History Recap / DragonBallZSaiyanArc

* FakeUltimateMook: Raditz. Despite boasting of being an elite warrior, the reality is that he is almost as weak as a Saibaman, who is used as cannon fodder.

* TurnTheOtherCheek: In one version of the dubbed anime, Goku argues that Vegeta's life should be spared so that he can learn the value of mercy.

** Piccolo (then still evil) commends Goku for laying down his life so that Raditz can be killed when the former uses his Special Beam Cannon.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Power Ball Vegeta creates to simulate a full moon and transform into a Great Ape lasts for a few hours. However, it comes back to bite him when Gohan's tail grows back and he becomes a Great Ape himself. Bonus points in that it was Vegeta's explanation of how Saiyans transformed that gave Goku the idea of using that gambit.

* PragmaticVillainy: After Nappa blows up a large section of a city. Vegeta scolds him, though not for killing hundreds of innocent people. Rather, since they have no way of knowing where the Dragon Balls could be. Nappa could have destroyed one by complete accident. To his credit, Nappa admits Vegeta made a fair point.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The lightheartedness that the first series is known for was already beginning to end in the Recap/DragonBallKingPiccoloArc, but this is basically the confirmation that the series is about to get ''much'' more serious than ever before, pushing the show out of being comedy driven.

Raditz imprisons Gohan in his pod for making too much noise but finds out that there's a high power level coming from it. He thinks that the thing on his eye (a Scouter, for those who are keeping score) is broken. Except it doesn't seem to be, since Goku and Piccolo show up, and their power levels are just fine. ''With the two being that strong and the readings being accurate, could the kid's power level be just as high as it says it is?'' To properly get ready for the battle, Piccolo and Goku take off their weighted training gear, increasing their power levels. But still, Raditz is more than enough for them, with just one energy blast tearing off Piccolo's arm.

Goku doesn't have anything up his sleeve, but Piccolo's been saving an attack that he can do with one hand. The problem is it has to be charged, but Goku managed to at least fight Raditz to a standstill. The use of both the Kamehameha and Piccolo's attack, the Makankosappo/Special Beam Cannon, increases their power levels, making Raditz realize the Scouter's useless. Despite this, the first Special Beam Cannon misses, but Goku gets the upper hand when he grabs Raditz's tail, [[CallBack remembering how it caused him pain earlier.]]

Raditz, faced with the pain, begs Goku to let him go, saying he's purified, and Goku agrees. [[ISurrenderSuckers He's rewarded with an elbow in the eye, and a set of broken ribs.]] But before the violence can continue further, Gohan bursts out of his pod, displaying incredible power, headbutting Raditz for massive damage! But that power goes away, and Raditz decides he's too dangerous to be left alive. But before Raditz can murder Gohan, Goku pulls a Full Nelson on him, ready to perform a HeroicSacrifice just to stop him. This time, the Special Beam Cannon is successful, leaving the two ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice by the beam. [[DeathIsCheap Goku will be fine, though; the Dragon Balls can bring him back to life.]] But Raditz hears this fact from Piccolo and reveals his Scouter is also a radio, leading to his comrades, Vegeta and Nappa. And to top it off, those two Saiyans that Raditz was talking about? They're stronger than he is! Nappa indeed wants to bring Raditz back to life, but Vegeta decides to wish for him and Nappa to be immortal instead. Along the way, they remark on the fact that [[HalfHumanHybrid Half Saiyan Hybrids]] possess incredible power.

* AndThisIsFor: When he really starts pounding Nappa, Goku dedicates a blow to each of his fallen friends.

* BittersweetEnding: Raditz, Nappa, and the Saibamen are dead, Vegeta is defeated, and the Earth is saved. However, half of the cast is dead (including Kami, which means no more Dragon Balls), and the planet's worth of people already killed by the Saiyans will never be revived, nor will the inhabitants of that continent that Nappa scorched. Not to mention, Vegeta himself is still at large. It's telling that rather than ending in triumph, the last shot of the arc is the four remaining heroes lying on the floor in a pool of their own blood, unable to move under their own power, having just ''survived'' the onslaught.

* BreakTheHaughty: Past mid-way through the arc, the revived Goku thoroughly overwhelms Vegeta, and shoots him into the stratosphere. Vegeta is furious that a "low-class warrior" could even so much as challenge him, and pulls out the Power Ball technique (which uses quite a bit of his power) to transform into an Oozaru just to defeat Goku (he intended to use the transformation to quickly eradicate life on Earth). Over the course of the battle, such as Krillin and Gohan returning, his tail getting cut off and returning him to normal, and narrowly surviving death by the Spirit Bomb and Gohan transforming into an Oozaru, Vegeta leaves Earth broken and humiliated and is mindful of that experience that he swears revenge on Earth, and Goku in particular - holding his grudge on the latter for the years to come.

* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Nappa and Vegeta regard Piccolo as this, regarding the information on the Dragon Balls. That said, they're not aware of exactly how Piccolo is tied to the Dragon Balls, and they later change their minds about letting him live when they learn of Goku's revival and decide to just go to Namek for another set of them.

* ClippedWingAngel: Vegeta as an Oozaru. He crushes Goku almost to death, but he ends up exposing his tail, which Yajirobe slices off. The irony is, had he not transformed, he likely would've eventually done Goku in anyway. [[AchievementsInIgnorance But since he still couldn't sense ki yet, he didn't know that]].[[note]]Goku's overuse of the Kaioken left him running on fumes and appeared to damage himself as much as - or even more - than Vegeta. He still had the Spirit Bomb, but it's highly unlikely it would've hit Vegeta with his speed.[[/note]]

** Goku's Kaioken that King Kai teaches him. It increases his abilities, but it can easily go wrong. Overuse damages his body, as does going above the power multiplier his body is used to, and improperly controlling his energy output can actually kill him.

* DoingInTheWizard: Goku isn't a monkey boy with a tail, he's an alien. Goku didn't turn into an Oozaru when looking at the moon because he's weird, it's Saiyan biology. Averted with Piccolo though; while he is an alien, his father was ''also'' still a demon (as he's literally MadeOfEvil and people he killed didn't pass on to the afterlife). Just not one from Earth.

* EnemyMine: Goku teams up with Piccolo in order to battle Raditz. Piccolo later teams with Goku's allies as well, when the Saiyans turn out to be a much bigger threat than he is.

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Piccolo lampshades the this trope when Vegeta decides to give the three hour break. He notes that even '''if''' he, Gohan and Krillin can defeat Nappa, they are likely doomed anyways since judging by how Nappa is so afraid of Vegeta, he must be even stronger. He's proven right as not even Goku is able to defeat Vegeta.
* FakeUltimateMook: Raditz. Despite boasting of being an elite warrior, the reality is that he is almost as weak as a Saibaman, who are used as cannon fodder.
* {{Flashback}}: In the anime, when Goku starts to have his InternalReveal, he flashes back to Grandpa Gohan warning him to beware the full moon, Kami talking about removing his tail, and the Great Ape wreaking havoc on Pilaf's original headquarters and the tournament stadium.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Averted. While it's commonly thought that Nappa's reference to a "Super Saiyan" foreshadowed the transformation that would become ubiquitous later, the term he used is actually different than the one used to refer to the transformation (the Japanese word ''chou'' instead of the GratuitousEnglish ''Supa'') and was only meant in the context of powerful hybrid children. It's just a coincidence, as Toriyama hadn't thought up the concept yet.

** On two occasions, the extent of Vegeta's true power, and role as the BigBad is hinted:

*** Next, when Nappa cowers before Vegeta when the latter senses insubordination from him. Piccolo himself is alarmed, given that the guy who spent most of the fight streamrolling them is the ''weaker'' of the two.
** Piccolo's [[HeelFaceTurn allegiance changing to good]]. He muses about the prospect of corrupting Gohan under him, but Kami has already noted that Raditz and Goku were able to pass on to the afterlife after he killed them, which wouldn't happen if he were still evil. Gohan himself notes that Piccolo is nicer than what his parents said about him, in spite of the TrainingFromHell he went through, which annoys him. He also steps to protect Gohan from a Saibaman, and acts all {{Tsundere}} to Gohan after he kills it. It all builds up to his HeroesFrontierStep.
** When it appears Vegeta has been killed, Kaio looks into the sky and ominously notes that the root of evil still remains.
* GladHesOnOurSide: Tien is impressed when he sees Piccolo kill the last of the Saibamen with relative ease, whilst he himself struggled slightly while overcoming one. He thinks to himself, "I shudder to think about [him] becoming our enemy again".
* HalfHumanHybrid: Gohan. Apparently, Half-Saiyan Hybrids are exceptionally strong.
* HarmfulToMinors: Look above for the BloodierAndGorier trope. Now think about five-year-old Gohan's reaction when he sees most of that in one afternoon, and is expected to attack the Saiyan behemoth Nappa. He (understandably) hides behind a rock.
* HeelFaceTurn: For Piccolo, his training Gohan ultimately softens him to the point he gives his life for the boy.
* HeightAngst: Apparently Goku had told Gohan that Krillin trains a lot because he is short. Krillin is understandably annoyed.

