Synopsis: Goku hurries back down the Serpent Road as quickly as he can to reach Earth and help his friends. On Earth, having survived Chaozu's suicide attack with barely even a scratch, Nappa announces his intention to finish off Tenshinhan before moving on to Gohan, promising them all that they'll get their turn soon enough. Tenshinhan struggles with the realization that Chaozu can never come back to life due to having already been wished back once before, and vows to make Nappa pay, though Nappa promises him he'll see his friend again in Hell soon enough. Piccolo discusses a plan of attack with Kuririn, which is overheard by Vegeta. Rather than warn Nappa however, Vegeta mockingly wishes them luck. Piccolo tells him that he hopes to see Vegeta's face when Goku gets here, and Vegeta wonders if this 'Son Goku' is their secret weapon. Nappa launches himself at Tenshinhan, and wasting no time, Piccolo and Kuririn move quickly into the air. As Nappa approaches Tenshinhan who is preparing his own attack, Piccolo catches Nappa off-guard and knocks him away, towards a waiting Kuririn who likewise sends him flying down towards another spot on the ground. Piccolo shouts for Gohan to fire an attack at Nappa as they'd planned, but he spots Gohan trembling, too scared to attack the Saiyan. Piccolo curses his student's cowardice, and Kuririn says they'll have to do it themselves, and the two fire their own energy attacks at Nappa. Nappa recovers just in time to dodge Piccolo and Kuririn's attacks, laughing and asking them if they thought they'd actually get away with pulling something like that. Nappa vows to kill them both now, but as the Saiyan is distracted, Tenshinhan takes this opportunity to attack. Promising to the fallen Chaozu that they'll never be apart, Tenshinhan pours all of his energy into a potent, final Kikoho hitting Nappa full-force with his angry attack. Looking upward at their opponent after the attack lands, the Earthlings are horrified to see that even this still barely managed to do more than scuff the mighty Saiyan, and Nappa laughs and tells them not to scare him like that. Feeling like he's failed, Tenshinhan falls over and dies, with Vegeta praising him as having fought like a man, but also mocking him for dying like a dog. Faced with despair unlike any he's ever felt before, Kuririn screams to the sky for Goku to hurry and come back to them. Review: It's interesting how differently it feels to see Goku traveling Serpent Road now compared to how it felt earlier in the story. When there wasn't much of anything going on, it felt like it dragged, even when we only occasionally saw him on the road. Now that everything is going wrong though, seeing him on the road greatly heightens the tension, leaving you with a feeling of 'Oh c'mon, people are dying Goku, hurry! Hurry!'. It's an excellent showcase of how the same sort of scene can change depending on what's happening elsewhere in the story. And things are indeed dire back on Earth, probably far more so than Goku's already worrying about. Chaozu's final attack didn't do anything to Nappa, and if anything, it's just urged Nappa on to kill the rest of them at his leisure now. Piccolo is smart enough to realize they're going to need a plan of attack to deal with Nappa now, which is where we get a rather interesting moment. Vegeta overhears Piccolo's plan, and rather than warn Nappa or be at all worried about what they might have in store for them afterwards...Vegeta encourages them to try it. This is the first hint, at least that our heroes get to see, that Vegeta is 100% the one in charge, but it shows more than that as well. It shows that he's so confident in their strength in comparison to the Earthlings, both Nappa's and his own, that he's not a bit worried that their plan will actually work, he just thinks it'll be fun to see them try. And at the tail end of that moment, there's Vegeta's reaction to hearing Goku's name. He doesn't know who that is and seemingly wonders of it's their secret weapon – ironically he's right, but the more interesting part is seeing Vegeta slowly connect the dots that there's still someone else out there coming to fight them before this is all said and done. I'd have to flip back to the chapter with Raditz's death to be sure, but it looks like Raditz's transmission never included mention of Goku by his new name, so Nappa and Vegeta both seem to only know him as Kakarot and to assume that he's still dead. Piccolo's plan to attack Nappa is a fairly simple one, but against a fighter that seems to be all brute strength without thinking, that's all one might need, at least in theory. As with any plan however, it comes down to how well or not it's executed, and unfortunately, Gohan proves to be the weak link in the chain. It can be a little disappointing to see Gohan falter at such an important moment like this, especially when we've seen how far he's come since our first introduction to him. That said, it's important to remember that he's a kid – he can't be any older than FIVE now that roughly a year has passed since Raditz. He's a five year old that left a pampered, sheltered life, saw his father die, was whisked away and abandoned in the wilderness for months, was trained by a 'demon' that doesn't seem to care about him in any real way, and now he's been brought to a battlefield where he's now witnessed three more people die. It's a wonder the poor kid doesn't need therapy, but on top of all of that, he's now asked to fight back against the man directly responsible for two of the deaths he's just witnessed? There are adults who would freeze up in a situation like that – it makes sense that poor little Gohan can't cope with all of this. Even if Piccolo and Kuririn's attacks had landed, or even if Gohan hadn't failed to pitch in, I don't think this would have been enough to take Nappa down either though, as there's at least a decent chance that Tenshinhan's final attack is stronger than what they were firing at that time, and it hits head-on. We've previously had the Kikoho described as a technique that can drain the life of it's user, and chances are we've only ever seen Tenshinhan firing it in a more held-back manner. Here though, Tenshinhan pours everything he has left into it in the hopes of finishing the job that Chaozu started...but it fails. Nappa is just too strong, and not even everything Tenshinhan has to give can do more than scrape and bruise him. As yet another character that we've come to know and love falls to the wayside, we all feel Kuririn's scream innately. Goku, please hurry and get here! 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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