Synopsis: Piccolo wastes no time and asks the Saiyans what they want now that they've arrived on Earth, and Vegeta instantly recognizes his voice as the one that killed Raditz. Piccolo is confused, and Vegeta reminds him that the scouters also function as transmitters, revealing that they heard everything. Before Piccolo can deal with that, Nappa remarks that Piccolo appears to be a Namekian, which Vegeta thinks makes Raditz's death make a little more sense now. Piccolo is taken aback, and Kuririn and Gohan are also surprised to learn that Piccolo is actually an alien. Vegeta has heard that Namekians possess strange powers even beyond their powerful fighting abilities, and asks Piccolo if he's the one that made the Dragon Balls, with Nappa demanding that they hand them over. Piccolo tells them that he's not the one that made them, and that he has only one specialty that they're about to find out about – fighting. Up on Kami's sanctuary, Kami is also rattled by the revelation of his true heritage, though he had wondered why he didn't look like other Earthlings. He also remembers well how it felt almost nostalgic when he made the Dragon Balls, perhaps suggesting some sort of racial memory. Perhaps one of his ancestors had made similar orbs, on their original home planet of Namek... Vegeta says that if they won't hand over the Dragon Balls then they'll just have to beat them out of them, and Nappa scans the trio's power levels, scoffing at the range. Vegeta tells Nappa to take off his scouter however, saying that Namekians have the ability to alter their power level to suit the moment, meaning they probably can't trust any of the reading they're getting, causing Nappa to assume that must be what happened to 'that weakling, Raditz' – he relied too heavily on his scouter and paid for it with his life. The trio is horrified to hear the Saiyan that Goku and Piccolo barely beat by working together referred to as 'weak', and Vegeta suggests to Nappa that they beat them first and then ask them about the Dragon Balls again before finishing them off later. Vegeta asks Nappa if he still has any Saibamen seeds left over, and Nappa pulls a jar with six seeds out of his speedo. Pushing the seeds into the ground and then pouring a strange liquid on top of them, the trio are confused by Nappa's actions until a group of six bizarre creatures burst out of the ground. Vegeta tells the newly grown Saibamen that the three before them are their targets, and the heroes prepare for a fight where they're outnumbered. Just then however, Yamcha, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu all show up, evening up the numbers. Tenshinhan says he was under the impression there would only be two Saiyans, so Kuririn suggests that he complain to them about it. Vegeta thinks six-on-six works out perfectly, and suggests they make a game out of it, with each of them fighting one at a time. Piccolo is outraged that they'd treat this like sport, but Kuririn tries to calm him down, suggesting that this could actually work in their favor since Goku still hasn't shown up yet. Tenshinhan steps up to fight first, and as his friends wish him luck, Vegeta tells one of the Saibamen to step forward and give him everything it has. The two fight, but Tenshinhan quickly overwhelms the Saibamen, knocking it backwards with a kiai. The Saibamen retaliates by spitting up acid through a split in the top of it's head, and while the acid is strong enough to eat a hole into the ground, it misses Tenshinhan entirely, and the warrior is able to knock his foe to the ground with one solid strike. As the Saibamen lays on the ground and the heroes celebrate, Nappa can't believe that one of their Saibamen could be taken down so easily. Vegeta smiles ruthlessly however, seemingly pleased that these Earthlings can put up more of a fight than they thought. Review: Holy lore drops Batman – again! If you thought Goku was the only one not leaving this arc without some drastic, series changing reveals about his origins, then you were wrong, as we now have his rival Piccolo revealed to not be of this Earth as well. In Piccolo's case though, I'd say this revelation is even bigger, as it changes more than just his own background – it change's Kami's, and the very nature of the Dragon Balls, as well. When King Piccolo was first introduced, he was an ancient evil, a demon previously sealed away because he just couldn't be killed. Once Goku managed to do just that however, we were given the revelation of Piccolo's origins as an evil budded off of God himself, Kami's dark side taken physical form. While this worked well enough as an origin for a great evil that was essentially treated as the devil, it did still leave a fairly big question on the table whether we realized it at the time or not – why does Kami look like that? Dragon Ball is and always has been a series filled with bizarre looking characters, but up until this point, everything that we're meant to look at as 'human' has been of two varieties – roughly human looking, or an anthropomorphic animal person. Even Goku, with all of the talk of how weird it was he had a tail, looked roughly human. Kami and Piccolo however, have always looked different. Alien, even. And now we find out that that's because that's exactly what they always were. It's also worth noting that this is one of the few revelations that we know for a fact Toriyama had in mind when creating earlier material. Believe it or not, Toriyama is quite well known for writing things by the seat of his pants, which makes the amount of times he stumbles into a perfectly good ending for storylines astounding, honestly. In this case however, an interview revealed that he already knew Kami and Piccolo were Namekians by the time of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, and it just never gets revealed until this exact moment. Maybe that's why this plot twist/retcon works better than some other ones, in that it was in the works for some time before being implemented. With this reveal also comes the reveal that a good few things we've taken as natural about Earth in this series are also tied to Kami's alien origin as well. Vegeta notes that Namekians are known to be capable of varying their power level at will, something that we see our heroes do all the time – especially the ones that got to train at Kami's. Apparently this is less a Godly fighting style, and more of an inherent Namekian ability that's fully teachable to other races. Not entirely sure how to feel about that one honestly. Bigger than that however is the reveal that Kami had an oddly nostalgic feeling when he first made the Dragon Balls, almost as if it was something he was meant to do. *sniffs* Ahh, is that foreshadowing I smell? Nappa, or at least Vegeta, quickly show that they're not quite as dumb as Raditz was either, as Vegeta already thinks that their scouters might lull them into a false sense of security, so they just promptly take them off. Funny how power levels are once again already being treated as something that we shouldn't be taking that seriously, and by funny, I mean please, for the love of Kaio-sama, take this message to heart, Dragon Ball fandom. And as if all of these reveals and dark tidings of these Saiyans being smarter and stronger weren't enough, the chapter throws one more curve ball at us in the form of the Saibamen, increasing the number of foes our heroes need to defeat from two to eight in total. Thankfully though, their own cavalry arrives, and brings their total fighting force up to six as well. Wait...Piccolo, Gohan, Kuririn, Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Chaozu...weird, feels like someone's missing... At any rate, Kuririn shows that he's often the brains of the group (at least as far as planning for the fights goes) with his suggestion that this might actually work out better than fighting the Saiyans immediately, though I won't lie and say it's not also a suggestion born out of fear, and who can blame him really? Tenshinhan's quick fight with the Saibamen suggests that our heroes really have improved in the year that they've been training, though since we don't really have any indication as of yet how strong the Saibamen are, then that makes it a little hard to judge for certain. While Nappa seems surprised and concerned though, Vegeta doesn't seem worried at all. Hmm... Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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