** Goku goes through one after boosting the Kaioken to x3 and later x4 against Vegeta. [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu Unfortunately for him, Vegeta still has strength to spare (more so after he transforms into a Great Ape)]] - and needs the help of Gohan, Krillin and Yajirobe to back him up during the rest of the fight.

* HopeSpot: It was at this point that Toriyama really fell in love with cruelly giving readers false hope, a trope he would reuse throughout the whole ''Z'' era.
** Tien's Kikoho/Tri-Beam had repeatedly been established as one of the most powerful but dangerous techniques in the series. After getting his arm punched off, Tien decides to finally bust out one last attack to avenge Chiaotzu. For a split second, there's some hope that Nappa must have been at least critically damaged by it, but as the smoke clears, Nappa emerges unharmed, much to the Z-Warriors' complete bewilderment. With his life energy totally drained, Tien dies on the spot.

** Goku gives the ki he collected for the Spirit Bomb to Krillin, and with Gohan's help, it hits Vegeta, sending him into the stratosphere. As the three baske in their victory, Vegeta crashlands back into the battle. Krillin assumes that he's dead, and comments that although he was a fiend, he at least deserves a burial. Vegeta quickly revives and responds that ''they'll'' be the ones needing graves, and attacks Krillin.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Piccolo does this to Goku and Raditz with his Special Beam Cannon. Neither Goku nor Raditz survive long afterwards.
* InsultBackfire: When Gohan declares that Nappa's mother has a belly-button that sticks out, a baffled Nappa demands to know how Gohan knows about his mother's weird navel.

* KickTheDog: In addition to pummeling the heroes senseless, Nappa gleefully mocks those that die as being beneath him. Him trashing Chiaotzu's death to Tien's face and later mocking Goku for being too late to save his friends are notable examples.

** Gohan after Piccolo shields him from Nappa's blast and falls over.
* MadeOfIron: Both Nappa and Vegeta are ''highly'' durable. The heroes are aghast at the punishment the latter takes, and still find the strength to escape. Even Raditz is able to speak full (strained) sentences when he tells Piccolo of his partners.
* MeaninglessVillainVictory: Vegeta defeats Goku after becoming a Great Ape, but is nonetheless defeated by Krillin, Gohan and Yajirobe.

** When Goku witnesses Vegeta transform into an Oozaru, he is horrified to come to the realization that the monster that killed Grandpa Gohan years ago was himself. He barely has time to grieve as Vegeta is on the offensive.

** The remaining heroes say they can sense Goku's impending arrival and his much larger power level. Nappa thinks it's a bluff, but Vegeta uses his scouter to determine they're telling the truth. Worried about what's coming, Vegeta orders Nappa to kill the other heroes immediately so that they can't help Goku in the fight. Piccolo dies soon afterwards, defending Gohan from an assault.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Power Ball Vegeta creates to simulate a full moon and transform into a Great Ape lasts for a few hours. However, it comes back to bite him when Gohan's tail grows back and he becomes a Great Ape himself. Bonus points in that it was Vegeta's own explanation of how Saiyans transform that gave Goku the idea of using that gambit.
* NoHonorAmongThieves: Vegeta and Nappa both have a low opinion of Raditz. Nappa considers going to Earth to avenge him but clearly doesn't care that much, and quickly throws away the idea of reviving Raditz when Vegeta proposes using the Dragon Balls to live forever. Vegeta is even worse, he doesn't care about reviving or avenging Raditz, and kills Nappa after he's wounded by Goku's Kaioken.

** The Z-Fighters ''again'' (in what has become a DwindlingParty) after Chaozu performs a TakingYouWithMe with Nappa, the latter literally laughs it off without a scratch on him. Piccolo wonders aloud if Nappa is immortal.
** Piccolo when Nappa ''stops'' fighting him and Krillin. No, really. Once Vegeta asserts his authority, demanding Nappa stand down, Piccolo realises that the short Saiyan partner ''is stronger'' than the huge Saiyan who spent the afternoon clobbering them.
** Gohan and Krillin when Piccolo's plan to immobilize Nappa by grabbing his tail, turns out to not be an AchillesHeel, and Nappa downs Piccolo in a single hit.
** Nappa when he hears from Vegeta's own mouth that Goku really is coming, and with a power level of 5,000 (read:higher than Nappa's) which is just his lowest reading. An amused Piccolo notes how rare it is to see Nappa scared for once.
** Nappa ''again'' when Goku reaches the battlefield and powers up inspiring the ReadingsAreOffTheScale trope. Subverted in that in mere seconds, Nappa's ego wins over his fear and challenges Goku...only leading to a very painful match up for him.

