I love how much of a diss the name of this episode is. Like, why does Tien’s sacrifice matter so much more than Chiaotzu’s? Hell, if anything, Chiaotzu has the more meaningful sacrifice, because as far as he knows, he’s never going to be wished back. The dragon balls can only bring one individual back once, and Chiaotzu already died in the original show. Tien, on the other hand, has managed to avoid the cold embrace of death up until this point, which means he is still fair game to be resurrected. Again, this is as far as anybody knows. But if you’re watching this thing blind, having only watched the original series and the Z episodes preceding this, you’d have every right to assume that Chiaotzu is gone for good. Then again, with all of those dropped hints about Piccolo’s ancestry, perhaps you’ve already determined that there are dragon balls elsewhere in this great big universe…
Anyway. Tien dies,
and much like Chiaotzu, he is not directly killed by Nappa. Instead, as the
episode’s title indicates, he gives up the last little bit of his life force to
throw a deadly attack at the Saiyan monster who didn’t exactly kill his friend
but was more or less responsible anyway. Guess what? Nappa survives it, in yet
another instance of the show presenting a big dramatic attack and then promptly
making it look like amateur bullshit because it didn’t even slow Nappa down.
Yeah, Vegeta says something to the effect of “damn, if that had actually hit
you, instead of you dodging it and/or shielding from it with your amazing
plot-armor powers, it would surely have killed you!” That’s all fine and good,
but the fact is, a protagonist did an emotionally significant thing and wound
up being proven thoroughly irrelevant by that very action. This is the moment
where Tien loses any loose relevance he may have still had as the detritus of
the old series.
Gohan fucks up this
episode in a big way. It’s hard to reasonably blame him for it, since he’s like
five years old at this point in the show, but Piccolo doesn’t give a shit about
“reasonably.” Piccolo and Krillin manage to successfully pull off a sneak
attack against Nappa that sends him careening toward Gohan, who is expected to
deal a killing blow. Instead he freezes for a while and then runs and hides
behind a large rock nearby. It is an understatement to say that Piccolo is
pissed off about this. The first time Gohan approaches him right after this
event, Piccolo backhands the shit out of him (from what I remember—it may have
been an outright punch) and tells him to go the fuck home if he can’t handle
being on the battlefield. In spite of Krillin’s efforts to defend Gohan,
Piccolo is hearing none of it.
I have to wonder how
much of Piccolo’s anger is self-directed in this event. After all, Piccolo
spent six months straight training Gohan to be a warrior to fight the Saiyans,
only to see him cower like this. I think Piccolo just doesn’t realize the fear
and the hesitation Gohan has, because Piccolo’s whole life up to this point has
been about fighting and training to kill that very boy’s father.
We get to see the
multi-form technique used in this episode. More specifically, we get to see how
fucking useless it is. I mean, come on. You split yourself into several different
clones, but all of them are that many times weaker than your original self was?
Nappa’s already at 4,000, and Piccolo’s max power is only 1,400. That means, if
he splits himself into three people, they’re each less than 500 in terms of
attack power. Nappa might as well be swatting at flies. But that’s just how
desperate our heroes are. A single year of training could not possibly prepare
them for the kind of power the Saiyans were bringing to the table. Especially
when all of them had apparently forgotten about the Hyperbolic Time Chamber—or
rather, Goku kept that one a secret until they needed it during the Android
arc.
I love Gohan’s
concern for Tien right before the latter is about to kill himself for the good
of the world and his friend. There’s no indication that Tien even notices it.
He’s too busy suffering the various blows and humiliations that Nappa has
inflicted. But more so than that, he’s still smarting over the pointless
suicide of Chiaotzu. Come to think of it, every one of Nappa’s Z Fighter kills
is a suicide. Chiaotzu blows himself up, Tien uses up his life energy to attack
him, Piccolo jumps in front of a beam meant for Gohan. There was room for Nappa
to be redeemed a little bit, if you fail to count all the innocent humans he
killed on Earth.
The Z Fighters end
up being such a low challenge for the Saiyans, Vegeta stops Nappa from killing Piccolo
and Krillin, and asks them about this “Goku” they keep mentioning. Vegeta asks
and gets confirmation that they’re talking about the Saiyan he knows as
Kakarot. Vegeta is amused by the idea that Kakarot is going to pose them any
significant challenge, but he’s also intrigued, as any good Saiyan, about the
prospect of a good fight, and from the sounds of things Kakarot might be strong
enough to make the fight more interesting. So Vegeta gives the Z Fighters a
3-hour reprieve to wait for Goku to show up. Nappa protests, insisting on killing
his easy prey, and Vegeta threatens him to stop. Nappa quickly apologizes and
leaves the weaker fighters alone.
This leads Piccolo
to the scary realization that the bigger Saiyan they’ve been unable to even
slow down is not the strongest one they have to deal with. Vegeta is not only
stronger than Nappa, he stronger enough than him that it makes Nappa afraid. Of
course, part of Nappa’s issue might also be the fact that Vegeta’s royalty to
the Saiyans, and even though their planet and people are gone save for about 3
full-blooded Saiyans (as far as they know), that still matters to Nappa. But
nah, I figure it’s the power discrepancy.
So we end the
episode wondering if Goku’s going to make it to the battlefield within the
3-hour arbitrary time-limit Vegeta has set. The answer for most folks who are
watching is “probably not,” I would imagine. There hasn’t been quite enough
drama yet for our hero to show up, and after all, we want to see Nappa do a
little more rampaging, right? It’s fun to watch the guy rampage, as harsh as it
may also be sometimes. Gohan is still in Piccolo’s doghouse, and Krillin tries
his best to defend the boy from Piccolo’s disdain and disappointment. With only
three of Earth’s heroes left to stop the Saiyans from annihilating the entire
planet in search for the dragon balls, and Goku continuing to traverse the
always-interminable length of Snake Way, the ultimate tool of filler, is there
any reason to believe that no one else is going to die? Well, all I know is, I’m
sure Goku’s complete and total defeat of Vegeta will ensure that this scum
never sees the light of day on this show again.
(4/5)
A Few Final Thoughts:
--GOD THE MOUTH ON KRILLIN. Even my roommate was taken aback
by it when he came into the living room to eat din-dins.
--The battlefield has a lot of dark clouds and crackling
energy. Keep in mind, these things aren’t present during the Cell Games, where
the characters are literally millions of times stronger.
--“Guess your little friend couldn’t save you, three eyes!”
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