Synopsis: As Goku and Piccolo use the dragon ball radar to locate where Raditz has taken Gohan, Raditz has arrived back at his space pod with the bawling child. Raditz tells the young boy to stop crying, telling him the blood of Saiyans runs through his veins, but when Gohan won't stop crying, Raditz tosses him inside of the pod. Raditz starts to leave to get something to eat, but suddenly, his scouter (the device on his face) goes off, alerting him to a power level of 710 nearby. As he turns to look at the space pod, the scouter locks on, prompting Raditz to wonder if it's malfunctioning – there's no way an infant has a power level that high. Gaining ground on Raditz's location, Goku suggests they start going lower, but Piccolo says it won't make any difference, telling Goku about the scouter's ability to pick up on an opponent's position and power. Goku asks if that means Raditz knows they're coming, and when Piccolo confirms this, Goku thinks they have no choice then but to hit him head on. Trying again to leave, Raditz's scouter again picks up a power level of 710 coming from the space pod. He curses it, but it soon after picks up two more power levels of 322 and 334 quickly approaching. Raditz recognizes one of the power levels as Kakarot's exactly, but thinks there's no way his brother would be coming to face him so soon, not to mention having no way to find him. Raditz is about to take off the scouter when he spots Goku and Piccolo approaching from the air. If the scouter isn't broken, then...he turns to look at the space pod, still in disbelief, as there's no way that even a Saiyan child could have a power level that high. Goku and Piccolo land before Raditz, and Raditz laughs to see the two of them teamed up. He asks Goku how they found him, but Goku just says that they did and demands that he give him back his son. Raditz asks Goku if he really wants to defy his own brother and refuse to rejoin his race, and Goku angrily states that he has no brother. Raditz calls Goku a fool and says he expected better of him, as surely he doesn't think that even the two of them together stand a chance against him? Piccolo tells Raditz that he talks too much and begins taking off his turban and cape, revealing them to be weighted clothes, just as Goku still wears as well. With their weighted clothing removed, Goku and Piccolo's power levels jump up to 416 and 408. Raditz laughs however, stating that they could both be hundreds of times stronger and still not be enough to fight him, but Goku says that if he thinks power is everything then he's the one that's a fool. Raditz says that such idiocy has no place on a Saiyan mission, and declares Goku a shame to the race, and that he'll kill him for it. As Goku and Piccolo go into fighting poses, Raditz charges them, instantly getting behind them and striking them both with his elbows, knocking them forward. Goku and Piccolo are in disbelief that he can be so strong and fast, and Raditz praises their defenses at least. He thinks they might actually last a few minutes against him after all, but as Goku wonders how he's going to be able to get to Raditz's tail, his brother drops another bombshell – of the three remaining Saiyans, Raditz is the weakest, with the remaining two being far stronger than even he is. Review: Alright, let's rip the bandage off and talk about these pesky power levels. Longtime fans are already used to these being a thing, and although official power levels do exist (courtesy of the Daizenshuu guidebooks in Japan) for the material prior to this arc, they're an invention of this arc, and one that will persist off and on throughout it and the following arc both. Outside of one final usage at the start of the arc beyond that, they'll quickly be phased out, and with good reason – they don't really add anything, and in a lot of ways, they can be rather arbitrarily limiting. At first glance, they appear to be a pretty good indicator of how strong someone is, but it's basically a short hand way to get that idea across without doing much more heavy lifting in the writing or the visuals to express it. It's easy to see why Toriyama would have thought to introduce and rely on such things – as strong as the characters have gotten, it's only going to get harder and harder to portray them as much stronger than they were before, and that is something he's going to struggle with as the story goes on – but even he ultimately does away with them in the end. So why then, if they're only here for such a short time, and are basically pointless in the end, are some fans obsessed with them, and have been going back as far as there HAS been a Dragon Ball fandom in the US? If I had to guess, honestly? It's for the same reason that people have long loved to talk about who would win in a fight. The Youtube channel Death Battle has made a success of crunching numbers and arguing in favor of one character over another for over a decade now (they've even had a good handful of Dragon Ball related battles, with their most recent one being Vegeta V.S. Thor), but even going back decades before that, nerdy fans have always loved talking about who would kick who's butt. Whether it's something like Freddy V.S. Jason, or Godzilla V.S King Kong, debates over who would win are an age old thing. In a lot of those cases, it's battles that would never happen because they're from different franchises that would never cross over (FvJ and GvKK aside), so it's all down to opinion, but fans love coming up with reasons for why their argument would be right. Now take that mentality back into Dragon Ball specifically, and lookie there – a number system based entirely on how strong someone is that could potentially be used in arguments. How handy. Of course, and some of this is jumping ahead quite a bit, fans can often take these power level debates way too far, essentially creating numbers that don't exist, and using them for their own means. On it's own, there's nothing wrong with this, but it does sort of go against what Toriyama's own usage of the numbers ultimately is. I mean, just look at this chapter in particular – we've got Gohan giving off a number that seemingly can't be right, and we've got Goku and Piccolo increasing their numbers by just taking off their weighted clothes. From it's first introductions, Toriyama is already showing that putting strength into numbers is an inexact science at best and a complete folly at worst, and I think he's right. TeamFourStar's Dragon Ball Z Abridged said it best - “Power levels are bullshit!” As far as the rest of the chapter goes, there's two more power related points of interest that definitely serve to keep the excitement going, and I can't imagine the effect they would have had on fans with no idea where any of this was going back in the day. First off, there's the previously mentioned power level of Gohan's. While the numbers themselves are largely pointless, the fact that this cryng infant is seemingly giving off a number that's higher than either Goku or Piccolo's even after they raise theirs is definitely something to make you feel curious. Is Raditz's scouter broken after all? But if it is, why did it accurately pick up Goku and Piccolo's arrival? There's a lot of questions being asked here that I'd love to have been a fly on the wall overhearing young fan's predictions back when this chapter was first published. The second point of interest comes from Raditz's statement after Goku refuses to join him (you really should have seen that coming man, he's been pretty clear on this so far) and he mentions that those other two Saiyan survivors? Yeah, they're both way stronger than he is. So now the stage has set an opponent up that's going to take both Goku and Piccolo to even attempt to fight him, and he's not even the strongest guy out there? Mother of Kami...now THAT'S how you build tension. This of course also builds expectation, as now that we know the other Saiyans are stronger, we pretty much HAVE to see them at some point, which also leaves Goku and Piccolo with a tall order set before them – even if they somehow beat Raditz, they're both going to have to become a LOT stronger. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
September 2022
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