** Vegeta when Goku uses Kaio-ken x3, and starts to gain the upper hand.

** Vegeta is described as the strongest being in the universe, the strongest warrior of the strongest warrior race, and Kaio/King Kai freely admits that he's stronger than him. He claims to be able to destroy a planet ,[[note]]Not counting filler, the weakest character that destroys a planet on-screen is Frieza.[[/note]]. He also shakes the entire Earth just by powering up, causing storms to break out and mountains to crumble around him.

* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: The saga features the [[TropeMaker inspiration for the trope]] when Goku confronts Nappa. Happens again when Goku faces off against Vegeta - Bulma from the Kame House uses the scouter to get an idea how strong both of them are, but the scouter ends up blowing up.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Believe it or not, Raditz is essentially the catalyst for the entire second half of the Dragon Ball manga. Had Raditz not remembered his little brother and come to Earth, the entire series would have been turned on its head: Piccolo and Goku would never have teamed up and thus Piccolo wouldn't have joined the Z-Fighters. He may have even remained evil, and continued on with a plan to terrorize planet Earth, had he and Goku not joined forces. Goku wouldn't have trained with King Kai, but merely at his own pace, and would have been far too weak to combat the androids by the time they arrived, assuming he hadn't already died from the heart virus he was to contract. Gohan would never been trained by Piccolo, and thus would never have become a fighter at all. Vegeta and Nappa would never have received the transmission involving the Dragon Balls, and thus would never have visited the Earth, thus remaining under Frieza's thumb — Frieza himself would also never have been killed, allowing his family to continue terrorizing the universe. Also, the chain of events that lead to Vegeta's redemption and thus Trunks' birth wouldn't have happened, and the Z Fighters would've been killed by them; furthermore, without Trunks to destroy the androids, Cell would've absorbed them without difficulty and been able to begin a rampage across the universe, although he would've been slightly weaker due to the lack of Vegeta and Frieza's cells obtained by their visits to earth (and even Goku's cells would've been weaker without King Kai's training). Despite being the StarterVillain of the series, Raditz coming to Earth is what allowed the Z series to be what it became.

* SparingTheAces: This happens at the end of the arc, when Vegeta, at Krillin's mercy, is spared when Goku asks Krillin to do it, because he enjoyed their battle, and he wishes to fight him again.

* TheHeroDies: Shockingly, Goku dies at the beginning of the story in order to kill Raditz. Of course, with the Dragon Balls, that's pretty much a moot problem and he uses the time in the afterlife to go train.
* TimeSkip: Continuing on from the original series which now sees Goku as an adult with his own child.

* UndignifiedDeath: Tragically, there's almost too many to count on the Z-Warriors' side.

** Piccolo (then still evil) commends Goku for laying down his life so that Raditz can be killed, when the former uses his Special Beam Cannon.

** When Master Roshi and the others summon Shenron, Oolong initially had the idea of having the dragon eliminate the Sayians so the heroes wouldn't have to fight them. This made Bulma mad as [[FriendOrIdolDecision it would mean leaving Goku in the afterlife]], but Oolong quickly says they could always revive him in another year. It doesn't matter anyway, as [[SimpleSolutionWontWork Shenron explains that destroying the Sayians was beyond his power]].

** Raditz makes himself known by [[NoSell No-Selling]] one of Piccolo's strongest attacks, then proceeds to take Goku out with one kick during their first encounter. The actual battle with him has both fighters heavily on the defense and giving everything they have to stop him, with Goku ultimately dying in order to bring him down. And then, it sets in just how screwed the Z-Warriors are when Raditz uses his dying breath to reveal that he's the ''weakest'' of the three Saiyans.
** The Z-Warriors all end up serving this to demonstrate how strong Nappa is, who in turn is used to show how strong Goku has become.

* YourDaysAreNumbered: Kami realizes he and Piccolo will die during the battle with the Saiyans, although he does not know if it will be his life giving out from old age or Piccolo falling in battle that does them both. The latter ends up being the case.

** Piccolo's death leads to Kami's, the latter's meaning that Shenron's power is inert and ''no one'' can be revived at this point.

