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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z 165

Nineteen years ago, I actually thought Trunks could beat Cell, even though Cell had pretty much declared victory from the outset. In the last episode, it looked like he was doing pretty well, but now he can’t seem to land a punch.

So Trunks powers up... some more. This is like the third or fourth time he’s done this...

However, one thing Trunks has definitely succeeded in is distracting Cell long enough for Krillin to grab Vegeta and get him to safety.

Up on the Lookout, Piccolo confirms that Trunks has surpassed Cell’s power. So everyone’s pretty much in agreement here. Cell, Trunks, Piccolo, Tien, they all say Trunks is stronger.

So why is this man smiling?

Hyperbolic Time Chamber Update: Goku’s been meditating while Gohan performs various drills. Just as Gohan wonders what he’s up to, Goku busts out a power up that looks suspiciously similar to the one Vegeta used after he emerged from the Chamber. Gohan is impressed, but then Goku ramps it up and gets even bigger and stronger, such that he resembles the form that Trunks is now using. Gohan is convinced that Goku can now beat anyone.

Of course, what Gohan doesn’t know is that Trunks already discovered this form, so all Goku’s done is reinvent the wheel. Still if Trunks has surpassed Cell, then that means Goku’s done the same thing, which means that even if Cell somehow got past Trunks, he’d still have Goku to worry about. Right?

Except Trunks is currently using this form right now, and he cant’ even touch Cell.

And Cell seems quite satisfied that his business here is finished. Before, he was fascinated with Trunks immense strength, but now he’s decided that he’s seen enough. Trunks is no match for him, which means he has nothing to gain by fighting him.

But why?

Ironically, Goku’s answering that very question in the time chamber. Honestly, I’m not sure these Time Chamber scenes necessarily line up chronologically with the events taking place outside. I can’t believe more than an hour has passed since Goku and Gohan went in, which would only be a couple of weeks on the inside. Anyway, you know what I mean.

Goku explains that this form is too bulky and inefficient to do any good. It takes a lot of energy to maintain it, and it expands your muscles to the point where it becomes hard to move quickly. Essentially, you gain great strength, but you become so slow and so easily exhausted that you can’t make use of it.

This causes Goku to conclude that the original Super Saiyan form is the best way to go. Ascending beyond the Super Saiyan form seems to be a blind alley.

So he tells Gohan that they’re going to start from scratch. From here on, they’ll stay in Super Saiyan form every waking hour, so that they can become acclimated to it.

Outside, Cell explains the same thing to Trunks. He even duplicates Trunks’ power-up just to make his point. Anybody can do what Trunks has been doing. Vegeta could probably do it too, Cell speculates, but he knew better than to try. What good is a transformation that slows you down and wears you out?

Now that I think about it, I wonder now if Cell was toying with Trunks in the last episode after all. Maybe Trunks really did land all those blows before, and the only reason he’s losing steam now is because he’s lost so much stamina. Whatever the case, Cell knew he would run out of steam, and he’s just been waiting for Trunks to figure it out.

And that’s all she wrote for what I like to call Super Saiyan Dummy Thicc. Fans call it all sorts of stupid names, but the whole point of the form is that it’s basically useless, so I don’t see much point in glorifying it with pointless titles like “Ultra Super Saiyan” or “Ascended Super Saiyan.”

Utterly humiliated, Trunks surrenders, and leaves himself at Cell’s mercy.

I do like this aspect of Trunks’ character. Up to this point, he’s been presented as a sort of “best-of-both-worlds” alternative to Goku and Vegeta. He’s nice like Goku, but he’s decisive like Vegeta. But he’s also an 18-year-old whose only combat experience until recently was sparring with Gohan and running from the androids. He found a way to increase his strength, and he went for it without thinking it through all the way. As much as he complained about his father’s tactics, his were never any better. Like Vegeta, he overestimated his own power, and underestimated his opponent’s.

On the Lookout, Bulma hears her son is in trouble, and desperately pleads with Piccolo and Tien to do something. Lady, they already got clobbered by Cell. Why do you think they’re up here on the bench?

Meanwhile, Vegeta wakes up from the beating he just took from Cell, and he immediately resolves to go fight him again. I can’t help but think that Vegeta’s rashness here is perhaps motivated by the knowledge that Trunks must have been fighting him until a minute ago. Could he be worried about his baby boy?

But back on the island, Cell isn’t killing Trunks. Instead he just asks him how he and Vegeta improved so quickly. Trunks won’t tell him, so he asks instead: Could you do it again if you had more time?

Trunks admits that he won’t know until he tries, but why does Cell even care?

