one of Son Goku‘s enemies turned friends. Hailing from the Crane School of martial arts, he was taught a number of offensive and defensive techniques by Master Shen and General Tao respectively. His best friend is Chiaotzu with whom he spends all of his time training. He has been voiced by Hirotaka Suzuoki in Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z (with Kōichi Yamadera voicing him in episodes 82 and 84), and Hikaru Midorikawa in Dragon Ball Kai and Super.

Appearances in Dragon Ball

In Dragon Ball, Tien and Chiaotzu are found by Goku to be conning villagers by pretending to beat their master’s pet Inoshikacho, who would play along, allowing the pair to rewarded by the village. Goku reveals the ploy, but Tien manages still to trick the hapless villagers and Goku is ousted from the village.

Tien enters the world tournament to defeat Master Roshi’s Turtle School and win fame for his Crane School. Upon hearing that Goku had killed General Tao, Tien’s focus shifted from winning the tournament to taking revenge. He first defeats Yamcha and, while unconscious, breaks his leg. After this, Tien faces off against Master Roshi and, while not having fought seriously at all, Master Roshi forfeits the match, much to Tien’s confusion. He finally battles against Goku. During the battle, Tien discovers that Chiaotzu is using telekinesis by order of Master Shen and urges him to stop, wanting a fair fight. Tien barely wins the match when Goku lands outside the ring first by accident.

Tien tries to help in the battle against Evil King Piccolo, but is knocked unconscious by Master Roshi before he can join the fight. Tien watches Master Roshi use the Evil Containment Wave and practices it by himself, eventually mastering the technique. When confronting Evil King Piccolo, he discovers that the flask needed to use the Evil Containment Wave has been cracked and is now useless. Evil King Piccolo decided that Tien isn’t worth fighting himself and spawns a new minion called Drum. Tien targets Drum with the Evil Containment Wave, but is interrupted by Evil King Piccolo. Drum is about to land a deciding blow, but Tien is saved in the nick of time by Goku. When the fight is over, Tien heads back to Master Roshi’s house with the others and vows to continue his training with Chiaotzu in order to bridge the power gap between him and Goku.

Appearances in Dragon Ball Z

In Dragon Ball Z Tien joins Yamcha, Krillin and Chiaotzu in training at Kami's lookout in preparation for the arrival of Nappa and Vegeta. At this time, Tien is crushed by Nappa, even though he is one of the strongest fighters on Earth. Seeing that Tien is in trouble, Chiaotzu uses his self-destruct attack on Nappa, though it is ultimately fruitless. Distraught at the sight of Chiaotzu’s sacrifice, Tien uses all of his remaining life energy firing a Tri-Beam at Nappa, again failing to do any significant damage. The exhaustion kills him and soon after, he joins the other dead fighters on King Kai’s planet.

On King Kai’s planet, Tien completes the same training Goku underwent and also spars with members of the Ginyu Force alongside his friends. Tien has a hard time telling jokes, making it difficult for him to pass King Kai’s test without the help of Yamcha. After being wished back with the Namekian Dragon Balls, Tien and Chiaotzu return to their training. A year later, after sensing two frightening powers approaching Earth, they head to the landing site to find all of the Z fighters and a non-hostile Vegeta waiting. Trunks informs everyone that the power is Frieza and his father King Cold.

Before the Androids arrive, Trunks, Tien, and Chiaotzu continue their training in solitude. Tien leaves Chiaotzu behind when he heads off to face the foes, believing that Chiaotzu had trained hard, but would not be able to keep up with the fierce Androids. Tien’s first and only attempt at fighting is with Android 17, who very quickly chokes Tien out with little effort. Due to the huge gap in power, Tien heads off to train more, vowing to get strong enough to help later on. His next encounter is when he visits Master Roshi’s island to check up on Goku when the Androids coincidentally appear. Piccolo refuses to tell the Androids Goku’s location and leads them away. Sensing Cell nearby, Tien follows in pursuit to help Piccolo.

After Cell absorbs Android 17 and achieves his Semi-Perfect form, he begins to target Android 18. Fearing the worst, Tien uses all of his energy to hit Cell with Neo Tri-beams to allow Android 18 time to escape. Tien, now on the brink of death, is found by Goku and transported away. Tien remains sidelined for the remainder of the Cell Games due to his comparatively low power level. That said, he is forced to fight against Cell Juniors with Yamcha. To give a desperate Son Gohan a slight edge in his power struggle with Cell, Tien and the others fire energy blasts at Cell, but are blown away effortlessly. Later in the Buu saga, he saves Gohan by using a Neo Tri-beam to deflect a potentially fatal blast from Majin Buu.

Appearances in Dragon Ball Super

In Dragon Ball Super, Tien is a spectator in the match against Universa 6, but joins the Z Fighters in the battle against the Frieza army and the Tournament of Power. Tien is a valuable member of the team and helps to defeat as many as 8 opposing Universe fighters.

Powers and abilities

For a human, Tien is incredibly powerful. Some of his abilities include super strength, super speed, and super-sonic flight. His main techniques include:

Dodon Ray - An energy beam fired from the index finger; invented by Master Shen.
Four Witches Technique - Tien grows two extra arms from his back allowing him to attack faster and more frequently than normal.
Multi-Form - Tien can make four copies of himself, all with the same power as the original.
Tri-Beam - Tien puts his hands together to make a triangle. The triangular space in between is used like a scope to zoom in on the target and release a powerful energy beam. Tri-Beam can use the user’s life energy in place of ki when tired.
Neo Tri-Beam - A more developed and powerful version of the Tri-Beam.
Solar Flare - A technique that uses ki to temporarily blind an opponent.
Evil Containment Wave - A technique used to seal an opponent away.

Links

Dragon Ball Series
Dragon Ball Z Series
Dragon Ball Kai Series
Dragon Ball Super Series
Dragon Ball GT Series
Super Dragon Ball Heros
Akira Toriyama