* BigDamnHeroes: Yajirobe, of all people, gets two in succession. He practically comes out of nowhere to cut off Vegeta's tail, saving Goku from getting crushed to death and surprising everyone (most of all himself). Later when Vegeta's attempting to pull off Gohan's tail, Yajirobe strikes him in the back. He doesn't get away unscathed this time, but his actions (and Vegeta smacking him around) buy Goku time to get Gohan to look at the Power Ball.
* BittersweetEnding: Raditz, Nappa, and the Saibamen are dead, Vegeta is defeated, and the Earth is saved. However, half of the cast is dead (including Kami, which means no more Dragon Balls), and the planets worth of people already killed by the Saiyans will never be revived, nor will the inhabitants of that continent that Nappa scorched. Not to mention, Vegeta himself is still at large. It's telling that rather than ending in triumph, the last shot of the arc is the four remaining heroes lying on the floor in a pool of their own blood, unable to move under their own power, having just ''survived'' the onslaught.
* BloodierAndGorier: Tien and Piccolo lose arms, Goku and Raditz get a big hole in their chests, a Saibaman explodes graphically, and blood is everywhere. Not to mention all the killing going on in this arc.
* BreakTheHaughty: Past mid-way through the arc, the revived Goku thoroughly overwhelms Vegeta, and shoots him into the stratosphere. Vegeta is furious that a "low-class warrior" could even so much as challenge him, and pulls out the Power Ball technique (which uses quite a bit of his power) to transform into an Oozaru just to defeat Goku (he intended to use the transformation to quickly eradicate life on Earth). Over the course of the battle, such as Krillin and Gohan returning, his tail getting cut off and returning him to normal, and narrowly surviving death by the Spirit Bomb and Gohan transforming into an Oozaru, Vegeta leaves Earth broken and humiliated, and is mindful of that experience that he swears revenge on Earth, and Goku in particular - holding his grudge on the latter for the years to come.

* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Nappa and Vegeta regard Piccolo as this, regarding information on the Dragon Balls. That said, they're not aware of exactly how Piccolo is tied to the Dragon Balls, and they later change their minds on letting him live when they learn of Goku's revival, and decide to just go to Namek for another set of them.

* ChekhovsGunman: Yajirobe. He outright avoids most of the fighting against the Saiyans, but is there to chop off Oozaru Vegeta's tail, and saves Gohan's life by slashing Vegeta in the back.
* ClippedWingAngel: Vegeta as an Oozaru. He crushes Goku almost to death, but he ends up exposing his tail, which Yajirobe slices off. The irony is, had he not transformed, he likely would've eventually done Goku in anyway. [[AchievementsInIgnorance But since he still couldn't sense ki yet, he didn't know that]].[[note]]Goku's overuse of the Kaioken left him running on fumes, and appeared to damage himself as much as - or even more - than Vegeta. He still had the Spirit Bomb, but it's highly unlikely it would've hit Vegeta with his speed.[[/note]]

** When Goku shows up, Nappa is on the recieving end. Vegeta realizes that Nappa can't win and orders him to pull out.
* CurbStompCushion: Ironically, Goku's clash with Vegeta ended up as this...in Vegeta's favor. Vegeta effectively controlled the majority of the fight, and pushed Goku beyond what his limits would allow. Even when Goku eventually overwhemled Vegeta by boosting his Kaioken technique to x3 and x4, [[HeroicRROD he ended up doing as much damage to himself as his opponent]]. Vegeta ends up transforming into a Great Ape, and pulverizing Goku - with the latter needing Krillin, Gohan and Yajirobe to back him up/save his life. Goku tells Krillin as much, [[SparingTheAces which is why he plead him to spare Vegeta's life]] so that he can get another shot at him.

** The first is when Piccolo dies, thus rendering the Dragon Balls inert and making it impossible to revive any of the perished Z-Fighters. Goku is still far away and Nappa turns his attention on Gohan.

* DesperationAttack: Vegeta's explosive shockwave was a last-ditch attempt to kill the remaining Z-Fighters. It blows them away, but ultimately fails. It's largely because at this point, he's running on fumes, [[MadeOfIron and it was impressive enough he was himself even still alive after everything he took at this point]].

** TechnoBabble: What Vegeta's explanation of Brutes Waves amounts to.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The Saiyans are presented as an independent threat from the very beginning, which makes this arc very hard to reconcile with the RetCon of the next arc that Frieza was in command the whole time. This is especially apparent when Vegeta's internal monologue (as well as the out-of-universe text on the volume's opening page) calls him the strongest in the universe.

* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: Feeling desperate once the three-hour break for Goku's arrival is nearing its end, Krillin suggests that they take the opportunity [[KnowWhenToFoldEm to cut their losses and run/hide from the Saiyans]], presumably to train more to fight them again another time. Piccolo outright calls him an idiot for thinking that, since while it's an AlienInvasion, the Saiyans don't intend to conquer the planet, but to ''[[OmnicidalManiac exterminate all life on it]]'', so hiding is pointless.

Five years have passed since the battle with the revived Demon King Piccolo. In that time earth has enjoyed a period of peace. Peace which would quickly be shattered when a meteor-like pod crash-lands on earth. Inside it is a man with long hair, heavy body armor and a device on his eye that can tell how strong someone is. This man makes short work of a farmer, then begins his search for a man named Kakarot.