Then Cell asks where Goku is, and why he hasn’t shown up to fight. Trunks explains that he’s training to beat Cell, and I assume Cell remembers how Goku promised to beat him in just one more day.

And so, Cell decides that he’ll create a tournament.

Here’s why this is awesome. Cell has already won. Trunks was the only guy left to oppose him, and he just admitted defeat. Vegeta, Piccolo, Tien, Android 16, we’ve already seen them try to stop this guy, so there’s nothing more they can do. Goku’s still waiting in the wings, but Cell doesn’t have to wait for him to show up. He could blow up the world right now and be done with it. No one can stop him.

But instead, Cell’s decided to take a victory lap. He knows Goku’s coming, and he believes Trunks and Vegeta might make another try if they have a chance to train more, so he’s just going to make an event of it and fight all three of them on the same day, one after the other. Oh, and anyone else who wants to join in.

Trunks can’t believe this, so he flat out asks Cell what his purpose is. What’s the goal here?

And Cell cheerfully admits that he doesn’t have any end goal in mind. He’s not interested in ruling the world, or conquering the universe like Frieza. Right now, all he wants to do is explore the full potential of his perfect body, and he figures a gauntlet match is the best way to do that.

Basically, he’s just here to have fun. Violent, sadistic fun. He’s a lot like 17 and 18 in that respect. In the long run, all he really wants is to see the terrified looks on people’s faces.

Like the expression Trunks has right now.

And with that, Cell flies off to leave Trunks to wonder what the hell just happened.

And that’s the Perfect Cell Saga. Total shut out for Cell. Usually, when you’re a bad guy and they name the arc after you, it ends poorly for you, but Cell’s got one more saga up his sleeve. And with how easily he won this arc, you have to wonder how anyone can stop him in the next. I mean, where do you go from here?

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #perfect cell saga #cell #perfect cell #trunks #vegeta #krillin #piccolo #tien #goku #gohan #bulma

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z 170

This is the filler episode with Lime. Lime is a little girl in red overalls. When she first appears, she’s trying to pick an apple from a tree by climbing onto the branch and hanging over a raging river. I feel like she should know better than this.

Gohan saves her because he just happened to be flying by, but Lime gets angry at him for holding her by the chest. Then he makes the stinkeye face at him and runs off.

But Gohan’s on a shopping trip, so he’s got more important things to worry about. On his way, he notices a large structure in the woods, but he moves on.

See, Gohan’s problem is that he has to buy stuff, but most of the stores near his home aren’t open, because everyone’s fleeing in terror from Cell. He finally finds a place in Chazke Village, but when he goes inside, he finds the shopkeep getting shaken down by a pair of thugs.

The goons tell Gohan that all of the stuff here has been bought be the Bourbon estate, but the old man who runs the place says that isn’t true. So the goons try to knock over some of his stuff to make him sell what they want.

Gohan squares up to fight, but before it comes to that, they all hear someone outside shouting that Cell has come back. The goons flee in terror, but the shopkeeper recognizes Lime’s voice. Turns out she has a nasty habit of doing this whenever Bourbon’s goons show up to start trouble.

Here’s the deal. That dome Gohan saw on the way here is a shelter Bourbon constructed. He chose this location because there’s some rumor going around that Cell never attacks the same place twice.

And Cell was in Chazke once before, when he was still preying upon humans in his imperfect form. He left, figurng the town wasn’t big enough to waste time on, but not before killing Lime’s parents. The old man took her in after that.

So a lot of people have holed up in Bourbon’s shelter, thinking it’ll protect them, but the old man knows that no mere shelter can stop a creature like Cell. He figures the world is doomed, but he may as well live out his remaining day in peace.

Gohan offers to chop his firewood for him, and he tries to do that cool thing Goku did way back in Dragon Ball Episode 1, but Lime distracts him and the logs all hit him on the head.

Lime was trying to give him an axe, you see, and frankly, I think this way is cooler. Gohan just slices through the logs like butter.

Meanwhile, Goku’s just taking it easy. So easy, that it makes Krillin nervous. So, we’re all in agreement that they sent Gohan on a shopping trip so that Goku and Chi-Chi could be alone together, right? I mean, Gohan’s been gone for a lot longer than expected, so it’s hours later, and now Krillin is here, but before that....

Meanwhile, at the shelter, Bourbon’s men are using the townsfolk to load supplies. I think they had to pay just to get into the shelter, and they pretty much have to do as Bourbon says or they’ll get tossed out. All I know is that any operation where a guy uses a whip to motivate people is probably evil.

