Synopsis: Dodoria insults Vegeta as he crawls back out of the water, prompting Vegeta to ask if that's his way of saying he missed him. Dodoria accuses Vegeta of being the one who just attacked him, and Vegeta confirms it by saying he'd been waiting some time now for him to stop clinging to Freeza's side – after all, there's no need for him to take on more than he can handle at once. Dodoria laughs and calls Vegeta arrogant, but tells Vegeta that if he hands over the scouter on his face, Dodoria might just let it go this time. Vegeta laughs and says they really did lose all their scouters as he thought, and thinks this might be the perfect time for him to make his own moves then. As he takes the scouter off of his face and says that it'd take them several days to go back to one of Freeza's planets to get new ones, Dodoria thinks Vegeta is really handing it over and praises him for seeing sense...only for Vegeta to drop the scouter on the ground and crush it beneath his boot. Dodoria asks Vegeta if he's crazy, but Vegeta says he doesn't need it anymore so it was useless to him. Dodoria says that if Vegeta's searching for the Dragon Balls too then surely he needed the scouter to find the Namekians, but Vegeta reveals that he doesn't – while he was on Earth, the people he fought there had the ability to sense energy without such devices, and one of them was a Saiyan. Vegeta realized that if Kakarot could do it, then he should be able to as well. This claim perplexes Dodoria, but Vegeta says it was easy once he got the hang of it, and says it's something that anyone obsessed with brute strength alone such as them (or himself from before) would never be able to master. Dodoria then says the two he was chasing must have been Earthlings and accuses Vegeta of having teamed up with them, but Vegeta says there's no way Earthlings could have made it all the way to Namek and even if they had, he'd kill them just the same. Dodoria says he doesn't care what's going on then, and tells Vegeta to get out of his way and be grateful to be spared, but Vegeta laughs and asks if he's afraid of him. He asks why Dodoria doesn't just attack him, and questions if he saw how high his power level was against Cui. Outraged, Dodoria proclaims that that reading was a mistake, and tells Vegeta he just blew his one chance to survive this encounter. Dodoria fires a massive energy blast from both hands towards Vegeta, and repeatedly blasts away at him, but Vegeta appears behind him suddenly and asks if the scouter really made a mistake at all. Dodoria tries to swing his fist and arm towards Vegeta, but Vegeta blocks the blow, catching Dodoria's arm before grabbing the opposite arm and pinning both of them behind Dodoria's back. As he keeps Dodoria pinned, Vegeta says that Saiyans grow stronger the more they battle, especially against strong opponents. Revealing that he almost died on Earth, Vegeta reveals that his own strength has increased far beyond his wildest dreams as a result. As Vegeta prepares to go in for the kill, Dodoria pleads with him, saying that he'll tell the Saiyan a secret about Planet Vegeta. Vegeta lets go of Dodoria's arms and asks him what he could possibly know that Vegeta himself doesn't, but Dodoria won't talk until Vegeta promises not to kill him afterwards. Vegeta says he could just kill him now if he doesn't, and Dodoria is left with no choice but to talk. He says that Planet Vegeta wasn't destroyed by a meteor at all. The truth is that Freeza had come to realize that while individual Saiyans were of no concern, there were too many like Vegeta who were being born with higher and higher power levels. Faced with the possibility of an eventual Saiyan uprising with stronger than usual Saiyans, Freeza opted to destroy Planet Vegeta himself to keep such a thing from happening, but chose to attack at a time when at least Vegeta himself was off-world so as to keep at least him around as a 'pawn'. Vegeta seems shocked by this news at first, and Dodoria says he'll take this chance to head back to Freeza now, but Vegeta shocks Dodoria by revealing that he's not upset about the loss of his home world, his race, or even his own parents. The only thing that Vegeta is upset about is having allowed himself to be used by them for so long. Horrified, Dodoria flies away and screams for Freeza, but Vegeta blasts him away, killing him instantly. Laughing, Vegeta is pleased to hear that Freeza is scared of the potential of the Saiyans, while off in space, Goku is shown to training on his way to Planet Namek. Review: If his encounter with Cui didn't make it obvious enough, this early portion of Namek is very much running with Vegeta at the story's helm. Sure, Gohan and Kuririn might still be in the mix of things and slowly figuring out what's going on, but Vegeta is the only character active at the moment that already knows what's happening on Namek. He's also the only one who's taking advantage of what he's learning now to make strides towards his own goals, starting with taking out some of Freeza's men that he previously couldn't