Meanwhile, there's a party on Muten Roshi's island, and Bulma, Krillin, the turtle, and Roshi himself are there. Launch and Tien Shinhan are nowhere to be found, and Bulma outright refused to let Yamcha come along, the first signs that their relationship is starting to fail. And soon, the man of the hour shows up, Son Goku himself! And he's brought a kid along with him, which everyone (including the audience, [[FirstEpisodeTwist unless you started with Z]]) is shocked to find out is his son! The boy even has a tail and the Four Star Dragon Ball on his hat. Naturally, the former makes everyone wonder if the kid, named Son Gohan after his grandfather, has [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting anything odd]] happen to him at night. [[{{Lunacy}} Like when he sees the full moon.]] They go to bed early, so it's no issue.

But Goku doesn't remember any of it. ''After all, he suffered head trauma as a child, which Roshi explains gave the formerly wild baby Goku amnesia.'' Raditz is all too quick to explain. Raditz and Goku are part of a [[ProudWarriorRace race of]] [[ExaggeratedTrope ruthless killers]] called the Saiyans. They make a business out of selling planets. In particular, [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide they're in the business of cleaning off the planet of life.]] Don't expect to have to deal with any more of them, though, a meteor wiped out their home planet, leaving only four survivors.

Goku, however, doesn't owe up to Raditz' expectations. He doesn't have the propensity for bloodlust, has cut off his tail, and is absolutely disinterested in continuing the family traditions. But then Raditz notices that kid there with a Saiyan tail. [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi If Goku won't join them, perhaps he will...]]

Goku resists, but it doesn't go well. Raditz steals Gohan and offers an ultimatum: [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten prove his loyalty by killing 100 humans or his son dies.]] He then leaves Goku to think about it. Naturally, Goku is ready to face Raditz and get Gohan back. ''It's a tough day for the other humans. After all, both have died against the original Demon King Piccolo and can't be brought back with the Dragon Balls. Nonetheless, they elect to help him for his sake.'' But before any action can be taken, Piccolo shows up and proposes the two team up.

Raditz imprisons Gohan in his pod for making too much noise, but finds out that there's a high power level coming from it. Obviously the thing on his eye (a Scouter, for those keeping score) is broken. Except it doesn't seem to be, since Goku and Piccolo show up, and their power levels are just fine. ''With the two being that strong and the readings being accurate, could the kid's power level be just as high as it says it is?'' In order to properly get ready for the battle, Piccolo and Goku take off their weighted training gear, increasing their power levels. Still, Raditz is more than enough for them, with just one energy blast tearing off Piccolo's arm. To top it off, the other two Saiyans Raditz was talking about? They're stronger than he is!

Goku doesn't have anything up his sleeve, but Piccolo's been saving an attack that he can do with one hand. The problem is it has to be charged, but Goku managed to at least fight Raditz to a standstill. Use of both the Kamehameha and Piccolo's attack, the Makankosappo/Special Beam Cannon, increases their power levels, making Raditz realize the Scouter's useless. Despite this, the first Special Beam Cannon misses, but Goku is able to get the upper hand when he grabs Raditz' tail, [[CallBack remembering how it caused him pain earlier.]]

Raditz, faced with the pain, begs Goku to let him go, saying he's purified, and Goku agrees. [[ISurrenderSuckers He's rewarded with an elbow in the eye, and a set of broken ribs.]] But before the violence can continue further, Gohan bursts out of his pod, displaying an incredible power, headbutting Raditz for massive damage! But that power goes away, and Raditz decides he's too dangerous to be left alive. But before Raditz can murder Gohan, Goku pulls a Full Nelson on him, ready to perform a HeroicSacrifice just to stop him. This time, the Special Beam Cannon is successful, leaving the two ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice by the beam. [[DeathIsCheap Goku will be fine, though; the Dragon Balls can bring him back to life.]] But Raditz hears this fact from Piccolo and reveals his Scouter is also a radio, leading to his comrades, Vegeta and Nappa. Nappa indeed wants to bring Raditz back to life, but Vegeta decides to wish for their own immortality instead. Along the way, they remark on the fact that [[HalfHumanHybrid Half Saiyan Hybrids]] possess incredible power.

So let's recap, shall we? Our ChasteHero has a son. Our strange tailed human is an alien. [[TheHeroDies And now he's dead.]] And we've only just begun. Are you on the edge of your seat? (If you were raised on Z first, your answer is probably "no.")

