Synopsis: Goku runs along the Serpent Road, trying desperately to make up for lost time, even quickly passing the street cleaner that he fell off of before, inadvertently causing it to fall into Hell this time instead. Back on Earth, Piccolo continues his mental training, causing a twister to form in the air, while Gohan continues running in the wilderness and eventually comes across Piccolo's training, becoming both impressed and scared by what Piccolo can do. At Kami's sanctuary, Kuririn, Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Chaozu, and Yajirobe have arrived at last, with Yamcha remarking that he thinks the group of them will easily be able to handle the Saiyans. Tenshinhan remarks that he can't wait to begin the training. Back on the Serpent Road, Goku comes across a large house built at the side of the road and wonders if he's reached Kaio-sama's at last. The house's entrance suddenly turns into a large snake and swallows Goku whole, who now finds himself inside a large building where a group of blue-skinned women herald him as an honored guest. The ruler of the house, the Snake Princess, is told of their new guest, and rushes to get a good look at him, immediately finding Goku to be just her type. Goku mistakes the Princess for Kaio-sama and praises her as cute, flustering the Snake Princess greatly, causing one of her attendants to say that she hasn't been this worked up since meeting Enma about five hundred years prior. Goku is surprised to hear that they're that old, but is eager to begin learning martial arts from her. The Snake Princess instead suggests they dance and pulls Goku into a tango, and Goku mistakenly thinks that this is training to find an opening in your opponent's guard to exploit. Goku does so by flipping the Snake Princess to the ground, earning him an earful from one of her attendants who finally corrects his mistake in thinking that she's Kaio-sama. Disappointed to find that he hasn't reached Kaio-sama's at all, Goku tries to leave, but the Snake Princess asks if he won't at least stay for dinner first. Goku's stomach rumbles and he agrees to stay and eat. Princess Snake tells her attendants to do whatever is needed to make sure Goku won't want or be able to leave after eating, as it's been far too long since they've had a good man here. Her attendants plan to put a powerful sleeping potion in the food, and much to their surprise, Goku eats every bite of food they've brought out and appears to not be in the least affected by the potion. With his stomach full again at last, Goku prepares to leave, but the attendants stop him by saying he needs to take a bath before he goes, as Kaio-sama is well known to hate dirty people. Seeing how sweaty he's gotten from running the Serpent Road, Goku agrees and takes advantage of the hot springs bath offered to him. The Snake Princess has her attendants use a satellite device to cause the sky to turn to night so Goku and she can see the stars together, but to her surprise, Goku barely even cares, and even walks right out of the bath before her eyes, completely naked. The Snake Princess is embarrassed but pleased by the view until she realizes Goku is trying to leave again, and quickly has her attendants stop a newly re-dressed Goku from going. Running out of ways to stop him, one of the attendants offers Goku a way to train his mind before going to see Kaio-sama – Russian Roulette! The attendant tries to show Goku how to play it but gets unlucky with the first shot, shooting herself in the head, and Goku says he's definitely not doing anything that dangerous. Growing even more desperate, the attendants next try to distract Goku by putting on a swords dance performance under the guise of it being martial arts as well, and they bring him a glass of orange juice with the every last drop of sleeping potion they had left in it. Goku finally starts to feel the effect of the potion and falls asleep at last. Goku mumbles his family's names in his sleep, and the Snake Princess has her attendants bring out a dream viewing mirror to see what he's talking about. Upon learning that Goku's not single, the Snake Princess changes her plans – if Goku can't be her love interest, he can at least be her meal. As Goku sleeps, he has a nightmare about the two Saiyans arriving on Earth and killing his family, and the nightmare promptly wakes Goku up before the Snake Princess and her attendants can do anything with him. Goku starts to leave again and refuses to fall for any of their distractions this time, causing the Snake Princess and her attendants to attack him in earnest at last. The Snake Princess chastises Goku for insulting her, the 'goddess' of the Serpent Road, and as the house dissolves away, Goku finds himself inside the stomach of the large snake that swallowed him before – the true form of the Snake Princess! Goku quickly flies out of the Snake's stomach and mouth and is chased by