fight against. That in of itself is a pretty good cue as to how inflated powers are going to be getting moving into this arc, by the way. While Vegeta was apparently strong enough to be considered one of Freeza's higher ranked soldiers, he certainly wasn't on par with the likes of his right hand men. That further drives in just how powerful Freeza himself must be. Now however, Vegeta's taking those higher level of opponents out, so the question does arise – just how MUCH stronger are our heroes going to have to get to manage anything against this drastically more powerful foes? But as said, the focus right now is on Vegeta and all the new things he can do. Like sensing ki without a scouter. Yeah, apparently that's a thing he can do now. It's not really all that surprising that this was coming given he wanted to leave behind his scouter before, but actually seeing him do it is more than a little odd. It doesn't help that we never really saw how the Earthling based fighters learned it – it seemingly was just something they picked up by getting to a certain level of strength (based on Goku first displaying it before his rematch with King Piccolo), and then further refined by training at Kami's sanctuary. Vegeta doesn't have either of those elements under his belt, as he was already way stronger than they were and didn't train while on Earth, so...seemingly he literally just went 'Oh, well if Kakarot can do it, then I can to'. Which...I guess...sure...why not? Further story elements will kind of help this make more sense if you try to parse it out, but for now, it's just handled in a really wonky way. I do like the tidbit that Vegeta only finds out for a fact that the other scouters are all broken from talking to Dodoria though. The last time we saw him before this, he was listening in over his own scouter, so presumably he just hit radio silence all of a sudden during the fight and had to guess as to what happened. It also shows that that scene and this one with him breaking his scouter to make this big reveal were probably Toriyama's only reasons for having him keep the scouter a bit longer after all. Another factor that gets re-highlighted here is Vegeta once again explaining that he's gotten far stronger as a result of his loss on Earth. He distinctly states that it's something that happens to Saiyans when they fight strong opponents. The series isn't spelling it out all the way just yet, but it's already pretty easy to think back to Goku and realize that this explains quite a few moments in his own past. Goku seemingly got stronger each and every time he lost. We never had a number to put to it, and a lot of times training of some kind was involved to kind of help bolster or cover up any innate gains he may have made, but it doesn't change the fact that this is kind of something we've seen many, many times before. Well, now we know why – it's Saiyan physiology. And similar to Goku's innate craving for a good fight, this element of what makes Goku tick is now being taken and given to Saiyans at large. Again, I can see where this would be an issue for a lot of people, but for now at least, this is an element that I sort of like. It helps explain something we've been seeing rather than just taking something wholesale and giving that to the other Saiyans just because they can. And speaking of Saiyan related revelations, we also get the big reveal that Raditz was a dirty, dirty liar. I joke, because it's not like he would have known any better either, but this does make his whole exposition at the beginning of the series somewhat null and void. It's honestly one of the handful of times that the term 'retcon' (or retroactive continuity) gets brought up that definitely is what's happening in the series. Once again however, I find myself okay with this. The previous explanation worked fine for what was needed at the time, but now that we're building up a new villain, it helps to make him seem as imposing as possible, and it doesn't get more imposing than casually destroying an entire planet full of super strong monkey men. That said, you know who is a dirty liar? Filler Kaio-sama. Yeah, that whole episode with the Saiyan backstory claiming that a Kami of Planet Vegeta caused the meteor to collide with it suddenly doesn't make sense now as a result of this revelation...oops. In reality, this can be hand-waved away in the same manner as Roshi's story about the origin of the Dragon Balls back in the original anime, as Toei staff making up a back story where Toriyama hasn't provided one yet. It's likewise never again referenced or brought up again once Toriyama's actual explanation is given. There's ironically an in universe reason that could be given for Kaio-sama seemingly lying however as well – but we'll get to that once it occurs. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: The most dangerous game of hide and seek ever played continues!
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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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