Well, if you aren’t tired of character death yet, we have more for you.
This time, it’s
little Chiaotzu, a fighter who only ever really did anything in the first
Tournament arc he and Tien were introduced during. In the Tournament right
after, Tao kicked his ass, and before that he got murdered by King Piccolo. The
only reason he’s not more of a joke than Krillin or Yamcha is because he never
really had the opportunity to be anything other than a joke. Just look at his
character design—does that scream anything other than “obscure side character”
to you?
Nevertheless,
Chiaotzu does make a very honorable sacrifice here. Out of all the fighters on
the battlefield at the time of his death, he and Krillin were the only two who
could not be wished back with the dragon balls, as they had already died once.
Tien knows this all too well as he watches his friend blow himself up—lots of
suicide bombings going on in this arc so far—and it’s all the more gutting when
Nappa emerges from the smoke with only some damage to his armor.
Another reason
people often mock DBZ is when characters launch major attacks against each
other, lots of flash and smoke and environmental damage, only for their
opponent to emerge unscathed from the wreckage. But keep in mind two things:
one, this is, I believe, the first time an outright SUICIDE attack failed in
the series. I don’t think a suicide attack ever even happened in the original
dragon ball, and this is the first time in this show where it fails completely
and utterly. Second of all, characters emerging unscathed from massive
explosions and energy blasts wasn’t common yet. There was Tao surviving Goku’s
Kamehameha in their first fight, sure, but that was a very quick, isolated
moment in an otherwise very one-sided fight in Tao’s favor. There was no huge
build-up to him being alive in the smoke, it was just, “oh, hey, even Goku’s Kamehameha
is totally ineffectual against this new, powerful villain.”
So I think
Chiaotzu’s sacrifice is totally earned from a narrative standpoint. It’s there
to demonstrate the hopelessness of the other warriors’ situation without Goku
there—and perhaps even IF Goku is there. After all, we saw none of Goku’s
training that involved him actually fighting. For all we know, Goku isn’t any
better off than his friends are. We know he most likely is, because the show is
making us wait for him to arrive and it would be absurdly anti-climactic for
him to show up and get merked immediately, but we don’t KNOW. The Saiyans are a
whole new breed of enemy, the first one that showed up to Earth caused Goku’s
death, something unheard of to any fan of the original show!
Also featured in
this episode is Tien’s rather sad attempt at fighting with Nappa. Nappa manages
to literally punch Tien’s hand off of his arm. Tien was just trying to block a
punch, and winds up being “disarmed,” as Vegeta, ever the classy one, puts it.
Any attempts made by other characters to intervene while this is going on meet
with Nappa’s seemingly endless power. Keep in mind—this guy only has a power
level of 4,000.
I feel like the
writers and animators find themselves having to outdo earlier villains by
having the new villains, who are thousands of times stronger, perform similar
amazing feats to (for example) Nappa’s bottomless hole in the wake of his blast
toward Krillin or his punching a man’s hand clean off of his arm. It’s weird
when you watch early DBZ and guys like Nappa are shown demonstrating incredible
power and way later in the series you have guys like Semi-Perfect Cell looking
like shit by comparison, even though Nappa is a flea compared to Cell at that
point in the series. There’s only so much you can do after your villain with a
power level of 18,000 can make the Earth shake and you have to follow it up by
making your new villain of 800 million power level do… what? Blow up some
islands?
Anyway. We do open
this episode with a hope spot where Krillin blasts the ever-loving shit out of
a bunch of Saibamen, decimating all but one of them in a single attack. This is
one of those rare instances in the series where Krillin gets to demonstrate any
type of simple competence, and he does good work here. The folks over at the Kame
House are sure impressed—Bulma even hugs Oolong! Wow! DBZ did get my fan
letters after all! Unfortunately, Krillin missed one that somebody had beat up
earlier, and this mistake nearly costs Gohan his life, as it launches a surprise,
leaping at him with clay outstretched until Piccolo grab it, gives it a hard
stomach punch, and then mouth-blasts it. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we
have the first instance of Piccolo coming to Gohan’s rescue against a villain,
unless you count him and Goku fighting Raditz.
Piccolo, however harsh
he may be about doing it, really gives Gohan his final lessons on the
battlefield during these Nappa-fight episodes. They say sometimes the best way
to learn something is to just be thrown into it and forced to adapt and learn
as you go, and that’s true here. Gohan basically grows five or ten years over
the course of a few episodes, going from a cowering child to a Saiyan warrior
in his own right, and Piccolo is there for a good chunk of it. Gohan is slowly
but surely turning into the savior we’re going to see him be just a few scant
sagas from now—and you know what? If it wasn’t for him being here in this saga,
things would have turned out very differently too.
One thing that’s pretty
funny, in a morbid kind of way, is the way Piccolo insists upon Gohan watching
Chiaotzu sacrifice himself. It’s funny because it turns out to be for
absolutely nothing. It’s like watching a suicide bomber detonate their vest and
hit nothing. Doesn’t even slightly scald anything nearby. Now that’s
depressing. The idea of an ineffectual suicide bomber. Just breaks your heart. But
Piccolo is at least teaching Gohan how to respect the sacrifices of others. One
wonders if that little seed wasn’t still stuck in there when Goku teleported in
front of Cell to give himself up so that the planet could be saved. You like to
hope that the people you love and care about will never have to dive in front
of a bullet for you, or even the entire planet, but at the same time you want
to instill in them the kind of values that would compel them to do something
like that.
I’d say this episode
succeeds at what it sets out to do, which is to showcase the power and the
fearsome sociopathy of a new villain. I’ve said before that between the two
Saiyan warriors it seems like Nappa is the one with more of a conscience—and he
is, given the way he reacts to Vegeta killing the wounded Saibaman—but make no
mistake, the dude is a total beast, and we spent a lot of time wondering, just
like the other characters: when the fuck is Goku going to get there? I’d like
to say we don’t have long to wait, but remember what show we’re watching.
(4/5)
A Few Final Thoughts:
--I love how they just left Yamcha there.
--“Yamcha wouldn’t want us to carry on like this!” It’s been
two fucking minutes, man.
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