As for Bourbon himself, he chews out his henchman for falling for that crap about Cell showing up, and then he goes over to hug his safe. This guy’s great in the dub because they gave him a really over-the-top Joe Pesci impression voice, and it suits him perfectly. I was kind of wondering how he’d sound in the Japanese version and it’s not too far off.

Turns out he has one other guy working for him, and it’s Tao Pai Pai, who we last saw getting runoft by Tien way back in the 23rd Budokai. I kind of wonder where Crane Hermit is. Anyway Tao seems to be hired muscle for Bourbon’s operation, but he’s bored, and offers to kill anyone Bourbon wants for his usual fee. Bourbon declines, but he seems to think he’ll have some targets down the line. Maybe he thinks survivors will try to break into the shelter later? I think Bourbon has Cell confused with a some other kind of post-apocalyptic situation.

Meanwhile, Piccolo’s in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and Vegeta is furious about that even though he agreed to it. Inside, Piccolo has hallucinations of Cell, and I guess that motivates him?

Back at the shelter, Bourbon tries to celebrate its completion, but Lime pranks him by crying Cell again. Bourbon is so terrified that he locks himself in the shelter, leaving his tenants trapped outside.

But his men quickly realize what’s going on, and Bourbon’s pretty ticked off when he learns he’s been tricked. The people are pretty sore too, but they still need Bourbon, so I guess they gotta put up with him. Gohan confronts Bourbon about what he’s doing, but he isn’t interested in listening.

Bourbon orders his men to work over the kids, but then the old man shows up in his fighting clothes. Yeah, Lime mentioned to Gohan that he was a pretty formidable martial artist back in the day.

Gramps makes short work of the henchmen, but not so much with Tao. Gohan offers to step in, but the old man says there might be trouble if it comes to that, indicating that he knows how powerful Gohan is.

But at last Gohan has no choice, and when he powers up, Tao notices that he resembles Goku. Gohan explains that he’s his son, and that’s enough to scare Tao away.

Thanks for coming out tonight, Tao.

So now Bourbon’s stuck with an angry mob and no backup, so he begs Gohan to save him, offering to pay him anything he wants. Gohan smiles and just blows up the shelter with a ki blast. His point: This shelter can’t even stop him, so what good would it do against Cell? Instead, he suggests that everyone hope for the best. Maybe someone really can beat Cell, and they won’t need to worry about it.

Then Goku shows up, because Gohan’s been gone a long time and he’s already had sex with Chi-Chi like eight times today which is great except he’s starting to chafe ahem, I mean she asked him to go find him.

The old man seems to recognize Goku to some extent, and as they leave he wishes them luck against Cell.

As for Cell, he hasn’t done jack shit this whole episode.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #cell games saga #cell #perfect cell #goku #gohan #krillin #lime #mercenary tao

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z 168

The announcement of the Cell Games has sent the entire world into a panic. Even these giant dinosaurs are fleeing in terror. What I don’t understand is where everyone thinks they can run to. Cell said he was going to kill them all.

Oolong proposes they use the spaceship at Bulma’s house to flee into outer space. Fuck you, Oolong.

Downstairs, Krillin flips out and tries to rush out to fight Cell right now, because he feels so guilty about allowing Cell to become perfect. Yeah! We don’t need to wait nine days! Let’s have the Cell Games TONIGHT.

But Master Roshi forbids him to throw his life away on a battle he can’t win. Instead, he tells him to wait for the Cell Games if he intends to fight at all. I like the way this scene is written. We all know Krillin doesn’t have a chance, because he already fought Perfect Cell and couldn’t do anything to him. But Krilin feels like he has to die trying because this is the only way for him to atone for his mistake. And Roshi gets that, even if he doesn’t agree, so his compromise is to ask Krillin to wait ten days before restoring his honor, when he’ll have the best possible chance of surviving the effort.

By contrast, I think Yamcha’s already accepted that he just can’t participate in this battle. He’s gonna go, and maybe help if he can, but after he saw Cell blow up that town after his announcement, Yamcha knows he’s out of his league. Krilln knows it too, but for him, not fighting Cell isn’t an option. He can’t live in this world knowing he has to share it with the monster who swallowed 18.

Up on Kami’s Lookout, everyone is waiting in line for the next turn in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Well, not Tien, since he doesn’t think a year in the chamber will do him enough good to beat Cell. I think he just hasn’t left this place since Goku brought him here the day before. But Piccolo plans to use the HTC, and Vegeta and Trunks plan to go in again.