the large creature. Goku decides not to kill the Snake even though it's trying to eat him, as it did feed him a lot of food earlier, and instead tricks it into tying itself into a knot by chasing him. Leaving the tangled up snake, Goku thanks it for the hospitality and flies off further down the Serpent Road. As Goku continues running down the Serpent Road, his friends all continue their training under the watchful eyes of Kami and Popo, as the two Saiyan pods grow ever closer to the Earth. Review: While this episode certainly doesn't expand upon the world of Dragon Ball in the same way the previous one does, I can't lie – it's actually a lot more enjoyable just to watch. The idea of a snake monster living on the Serpent Road and becoming an additional challenge for Goku to overcome is a fun one, and having it at first seem to be something else entirely is another showing of that usual Toriyama flair, even if it's not coming from Toriyama himself this time. The idea of women being after Goku and finding him attractive is certainly a far cry from how Goku's character used to be treated in the series, but to be fair, we have to remember we're not that far removed from him being a kid character. He only reached an adult level of maturity an arc ago, so we've really only had a few chances to see how women generally view him now. Chi Chi was already in love with him before hand, and even Bulma found him attractive once she saw him all grown up, so the common consensus does seem to be that Goku is a pretty attractive guy. And out of series, oh yeah – there is definitely a big group of fans, both women and men, who find Goku physically attractive. The muscles definitely help I'd say – to quote TeamFourStar, 'you could grind meat on them.' Also, you get some adult Goku butt for your troubles in this episode as well. Huzzah! Putting Goku's inherent attractiveness aside, only not really because that's what the Snake Princess is all about, the continuing building of her and her attendants attempts to detain Goku are all pretty fun to watch, and they're all interspersed with hints as to the group's true nature – let's just say that the fact that a big snake wants to eat Goku wasn't exactly a hidden factor given how he got here in the first place. The insanity of everything going on only gets wilder and wilder with each step as well, and if it wasn't for one moment in particular, my favorite would probably be these supernatural snake women having a satellite to turn the sky to night. That's just great. No, the real winner here though absolutely has to be the almost last ditch effort to detain Goku with Russian Roulette. I have no idea what that attendant was thinking or what they've done to have such bad luck, but that is one of the most darkly hilarious things I've ever seen. I always forget about that bit until I get to it too, and it's made even more hilarious by how out of absolutely NOWHERE it comes. 'Hey, I've got just the thing!', then she pulls out a gun. It's insanity. Definitely going to make an uneducated guess that the scene was censored from the original Ocean Dub run of episodes on Toonami – there is NO way that scene aired originally. Once the Snake Princess finds out that Goku's not single, which I'm not entirely sure why she just naturally assumed he was prior to this, she stops wanting him for his body and starts wanting him for his body instead. Just, you know. To eat this time instead of...ANYWAY, I can't help but wonder if her plan wasn't always to eat him in the end anyway. Don't forget, at the start of the episode, Goku was already eaten by the giant snake that is her true form. The entirety of the rest of the adventure is all an illusion, and he's been inside it's stomach the whole time. So really, the idea was just to distract him and digest him over time, I would assume. So the whole gimmick of the Snake Princess wanting to find a mate instead is...weird. It's a weird roundabout way to keep Goku inside of there long enough, honestly. The whole thing just doesn't make a lot of sense once you get to the end of it, but when it's so enjoyable to watch, it's hard to really stay mad at it in the end, you know? It's almost a shame that the concept never gets brought up ever again, it would've been entertaining to see certain other characters have to contend with her as well when the time came, but alas – this is the Snake Princess's one and only appearance. Wait...so if the Snake Princess both wanted to mate with Goku and also eat him, doesn't that make this vore? … Until next time! Favorite Scene: It's as dark as can be, but I can't NOT laugh at the poor attendant's Russian Roulette performance. Just...WOW. Next Time: Like all children, Gohan utilizes his newly learned skills to get into more trouble than he could have before.
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September 2022
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