''What follows is a long period of training, both for Gohan and for the others. Gohan goes on adventures in the wilderness before starting his training for real, and the Z Warriors go into the Pendulum Room to take on some illusion Saiyans, losing horribly.'' Goku eventually makes it to the end of Snake Way, where he encounters Kaio's planet. After mistaking his monkey Bubbles for him, Goku meets the actual King Kai. Problem is, the gravity on the planet is extremely high, ten times that of earth. It's perfect for training, though. Kai has an odd training regimen, consisting of telling jokes, catching Bubbles, '' and smashing a lightning fast cricket Gregory with a hammer'' before learning two powerful techniques: the Kaioken and Genki Dama/Spirit Bomb.

But even when Goku's revived, he can't come back in time for the arrival of the Saiyans Vegeta and Nappa. They demonstrate their power by "saying hello," that is, wiping out an entire city with just two fingers. Vegeta scolds Nappa for it, though, because what'd happen if one of the Dragon Balls was in that city?

At a secluded area, Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Tien, Chiaotzu, and Yamcha face off against the Saiyans. Nappa reads their power levels, but Vegeta reminds him they mean nothing since they can be hidden. Besides, there's a much better way to test their power compared to Raditz: Saibamen, cultivated lifeforms with Raditz' power level. Tien is the first to go, and succeeds, before Vegeta blows up the Saibaman he was fighting. Krillin offers to go next, but Yamcha decides to take one for the team, since Krillin can't be brought back. And take one for the team he does, getting blown up by a Saibaman in a Double KO. Krillin decides to not take any chances, and blows up the rest of the Saibamen, except for one that Piccolo kills.

Nappa decides it's time to begin his assault, picking Tien as his first victim. And Tien takes a lot of hits, to the point of [[AnArmAndALeg losing an arm.]] Chiaotzu, in an attempt to stop him, blows himself up, and since he's already been brought back once, he's dead for good. Krillin and Piccolo try their hands at taking him on, but that doesn't work, either. Angered at Chiaotzu's death, and seeking to avenge him and keep him company in the afterlife, Tien fires a Tri-Beam at Nappa, draining the last of his energy. Even a three hour delay isn't enough for Goku to show up, and when Gohan becomes Nappa's next target, Piccolo takes the blast head on, which means Kami dies, which means the Dragon Balls vanish. It's the DarkestHour for the earth: Our beloved cast from Dragon Ball is either dead or dying, they can't be brought back to life, and nothing our heroes are doing is doing any kind of lasting damage to Nappa.

After finding out that Goku's power level is [[GoodBadTranslation somewhere between over 8000 and over 9000,]] Goku totally dominates the fight with Nappa, to the point where Vegeta outright orders Nappa to give up. But when he tries to finish off his work on Gohan and Krillin, Goku uses the first of the techniques he learned from King Kai, the Kaioken, which multiplies all his capabilities, enough to break Nappa's back and paralyze him. Vegeta decides he's had enough of Nappa's failures, [[YouHaveFailedMe and kills him outright, calling him dead weight.]]

Taking the fight to a mountain range, Vegeta taunts Goku by saying that he's basically gutter trash. Goku throws it back at him, saying that even the lowest can surpass the elite with enough hard work. The climactic fight involves a lot of power being thrown about, with Vegeta every step of the way. This forces Goku to push his Kaioken to times three, [[HeroicRROD putting a strain on his body.]] Vegeta gets hit so hard, he outright decides to blow up the planet with his Gallic Gun. But Goku has a Kaioken-boosted Kamehameha waiting for him, leading to an epic BeamOWar, Goku being the victor, but severely drained.

Vegeta only has one resort: to go Oozaru and finish off Goku. But the moon isn't around! That's okay, Vegeta has a method which he can use to simulate one, which leads to the tables being turned very quickly. Upon seeing the transformed Vegeta, Goku remembers how his grandfather was fatally stepped on by a large nocturnal gorilla, and assumes that Vegeta was this monster. A confused Vegeta then explains that all Saiyans can transform into a gigantic ape upon seeing the full moon, so long as they have a tail. Remembering how his grandfather warned him to never look at the full moon, and how Kami made Goku permanently remove his tail in exchange for restoring the moon, our hero [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone realizes]] that ''he'' was the giant monster that killed Grandpa Gohan and destroyed the Tenkaichi Budokai stadium! Tearing up, Goku promises to apologize to Grandpa Gohan when he meets him again in heaven, knowing that this is a fight he can't win. Goku eventually tries the Spirit Bomb, by gathering energy from all around the planet, but that doesn't work, mostly because he needs to stand still to use it, which Vegeta refuses to let him do. Even Krillin and Gohan's interference isn't helping at all... but then Yajirobe cuts off Vegeta's tail, reverting him back to normal. He's still a colossal threat, but a little teamwork and a Spirit Bomb with Krillin substituting the firing does the job.