Vegeta agrees to let Piccolo have the next turn, but then he wants the remaining eight days for himself. That sounds like a pretty good idea. One day in the chamber was enough for Vegeta to leapfrog the androids and Semiperfect Cell, so imagine how much stronger he’d be if he trained for eight more years. The problem is that you can’t spend that much time in the chamber. After 48 hours, the door vanishes, and you can never return to Earth.

So let’s talk about that for a minute, because Dragon Ball Super really ignored that rule. I think Goku and Vegeta used the HTC on at least three separate occasions in that show, even though Vegeta used up all of his 48 hours in this arc. To be fair, the Fusion Saga demonstrated that it was possible to escape the HTC dimension without a door, so maybe that was how Vegeta got around it. Still, I think it kind of sucks a lot of value out of the concept when you can just re-use it as often as you please. As much as Vegeta used the chamber in DBS, he never seemed to get that much stronger. Also, it’s just kind of shitty to have the main characters cheat an extra year of training in whenever they get in over their heads. I’m pretty sure that’s why Toriyama invented this 48 hour limit in the first place.

So why did he introduce the chamber at all then? I feel like it works in the Cell Sagas because it serves as a secret weapon the Z-Fighters can use to counter all of Cell’s secret advantages. This whole conflict has been about superior intel. Gero spied on Goku for years, hoping to collect enough data to design a superior warrior. To that end, his plan depended upon his ability to project how strong Goku would be at a certain point in the future. But Goku turned Super Saiyan on Namek, and Gero had no idea. Goku also got a warning from Future Trunks, so Gero’s projections were further thrown out of whack. But Gero had reinforcements, and that surprised Goku’s team. So Goku busts out the Time Chamber as a way to close the gap. By training in there, where time moves at a different pace, they could power up beyond what Dr. Gero could have anticipated. That’s why it works in this story. It levels the playing field.

In the Buu Sagas, they only reintroduce the Time Chamber to illustrate that it won’t be very helpful this time around. But Dragon Ball Super never worried about whether a gimmick actually helps a story. They just used the Time Chamber so they could reference the DBZ episodes that used the Time Chamber. It was never about telling a story there, it was about reminding fans of something they already knew about.

The bigger question I have is how the 48-hour rule works. Let’s say Piccolo and Vegeta go in the Time Chamber together. Vegeta’s already used it for 25 hours, while I assume Piccolo has never been in there before. So after 23 hours, are they both trapped inside? Is there some magic where Piccolo can use the door but Vegeta can’t? And how is that reflected in the outside world? Could Goku not enter the chamber after Vegeta maxed out his alotted time?

Anyway, Goku and Gohan finally come out, and they’re actually a few hours early. They sense Cell, Vegeta, and Trunks are all still alive, so they wonder what’s been going on. But before they get a recap, Goku needs to take care of something important first............................................

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Goku really needs to eat something first, you guys! BWAH? The whole world’s in danger and all he can think about is foooooood? What’s with this guy? What a hilarious and unexpected thing for a hero to say, it’s very clever. No, this gag hasn’t been run into the ground.

It’s not that I have a problem with Goku eating a bunch. It’s actually very relaxing to watch him eat. The sound effects are just very, very soothing. All the dishes clinking, the piles of rice, the stacks of bowls. I just don’t like how they keep making a joke of this. As Goku explains, they had food in the chamber, but Mr. Popo’s a better cook than either of them, so this is a better experience. Is that so wrong?

Oh, incidentally, they’ve been in Super Saiyan mode the entire time, and Vegeta wonders how and why they managed to do this. Up to now, it would be very taxing for a Super Saiyan to just hold the form for long periods of time, and they’d be too restless to sit down for a leisurely meal.

Meanwhile, more panicky Earthlings are trying to flee the cities. The one little girl is on a train, and she starts getting excited about something she sees out the window. Her mom wonders what it is...

It’s Cell.

Yeah, me too, kid. Cell’s awesome.

Fortunately for the train passengers, Cell doesn’t bother with them, but the line of cars waiting at the railroad crossing. He chucks a car into the traffic just to be a dick.

And it explodes, because anime. This episode actually has two exploding cars in it, which is kind of nuts when you think about it.

This is from earlier in the episode, but this guy just drove into an alley and hit another driver who had the same idea. I guess they both had a crate of dynamite in their back seats?

Back at Capsule Corp, Bulma’s taking a look at Android 16′s programming, and the code documentation has an awesome picture of Super Saiyan Goku punching Frieza. Pretty sure that shouldn’t be in 16′s memory banks, seeing as how Gero never had any spy robots on Namek to record that moment.

