So, having watched the 62 episodes so far of Dragon Ball Z, and having learned a lot more about the characters and situations on this show, I have to admit, I still have a lot of questions as well as speculations and observations.
I realize that in the first installment of this article series, I kind of left something out... when I started watching the show originally, it was in the seventh saga, which started on episode 195 (yeah, over 130 episodes from where I'm currently at). By the time I started watching, Gohan has become a teenager, and has a younger brother, Goten (who looks just like he did at six or seven, just like Gohan looked like Goku at that same age). Things have progressed even more than that, however! Vegeta, who up to the point I watched is definitely one of the bad guys, is an ally of the Z-Fighters (I wouldn't go so far as to call him a friend, he's still an asshole, to be honest), and has married Bulma, believe it or not, and they have a son named Trunks (yes, characters have weird names on this show). I don't remember seeing Yajirobe in the show at all at the point I'd watched before, but there is a character named Hercule (in the version I saw before) who was called Mr. Satan in the original Japanese version of the show (and I believe the remastered version I'm watching restored his name) who is just as much of a jerk, thinking he's the most powerful fighter in the world. If I recall, he was introduced during one of the parts of the Cell Saga (there were actually two parts of this, Imperfect Cell and Perfect Cell were the fifth Saga, and the Cell Games was the 6th Saga). He's considered the world's strongest man and best fighter by the rest of the world, but he's not capable of defeating the last of the Z-Fighters.
There are other surprises, too... Krillin, who had been bald in all the previous episodes, now has a full head of black hair! And there are more surprises than that for the character whose catchphrase seemed to have been "...and I still haven't got a girlfriend!"