...[[MadeOfIron or so we think. Vegeta survived that, too!]] Thankfully, Gohan's tail regrew, and that power ball's still there, so Gohan can transform and crush Vegeta (he gets his tail cut off again shortly afterwards; Oozarus don't tend to stay transformed long in this series.). And he's still alive! But he's decided to cut his losses while he's at it, and summons his space pod to leave earth.

Now what happens? The cast we've followed for years is either dead, useless or hospitalized. And the monster who caused it all is still alive. Is there any way to bring our fallen comrades back from the dead?

* AchievementInIgnorance: Vegeta ends up coming dangerously close to defeating Goku. The only reason he doesn't is because he badly overestimates Goku because he hadn't yet learned how to read his opponent's PowerLevel without a scouter. The result: he ends up wasting time and Gohan and Krillin pull a BigDamnHeroes.

** Chaozu SenselessSacrifice against Nappa is established here because he was previously killed by King Piccolo back in the original ''Dragon Ball''. As per the rules of summoning Shenron, he was allowed to be brought back to life once.

The ''Saiyan Arc'' is seventh arc in the ''Dragon Ball'' manga and the first arc in the ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' TV adaptation.

* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Besides the shoulder pads (which he ditches midway through the next arc), Vegeta is drawn noticeably shorter and punier than he would later be (though his Napoleon complex remains an integral part of his character), making the initial reveal that he is the strongest Saiyan all the more shocking. His hair is also more fluid and wavy, whereas in later arcs, his hair appears to be more rigid and jagged. Additionally, very early appearances of Vegeta in the anime give him yellow armor, red hair, and orange gloves, shoes, and shoulder pads. This was presumably because Toei didn't have proper color references at the time. His correct colors were finalized once he and Nappa landed on Earth, and ''Kai'' would go back and fix the original color scheme as well.

* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Besides the shoulder pads (which he ditches midway through the next arc), Vegeta is drawn noticeably shorter and punier than he would later be (though his Napoleon complex remains an integral part of his character), making the initial reveal that he is the strongest Saiyan all the more shocking. His hair is also more fluid and wavy, whereas in later arcs, his hair appears to be more rigid and jagged.

Bulma takes the scouter to try and reverse-engineer it. As she's testing it out on Krillin, Roshi ''and the turtle'', Yajirobe shows up to tell Krillin to bring Tien ''(who's out in the wilderness having to deal with Launch)'', Chiaotzu ''(who's with Tien)'' and Yamcha ''(who's now a professional baseball player)'' for some training. Piccolo, meanwhile, takes Gohan to train him how to use his power. His... [[TrainingFromHell training, if you can even call it that,]] mostly consists of forcing Gohan to survive in the wilderness. It goes about as well as you'd expect; Gohan gets stuck on a mountain after nearly being eaten by a dinosaur, and Piccolo has to bail him out twice. Once when he gives Gohan some rotten apples, the other when Gohan sees his first full moon... and goes Oozaru. Piccolo quickly puts two and two together from Raditz mentioning the power of the tail, and [[DetonationMoon takes out the moon... again.]] And since this isn't a universe with MagicPants, Piccolo gives Gohan some new clothes, and a sword for good measure.

* CerebusSyndrome: While the King Piccolo arc was already pretty dark, this is the arc that truly cemented Dragon Balls ToneShift.

** Piccolo's death leads to Kami's, the latter's meaning that Shenron's power is onert and ''no one'' can be revived at this point.

** When Goku witnesses Vegeta transform into an Oozaru, he is horrified to come to the realization that the monster that killed Grandpa Gohan years ago was himself. He barely has time to grief as Vegeta is on the offensive.

** Goku breaks down once he realizes that he was the one responsible for Grandpa Gohan's death.

* AchievementInIgnorance: Vegeta ends up coming dangerously close to defeating Goku. The only reason he doesn’t because he badly overestimates him because he hadn’t yet learned how to read his opponent’s PowerLevel without a scouter. The result: he ends up wasting time and Gohan and Krillin pull a BigDamnHeroes.

* YourSizeMayVary: Vegeta's greatly fluctuates throughout the arc. Whenever Nappa's next to him, he looks as tall as Krillin. However, whenever he's in front of Gohan, he's as tall as Goku.

* YourDaysAreNumbered: Kami realizes he and Piccolo will die during the battle with the Saiyans, although he does not know if it will be his life giving out from old age or Piccolo falling in battle that does them both. The latter ends up being the case.

* WhamEpisode: If you've seen the original ''Dragon Ball'', this arc is that. The first part alone has Goku having a son, Goku being an alien, and Goku dying, and later on, most of the supporting cast from the original dies too.