The big irony is that 16 has no human parts at all, so he was created with nothing else but a program that boils down to “10 Kill Son Goku, 20 Goto 10″, and yet somehow he made the leap to defending the other androids from Cell, and befriending small animals like birds and Krillin. The best thing is that DBZ still has a long way to go, so we’ll have plenty of episodes to explore the emergence of 16′s soul, and what that says about the nature of artificial intelligence. Right? You’re shaking your head, why are you doing that?

Back at the Lookout, Goku seems interested in the Cell Games idea. I mean, he was expecting to fight Cell anyway, or possibly Vegeta if he ended up winning, so all Cell has really done is set a date for the battle.

Popo gives Goku his classic outfit, and Trunks is all “You don’t have to wear that.” and Goku’s like “I get to wear this, Trunks.”

As for Gohan, he asks Piccolo to give him new clothes resembling Piccolo’s outfit, since he first trained under him. One Clothes Beam later...

Fuck yeah. It’s time for the Cell Games Saga, dammit. No more of this bowl cut Gohan. No more cosplaying as Vegeta. It’s time to rock and roll.

Vegeta ask Goku if he thinks he can beat Cell, but Goku hasn’t seen him in Perfect Form yet, so he decides to check him out. So he just teleports straight to him and they have a talk.

Goku’s not too impressed with the ring, or maybe it’s more accurate to say that he doesn’t find it all that impressive that Cell believes it will decide the fate of the world. For as much as Goku enjoys battle, he doesn’t see it as something more than what it is. He just wants to mix it up with Cell. If that’s a friendly match or a fight to the death, or the lynchpin to the safety of the cosmos, that’s beside the point.

Goku asks him about his perfect form, and there’s this cool black and white montage of Cell’s life story. It’s pretty sweet.

Anyway, Goku tells him not to kill anyone until the fight. Cell doesn’t actually agree to that, but what’s Goku going to do about it?

So Goku teleports back, and he freely admits that Cell’s a lot stronger than he expected, and that Celll would probably win if they fought. Well, that’s no big deal, because they still have several days to prepare, so Goku can just go back in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for another year.

But Goku declines. As far as he’s concerned, he and Gohan are all finished training in the chamber. I guess that figures, since they came out early.

And that sets up the big question for this arc. If Goku believes Cell is stronger than himself, why is he so relaxed about this upcoming battle? Why won’t he train to close the gap? What does he know that no one else does?

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z 011

Hot damn! It’s time for Terror on Arlia! This is probably one of the best filler episodes ever. It’s like, the driver’s ed episode, the Goku vs. Pikkon fight, and this. I’m not sure how I’d rank them, but maybe I’ll work on that sometime later.

First off, some time has passed once again since the last episode. Now, Gohan is strong enough that the dinosaur that keeps attacking him is no longer a threat.

Gohan just calmly runs away from it, then jumps right before he runs into a boulder, and the dinosaur hits it instead.

Then he hacks off a piece of the dinosaur’s tail while it’s stunned. Again. Gohan’s apparently been doing this for a while now, and he warns the dinosaur that it’ll run out of tail at the rate they’re going. The message is simple: Don’t eat Gohan’s friends.

Gohan has also figured out how to make his own ki blasts, which is pretty high-level stuff. His ki may only be powerful enough to start a fire, but it’s way more than most of the other characters could have done at age four.

Meanwhile, Bulam, Krillin, and Yamcha are looking for Tien and Chiaotzu. Or maybe they’re just talking about looking for them now that they have Yamcha. I’m pretty sure the Gohan scenes are taking place over the course of several weeks, while these Z-Warrior scenes are supposed to be playing out over the course of a single day. Even if it really is taking this long to find Tien, why would Krillin and Yamcha be with her for the whole search? They’d be better off heading to Kami’s Lookout, so they can start training for the Saiyans.

Speaking of Tien, Launch is on the run from the cops for stealing a bunch of money for Tien.

She eludes the police with a grenade launcher.

So she escapes with the loot. Most of it anyway, a lot spilled out of the back while she was being chased.

But never mind that, here comes Vegeta. He and Nappa are on their way to Earth, and they set their space pods to put them in stasis for the year-long journey, but Vegeta programmed it to wake them up at a certain point along the way, so they could get out and stretch their legs.

Seems he found a planet along their course for Earth, and since the Saiyans conquer planets to sell for profit, he sees this as a way to make some nice profit on the side. This seems a bit out of character for Vegeta, given what we learn about him later on. I would think that the Planet Trade business is just something he puts up with until he can find a way to get out of it. So it’s not that he wouldn’t want to take a pit stop on the way to Earth, but I doubt it would be to score some extra cash.

