For the first time since the death of Raditz all the way back in the fifth episode, our heroes finally draw blood. And the ironic thing is, they do it with the assistance of that very villain’s boss.
Nappa was always at
odds with Vegeta. You don’t need to be an avid watcher of TFS to see that
there’s a lot of tension between them, pretty much all of it being generated
from Vegeta’s end. Say what you will about Nappa, he knows where his bread is
buttered, and he is not going to defy Vegeta for nothing or nobody. Yet, when
Vegeta tosses his beaten and broken body into the sky and fires a single beam
strong enough to turn him into nothing but particles, one wonders whether he
wishes he had taken on a different duty besides being Vegeta’s babysitter back
when the monster was a boy.
Even though Vegeta
is the one who definitely killed Nappa once and for all, Goku was the one who
did all the hard work. Goku continually makes a fool of Nappa throughout the
run-time of this show, surviving attack after attack, dodging punch after
punch. Interesting thing, though, is that once Nappa briefly suppresses his
anger on Vegeta’s command and starts fighting Goku with the best of his moves,
Goku notes that Nappa might be harder to deal with than he thought. That’s what
I like about Goku, and what separates him from the idiot antagonists (and
occasionally protagonists) that populate this show. He's willing to admit to
and accept the fact that he’s outmatched, or just matched, or not as strong as
he thought he was. Goku prides himself on training and dealing with the worst
bastards the universe has to offer, but he has no blinders on. He is well aware
of his capabilities, and where the limits of those capabilities are.
The reason I’m going
to give this episode five out of five is because it essentially begins the
long-fought rivalry between Goku and Vegeta, a theme that comes up again and
again for the rest of the series. No relationship between two characters has
been as consequential as the enemy-mine chemistry between these two
full-blooded Saiyans—indeed, the last two to still be alive after Vegeta
murders Nappa. It’s mostly a rivalry on Vegeta’s part because he can’t stand
the idea of being the second strongest Saiyan when he’s the one who is
descended from royal blood. Goku just wants to be the strongest in general, and
he’s more than willing to learn from someone who might be stronger than him. He
cares more about learning from them than simply surpassing them. That’s the
difference between Goku and Vegeta.
The reason Goku had
to give Nappa a good, old-fashioned bone-breaking in the first place is because
Nappa decided he would use his newfounded spare time to murder Goku’s friends,
an act that he should have expected to have dire consequences, y’know? I guess
it’s that classic Saiyan sociopathy that makes Nappa not realize that Goku
cares about the well-being of his friends, not just as comrades in battle, but
as beloved parts of his life. As much as Nappa respects and obeys Vegeta, I don’t
think there’s an ounce of love or even legitimate friendship on either side of
their partnership. Vegeta sure as shit didn’t step in to help Nappa against
Goku at any point, instead telling him to back down when the fight was clearly
not going their way.
This poor decision,
to attack Krillin and Gohan after being brought back to reality by Vegeta, is
what gets him killed. Goku effectively renders him useless as a warrior, for at
least the foreseeable future, though it’s implied that the injuries could be
permanent. That would make Vegeta’s decision to take out Nappa a little more
sensible, it can be thought of as a cruel sort of mercy killing. Then again, Vegeta’s
pretty gleeful when he kills his old traveling buddy. It’s probable that Vegeta
split ways with the concept of mercy a long time ago, if indeed he was ever
familiar with it. But it’s like he says, what use is a Saiyan who can’t fight?
What is he going to do, sit around in a Frieza-style hover-chair, pick up
sewing, start a YouTube gaming channel?
Goku and his friends
are naturally disturbed by the ease with which Vegeta murders Nappa, both
because it demonstrates just how obscenely strong Vegeta is and because it’s
such a ruthless act. This isn’t a new level of evil in the Dragon Ball
franchise; Commander Red in the Red Ribbon Army saga made a consistent habit of
murdering his men for failure, even if they brought back something valuable
like the Dragon Radar and they were in perfect shape, not a scratch on them.
Hell, think of Colonel Silver and General Blue, those guys were loyal and
strong soldiers in the Red Ribbon Army, but because they fucked up a couple of
times, Red had them sentenced to death. And don’t even get me started on the
shitheaded-ness that is Frieza any time he has any kind of underlings working
for him.
The end of this
episode has a bit of emotional resonance for later in the series. That’s not to
say that it isn’t a pretty tear-jerking moment now, but it carries forward and
continues to pay off in much later sagas where the villains are much stronger
and quite a bit more frightening. Krillin extends a hand to Goku and makes him
promise that they’ll grow old together just like they grew up together. Goku
readily accepts Krillin’s hand, and I’ll be goddamned if it’s not one of the most
touching moments in this saga, perhaps the entire series, again because of its
resonance in so many other sagas. It especially works because Goku has told
Krillin and Gohan to go back to Kame House, he needs to fight this battle
alone, and given the fact that he had to exhaust a Kaioken attack to protect
both of his friends from Nappa, it makes sense that he would see them as a liability
at that moment.
Looking through the
start of this review, I can see I haven’t talked about the Kaioken attack, so I’m
glad I reminded myself just now. Kaioken is basically early DBZ’s version of
Super Saiyan, and I don’t even have to bother worrying about spoiling that aspect
of this anime, because I’m sure even homeless feral children raised by wolves
have heard the phrase “Super Saiyan” at some point in their lives. Kaioken is a
temporary increase in strength, speed and senses, allowing Goku to essentially
boost himself past an opponent who is otherwise stronger than him in terms of
raw ability. It’s basically a Super Star from any Mario game you can think of,
Goku can just ram his way through any old bullshit with this.
The only problem is,
while Nappa could be described as “any old bullshit,” it remains to be seen if
Vegeta is the same way. Goku is already impressed enough with the power he
demonstrated killing Nappa, stating that he wished he could have Vegeta as a
sparring partner instead of a mortal enemy. At the risk of sounding like some yaoi
stan for Goku/Vegeta, I can see that the two have an immediate connection with
each other. Not just because of their heritage, but because the both of them
love a good challenge, and both of them fight to the bitter fucking end. If it
had been Vegeta who got crippled the way Nappa was, no way he would ever beg
help from anyone else. We’re going to see more examples of that as the series
progresses, but one thing Vegeta never does is beg, and Goku only begs for the
people he cares about, never for himself. In a strange way, I think the two
already respect each other.
We mentioned Kame House earlier, I guess I
might as well talk about what’s going on over at that drama hellhole. Well,
Baba’s trying to transmit the fight to the rest of them via her crystal ball,
but because Bulma is a fucking idiot, she takes one look at Nappa smiling as he
calms down early in the episode and smacks the ball because she hates the sight
of his smug prick face. Now, she has every right to hate the face of Nappa, and
I think people generally do (although I don’t have a scientific poll handy to
prove this), but come on, Bulma. Baba is over here giving you a free screening
to the fight for the fate of the planet and your stupid ass can’t resist your
rage long enough to keep from smacking the lens you’re looking through? It’s
just so much stupidity, and it makes me sort of glad that Bulma’s role becomes
increasingly diminished over the course of the series, the same way it was in
the original show.
(5/5)
A Few Final Thoughts:
--“This one is for Yamcha!” Okay, but a Saibaman killed
Yamcha.
--“I hate you!” “You hate losing! You’re not used to
fighting someone stronger than you!”
--“I think you’ve embarrassed us long enough!”
--“This other guy seems to know what he’s doing.” Oh,
Krillin, Vegeta knows EXACTLY what he’s doing. All the time.
--“I can’t move my legs!”
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