Synopsis: As Raditz looms large over a downed Goku and prepares to stop Piccolo's attack, Piccolo fires the Mankankosappo at last, seeming to catch Raditz off guard and put an end to him for sure. As the light fades however, Raditz is revealed to have side-stepped the attack at the last second, receiving only a small wound to his shoulder. Piccolo is horrified, thinking that nobody should be able to move that fast, and Raditz concedes that if he'd taken that blast full on, there wouldn't be much left of him.
As Piccolo thinks this is truly his end, Raditz says that playtime is over and he'll finish him off in one blast. Raditz raises his hand to attack again as Piccolo braces himself, but Raditz suddenly lurches over. Looking back in confusion, Raditz is stunned to see that Goku has grabbed hold of his tail, chastising him for getting careless. Goku squeezes the tail, causing Raditz to fall to his knees, and Goku tells Piccolo to charge up his attack again. Piccolo praises Goku but warns him to hold the tail tight, as he can only use this move once more. Raditz pleads with Goku, saying he wouldn't really kill his own brother, but Goku tells him that he doesn't consider him a brother at all – besides, who tried to kill who first? Raditz insists that he was only bluffing, and says that if Goku just lets go of his tail, he'll leave Earth and never return. Piccolo tells Goku not to listen to him, but Raditz continues to plead for his life, and eventually Goku relents, letting go of his tail. Seizing his chance, Raditz launches back up and knocks Goku back with an elbow to the face. Leaping over, Raditz lands on Goku's chest with his foot as Piccolo curses Goku's foolishness. Raditz says he now understand that Goku could never have been a warrior if he falls for something like that, stating that a real warrior will even kill his own brother. Using Goku as an example, he begins to stomp on his chest, breaking Goku's ribs. As Raditz continues to torture Goku, he taunts Piccolo, encouraging him to fire another one of his attacks in the meantime, but Piccolo knows he'll only dodge again if he does. As all seems lost and Goku's cries fill the air, Raditz's scouter suddenly picks up a new reading again, just as Gohan bursts free of Raditz's space pod and leaps into the air. Review: Raditz just can't win this chapter. Sure, he manages to get one over on Goku, but I don't think that's really enough to counter-balance the three other times he gets shown up here. His first fall from grace is Piccolo's Mankankosappo. Raditz's scouter already picked up on how devastatingly powerful it was earlier (and there's a good chance it's only grown in power since the last time his scouter pinged him about it), but once he's actually faced with it, he's left with no choice but to dodge if he doesn't want to die. Contrast this with the last attack he was worried about, Goku's Kamehameha, and there's a marked difference. Raditz eventually stood his ground and was really no worse for wear from Goku's attack, but Piccolo's he HAD to dodge, and he still got an injury to boot. A flesh wound, sure, but that's more than he ever expected to get from tangling with this pair. Secondly, there's Goku managing to grab his tail. I don't know if Raditz just fell completely off guard, or if he wasn't counting on Goku or anyone else knowing about that weakness in the first place. If it's just him being careless, that's one thing, and it fits how arrogant he's been shown to be. If he didn't think Goku would know, that's...wow, that's stupid of you, Raditz. It may have been gone for some time now, but you know that Goku used to have a tail, and you don't think at any point in time he discovered that it made him weaker when it was grabbed? Then again, Goku has no knowledge of his Oozaru transformation either, so maybe Raditz thinks he really is clueless about that. Either way, this notion has come back to bite him in the butt, and it's great to see something get from that far back called in here. Before moving on to Raditz's final miscalculation, I want to talk briefly about Goku's choice in letting go of Raditz's tail here. It's really hard to read into what Goku might be thinking here, to be honest. If this were Goku in any other situation, especially later on in the series, I'd say he was thinking about Raditz's potential, and perhaps wanting to keep him around as a good rival to force himself to get even stronger. It'd certainly fit with the sort of person Goku is in other situations. In this one though, that doesn't really seem to fit with the expression on Goku's face, nor does it fit with his earlier worry about how much stronger the other two Saiyans are. So is it actually that Goku was hesitant to kill his own blood relative, despite his words to the contrary? It's possible, although Goku's not normally one to think too deeply on that sort of thing. It's kind of like the moment in Avengers: Infinity War where Starlord becomes emotionally distraught enough to let Thanos free for a moment (a split second emotional reaction that people are STILL up in arms over), except Goku isn't Starlord. Goku's not the sort of person to be overcome by an emotion like familiar or even romantic love usually, but in this instance, it seems that he was. The real world answer to this dilemma however is of course that it ups the drama. After looking like they had a sure-fire win with the Mankankosappo, Toriyama had Raditz dodge it and put things back in his favor. Then it immediately flip-flopped to being in our heroes favor again for about ten seconds before Raditz was back winning again. It's the same kind of back-and-forth Tennis match writing that we've seen numerous times before, and it usually ends up resulting in a climax that nobody would have seen coming at the time of the story's original publication. Which is exactly what seems to be happening when Raditz's third and final miscalculation suddenly breaks free from his space pod and starts glaring daggers at him. Oh yes, Raditz, now you've got an angry four-year-old to deal with. Hey, you laugh, but anyone who's ever had to babysit can tell you that he's in for a living hell now. 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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