Anyway, Nappa just wants to get out of the pod and move around a bit, so he’s up for anything.

And here’s the lucky planet they’re going to. It’s called Arlia, and it looks really crappy, even from a distance. There was an episode of Mythbusters where they tested the futility of polishing a turd, and it ended up with them making piles of dung into spheres. That’s what Arlia looks like.

The planet actually manages to look even worse up close. I don’t know if the boys meant to set down in a desolate area like this, but I always got the impression that most of the planet looks like this, so they didn’t have much choice. Vegeta concedes that they probably won’t find a buyer for Arlia after all. I figure this is the sort of planet a Space Trillionaire would buy, but only because he wants to feel like a Space Quadrillionaire.

Suddenly these big bug people show up. I don’t know why they’re so much bigger than Nappa, when the rest of the Arlians we see are not. There’s a lot we don’t know about the Arlians, and we’ll probably never know. They threaten to arrest the Saiyans and take them to King Moai.

Nappa’s eager to fight them, but Vegeta orders him to stand down for the moment, since he wants to see this Moai guy for himself. I guess he figures the planets’ leader would be in a more advance (read: valuable) location, which would give Vegeta a better idea of what Arlia has to offer.

Notable, this is the first indication of Saiyans using telepathy. Goku uses it later on, and we’ve already seen Master Roshi, Crane Hermit, Korin, and Kami use it, but it always seemed to be this mystical thing that only wise old martial artists could do. Oh yeah, and King Piccolo could telepathically communicate with his offspring.

I guess what I find interesting about this instance is that Vegeta uses it rather casually, when he could just as easily whisper to Nappa, or maybe use some nonverbal gesture to get his point across. The point here may be to indicate just how scary-powerful Vegeta is, but the thing about Vegeta is that anything we see him do can be applied to every other Saiyan character. If Master Roshi can read minds, it sort of stops there. If Vegeta can communicate telepathically, that means Nappa, Raditz, Goku, and Gohan can too, along with every other Saiyan character that hasn’t been introduced yet. Vegeta might be the only one who knows how at this point, but that’s just a matter of skill.

So here’s Moai’s stronghold, and guess what, it’s also a dump. I’m not complaining about the artwork, mind you. This scenery is breathtaking. The twin suns sort of make this look like a face, with the clouds forming a furrowed brow. It’s like the Arlians’ god is looking down on the castle, and he’s not happy with what he’s seeing.

Also, while Moai’s fortress looks moderately impessive, it’s surrounded by absolutely nothing. What happened on this planet? My guess is that it was ruined by centuries of war, but it’s also possible that the Arlians prefer it like this.

Vegeta and Nappa are taken to a dungeon, which looks like something from a Prince Valiant comic. This is the paradox of Arlia, because it looks like the Arlians are generally familiar with alien visitors, implying that they’ve been exposed to advanced technologies, but their own world is backward and medieval. They don’t even seem interested in the Saiyans’ ships or their scouters. And they lock them up behind a wooden gate. And why do they carry swords when they all seem to have some sort of red mouth laser?

While they wait, the Saiyans meet Atla, one of the native Arlians who’s been imprisoned by Moai. Well, “meet” may not be the right word. Atla just starts introducing himself and explaining the backstory while they stand silently and face in his general direction.

From Atla’s words, it sounds to me like Moai took over the planet fairly recently, perhaps after a long civil war that killed anyone more qualified to rule. Unconcerned with actually governing his people, Moai just does whatever he pleases, using his unlimited power to enforce his whims. So there’s a good chance that the planet looks like a dump because of his indifference.

I dig this sort of thing, because it reminds me of the decline of the Western Roman Empire, where the emperors eventually became little more than figureheads backed by strong military leaders. Over time, the Roman armies became supplemented by foreign mercenaries, until eventually the top generals were all foreign mercenaries, and eventually they just dispensed with the figureheads and started ruling Italy outright. I get the impression that the emperors didn’t particularly care that their domain was being usurped by outsiders, because as long as they were comfortable in their palaces then everything was fine.

There’s kind of a similar pattern in the Bible, where you see David and Solomon’s descendants slowly letting the Kingdom of Israel decline. Rehoboam’s arrogance caused the kingdom to split in two, and while there were a few good kings who embraced piety and reform, a lot of wicked kings abandoned the principles that made their reigns possible. They worshipped idols and did whatever they liked, and then eventually they found themselves surrounded by powerful enemies. The later kings were reduced to vassals, but they didn’t seem too concerned about that as long they got to sit in their palaces and pretend everything was okay.

Atla laments that now Moai is capturing space aliens on top of oppressing his own people, which suggests that Moai only sees his rule as a right to oppress other people for his own amusement.

I wrote about this episode some time back, comparing Arlia to Westeros from Game of Thrones, or A Song of Ice and Fire or whatever the hell it’s supposed to be called. I’ve never read the books because I need that time to liveblog anime, but everything I’ve heard about it suggests that the whole story is about some backwater planet full of medieval fantasy tropes, and all the leaders are corrupt, venal idiots who only stay in charge because they’re protected by bullshit laws and traditions, or because they’re better at the endless palace intrigue that goes on in the story. There’s one kingdom that was ruled by a Draco Malfoy clone, and another run by a guy who hunts naked women for sport, and I think some character keeps fetuses in jars for no apparent reason. I get the impression that a lot of the books is just George R.R. Martin trying to use shock value to pad things out. That and lore. If Tom Clancy and Howard Stern co-wrote Lord of the Rings, you might have something pretty similar to Game of Thrones.

What I’m trying to say here is that Moai seems to just sit around all day watching his subjects fight each other for his own amusment. He forced Atla’s betrothed, Lemlia, to be his queen (she’s the pink bug lady in the back), and he has soldiers just roaming the wastelands in search of new prisoners to mess with. His men captured real live space aliens and he’s like “Oh goody! Bring them before me, because I actually believe they’ll respect the idiotic rules that keep me in power.” I’m pretty sure this is exactly what King Draco Malfoy Clone would do in this situation.

He looks and talks and acts like a complete buffoon, and he’s just begging for some hero to come along and punch him in the mouthparts. Except Atla’s in the dungeon, and some other, more competent hero must have gotten killed off three books ago (cf. A Sleet of Testicles).

And this is what I love about this episode. Vegeta (along with Nappa, of course) are sort of being put into this role of traveling heroes who enter a tyrant’s domain and set things right. They’re certainly powerful enough to do it, but we already know that’s not what they’re here for.

Vegeta kills all the gladiators and informs Moai that he only let himself be captured just to get this close to the king. It astonishes me that Moai needs to have this explained to him. He’s so used to having his own way that it never dawned on him that anyone could use his arrogance against him.

Nappa strikes his classic pose and kills all the guards.

Then Moai summons an even bigger bug creature named Yedi. Nappa asks permission from Vegeta to handle this one, which I think is a nice touch.

Nappa rips off Yedi’s finger and licks the monster blood off his face. Nappa’s awesome. He’s just havin’ a good old time.

I forget why now, but rocks start falling, probably because Vegeta’s powers cause the ceiling to break apart. Moai takes cover behind his throne...

...but a rock ends up killing him anyway. I woudn’t think that’s a vital area, but what do I know about Arlian anatomy? It’s kind of fitting that Moai should die like this, in his own throne room/gladiator arena, cowering behind his throne. He thought it would protect him like it always had done in the past, but in the end he met a power that didn’t respect anything he had accomplished. The Saiyans ignored his royal robes and saw only a fool, and so he died a fool.

Atla shows up and praises the Saiyans or liberating his planet from Moai’s tyranny. You know, he could have followed them up here and helped out. They were all in the same cell, and Vegeta and Nappa destroyed the door and killed all the guards, so what took him so long?

The Saiyans just sort of look at him, and then they get back in their spaceships.

I’m not sure why they even bother flying across the surface. Maybe they’re still surveying the planet, but it’s a crappy planet no matter what angle you view it from. At last, Vegeta gives up and they head back into space.

But before they leave, he gets out of his ship and decides to leave a going-away present. How does Vegeta breathe in space? That’s one way you can tell which ones are filler scenes. They usually play faster and looser with this sort of thing.

On the surface, Atla and Lemlia are reunited at last, and it looks like everything’s going to be okay from now on, thanks to those two heroic aliens who...

LOL JK, Vegeta blew up the whole planet.

What’s so great about this is that Arlia kind of deserved to die. Not in the strictest narrative sense, but from a metanarrative viewpoint, it was just a really dumb planet. Any world that could fall under Moai’s rule probably didn’t have much longer to live anyway, and it’s almost like Vegeta put it out of it’s misery. I’m not suggesting any of this rationalizes Vegeta’s actions. This is a horrible, horrible crime, and Vegeta did it like it was nothing to him. He’s done far worse things with even less compunction.

Even so, he’s not Arlia’s villain, he’s Dragon Ball’s villain, so it’s just satisfying to watch him squash some crappy filler planet that had no redeeming value to the story. It’s like watching your favorite bad guy wrestler clobber your least favorite good guy wrestler.

And the narrator sums it up very neatly. This is what’s headed for Earth. The Saiyans destroyed Arlia like it was nothing, and what can Earth do to avoid a similar fate? Z stands for The End.

But not yet. Not yet.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #vegeta #nappa #goku #launch #gohan #bulma #krillin #yamcha #moai #atla #lemlia #yedi #dragon ball z #saiyans saga

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duhragonball · 5 years

Text

Dragon Ball Z 006

Let’s take stock here. Raditz is dead, but his Saiyan allies will arrive in one year to finish what he started. Piccolo has agreed to help, but he was no match for Raditz. Oh, and Goku’s dead. How insane is that? The main character dies in the fifth episode. That’s how Dragon Ball Z rolls, always teetering on the brink of disaster.

Anyway, Bulma wishes they could find Yamcha and Tien to help them, but they don’t know where they are. Luckily, Raditz’s scouter can help, but they’ll have to take it off his corpse first.

Bulma thinks she can get it working, though, and Krillin is already planning to gather the Dragon Balls to wish Goku back to life.

As for Piccolo, his first job is to regenerate the arm he lost in the battle. Then he announces that he’ll be taking Gohan with him to train him for the upcoming fight with the Saiyans.

Krillin thinks Piccolo is going to eat Gohan. I always liked this exchange in one of the Budokai video games. Chris Sabat responds with an indignant “I’m not going to eat him!” like he’s offended that Krillin would say something so ridiculous. All I know is King Piccolo threatened to eat Tien a while back.

Meanwhile, Goku’s up in the afterlife.

See, the reason Goku’s body vanished when he died was because Kami wanted Goku to keep his body in the afterlife, so that he could receive training from King Kai. Kami is pretty sure that the only way to save the Earth from the Saiyans is to get Goku as strong as possible before he comes back to life a year from now.

King Yama considers the request, and eventually approves it, since he’s in charge of deciding where everyone goes after they die. Goku asks him what he did to Raditz, and Yama explains that he whooped him good in order to send him to hell.

The thing that keeps getting overlooked in these Otherworld scenes is that most of the people who cross paths with King Yama are disembodied spirits. Goku is meeting him with his body because Kami arranged it for him, but Raditz would have appeared before Yama as a puffy white cloud, just like all the others lined up outside his door. So Yama bragging about defeating Raditz seems a little hollow.

This dude drives Goku to Snake Way, which leads to King Kai’s domain.

Back at Goku’s house, Chi-Chi worries that Goku’s friends are teaching him some dumb martial arts trick that might get him killed. Or eaten by a shark. It doesn’t make a lot of sense but Chi-Chi’s adorable here.

Turns out Snake Way is one million kilometers in length. Goku has limited flight ability at this point in the series, so he can use that to start, but it won’t take him the whole way.

He also asks this guy to ask Fortuneteller Baba to ask Master Roshi to wait one year before wishing him back to life. This seems a bit pointless to me, but we’ll get to that later.

As for Piccolo, he returns to his territory and starts filling in Gohan on his plans.

BEST GREEN DAD

I was going to make that into a running gag, but I think I wore it out in the first few minutes. Anyway, Gohan doesn’t understand any of this, so Piccolo chucks him at a mountain, which Gohan utterly destroys using his hidden powers. So from here on, at least Gohan knows that he has untapped potential. Piccolo wants to harness that into something more reliable, although he realizes this might backfire.

I suspect this has a lot to do with Piccolo’s reformation. I mean, there’s plenty of other contributors, but I think it begins with Piccolo’s realization that he’s not the strongest guy in the world. First Goku beat him, and then Raditz made him look pathetic, and now there’s two more Saiyans who are even stronger, and someday Gohan may become a threat as well. A lot of thinks King Piccolo believed in just aren’t holding up in a world where Piccolo can’t just beat down his opposition.

Of course, Gohan doesn’t want to be a warrior, he wants to be a scholar. Piccolo explains to him that the only way he can do that is to beat the Saiyans first. This is one of the themes of Gohan’s life. He can have a life outside of combat, but he still has to fight the battles in order to life out the peaceful times in between. It’s just the way it is.

Gohan wants Goku to train him, but Piccolo explains that he’s too soft to teach anyone. Well, the more important point is that Goku’s too dead to train anyone, but whatever.

Meanwhile, Goku’s already worn out from flying, so he’ll have to hoof it the rest of the way to King Kai’s.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #goku #piccolo #gohan #bulma #master roshi #krillin #kami #king yama #dragon ball z #saiyans saga

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